Photo: Platinum Fighter Sales
Stick an ex-Soviet Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG 21 onto a modern battlefield with advanced contemporary weaponry, and the results are bound to be like bringing a butter knife to a machete fight. As historically significant as the jet may be, its days of effectiveness in a peer-to-peer combat scenario are well and truly behind what NATO likes to call the Fishbed. But that doesn't mean this certified Soviet classic is completely useless. On the second-hand civilian market, these old jets are a one-way ticket to LARPing as a fighter pilot.
Hailing from the peak era of Soviet stagnation that was 1974, this particular MiG-21 is the special two-seater UM variant. U standing for Uchebnyy ("Training"), and M standing for Modernizovannyy ("Modernized"). The type served as an advanced training aircraft for young Eastern Bloc aviators getting to grips with a Mach 2-capable jet fighter after completing basic flight training. From there, novice pilots would generally receive between 90 and 120 hours of flight training at minimum, and sometimes more before they're allowed to fly any number of different single-seater MiG-21s in a combat squadron.
Training jets tend to be used and abused to high holy heaven by the time they make it to the second-hand market. This MiG is no exception to this, but that doesn't mean the full restoration that was done to it didn't take out most of the scuffs. Less than 18 operating hours show up on this jet's odometer since its last major mechanical overhaul. This includes a full refurbishment of the single Tumanski R-11 turbojet under the proverbial hood of this Soviet jet. It's the same powerplant that found its way into the Yak-28 strike jet and the Su-15 interceptor.
That trademark Red Air Force green/khaki camouflage paint also looks pretty spiffy. All in all, there's a sense this jet could have wheeled off the Mikoyan-Gurevech factory floor yesterday instead of almost 50 years ago. To go along with all the overhauling, this MiG is packed to the brim with modern navigation, avionics, and communications hardware to ensure it complies with all modern federal aviation standards. This includes but isn't limited to a Sigtronics SPA-400 intercom system, a Trig TT22 Transponder, a Northstar M1 Loran radio complete with headset and microphone, and a Remote King navigation suite complete with real-time GPS readouts.
Through clever modifications stateside, all this hardware is made to fit in the stock ex-Soviet instrument cluster of this jet. That'll go a long way toward ensuring you can fully immerse yourself in the world of a Soviet pilot, assuming you're the kind of eccentric millionaire aviator who's into that kind of thing. For the price of $300,000 before taxes and fees, this opportunity could be yours.
Training jets tend to be used and abused to high holy heaven by the time they make it to the second-hand market. This MiG is no exception to this, but that doesn't mean the full restoration that was done to it didn't take out most of the scuffs. Less than 18 operating hours show up on this jet's odometer since its last major mechanical overhaul. This includes a full refurbishment of the single Tumanski R-11 turbojet under the proverbial hood of this Soviet jet. It's the same powerplant that found its way into the Yak-28 strike jet and the Su-15 interceptor.
That trademark Red Air Force green/khaki camouflage paint also looks pretty spiffy. All in all, there's a sense this jet could have wheeled off the Mikoyan-Gurevech factory floor yesterday instead of almost 50 years ago. To go along with all the overhauling, this MiG is packed to the brim with modern navigation, avionics, and communications hardware to ensure it complies with all modern federal aviation standards. This includes but isn't limited to a Sigtronics SPA-400 intercom system, a Trig TT22 Transponder, a Northstar M1 Loran radio complete with headset and microphone, and a Remote King navigation suite complete with real-time GPS readouts.
Through clever modifications stateside, all this hardware is made to fit in the stock ex-Soviet instrument cluster of this jet. That'll go a long way toward ensuring you can fully immerse yourself in the world of a Soviet pilot, assuming you're the kind of eccentric millionaire aviator who's into that kind of thing. For the price of $300,000 before taxes and fees, this opportunity could be yours.
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