at a much quicker pace than previous planes.
“The MiG-29 is a fourth-generation aircraft,” the colonel instructor lectured from the front of the classroom. He tapped the display board to illustrate his point. “The MiG-15 through MiG-17 subsonic jet fighters represent the first generation.” He tapped the diagram of the familiar MiG-21, with its distinctive delta wing, and the American F- 4. “These Mach 2 aircraft, equipped with radar-guided missiles, are the second generation.”
“The variable-geometry MiG-23 and the American F-14 are the third generation.”
Now the colonel strode to the large engineering model of the MiG-29 mounted near his lectern. “Comrades,” he said proudly, “this is the fourth generation.”
The colonel proceeded to highlight the new fighter’s principal characteristics. As the officers around me in the overheated room listened intently, I realized that my new aircraft did, indeed, represent an entire new generation of technology. And I was astounded that the plane incorporated so many advances in a single aircraft.
The conceptual sketches in the Western publications had not done justice to the plane’s streamlined aerodynamic contours. The airframes of the MiG-23 and Su-17 — the last of the third-generation Soviet fighters — jutted with sharp, drag-producing angles. But the MiG-29 was a smooth flow of wing, lifting fuselage, and raked tail fins, blended around the long parallel tubes of the RD-33 turbofan engines. Certainly the plane evoked graceful power. But an experienced pilot could also see its inherent maneuverability.
Then our instructor began to recite the performance data. With a normal combat load, the plane had a sea- level rate of climb of 65,000 feet per minute. And the MiG-29 also had tremendous maneuverability. When we were told the acceleration rates, the rate and radius of turns, many of the officers around me whispered to each other to verify they had heard correctly. Then the instructor noted that, with combat fuel and weapons loads, the MiG-29 had a thrust-to-weight ratio of 1.35.
This was accomplished, he noted with obvious pride, by using ultra-light alloys of aluminum and lithium in the primary airframe and incorporating composite material such as graphite and carbon fibers in control surfaces and honeycomb stiffening in the twin tails. The colonel assured us that the space-age composite materials were stronger than titanium-steel alloys, but as light as cardboard. The fighter, he explained, had been built to perform nine-G maneuvers, the maximum safe aerodynamic stress that a veteran pilot could tolerate without blackout or injury. The air-frame itself could pull over twelve Gs, so we obviously would have to be aware of the fighter’s incredible potential.
When the instructor pointed out the key structural elements of the model, he noted that over forty percent of the generated lift was produced by the aerodynamic fuselage. This meant the plane could maneuver at unprecedented angles of attack.
“Comrades,” the colonel said, “all you MiG-23 pilots will be happy to note that in our test programs to date, we have not been able to spin the MiG-29.”
Flying a MiG-23 at a high angle of attack was a sure way to enter an often fatal flat spin. There was a murmur in the classroom.
“Let some young unrated lieutenants fly it,” a senior colonel said gruffly. “They will find a way to spin the airplane.”
“No, no,” the instructor replied. “Our test pilots have been very thorough. This is an inherently stable aircraft.”
The instructor proceeded to note that the MiG-29 had a greatly improved hydraulic flight-control system that was augmented by a computerized cross-control system and devices that transferred primary control among the ailerons, rudders, and horizontal stabilizers during high-speed air-combat maneuvers. I was just beginning to grasp the level of sophistication of the new plane.
“What about true fly-by-wire controls?” another senior officer asked brusquely.
“The Mikoyan OKB is working on such a system for the later models,” the instructor explained.
Now a major general broke in. “I understand the Sukhoi OKB already has fly-by-wire for their Su-27.”
The instructor nodded patiently. The Sukhoi Design Bureau was renowned for its innovation. If it hadn’t been suppressed by Stalin after the war, Sukhoi probably would have surpassed Mikoyan.
He smiled. “You fellows know those wizards in the OKBs,” he said frankly. “If they added all their planned modifications and improvements to the first model of a new aircraft, they couldn’t keep their contract pipeline open. You’ll get computerized flight controls in two or three years.”
He conceded that a fly-by-wire control system had its advantages. In American aircraft like the F-16, computerized controls allowed the pilot to fly to the maximum possible degree of maneuverability before encountering dangerous stalls and spins. This also made the airplane very forgiving of pilot error. But a fully computerized fly-by-wire flight-control system had one major disadvantage: It was vulnerable to the powerful electromagnetic pulse (EMP) of a nuclear blast.
“And we all know,” he said gravely, “that any full-scale engagement with NATO forces will take place on a nuclear battlefield.”
“You’ll be happy to note, comrades, that the MiG-29 is just as maneuverable as the F-16C.” He consulted a sheath of technical data, then smiled. “The MiG-29 has a 360-degree turn-rate time of only seventeen seconds.”
Now the murmur in the classroom was excited.
The two RD-33 turbofans, he noted, each produced 18,300 pounds of thrust, which meant they were dramatically more powerful on afterburner than the engines of similar Western fighters. And because the MiG-29’s overall weight was relatively low, the plane could fly at a near-equal thrust-to-weight ratio on “dry” power — without resort to the fuel-draining afterburners.
As the instructor noted the principal engine characteristics, I again heard a murmur of surprise in the seats around me. The performance of these big turbofans far exceeded that of the Tumansky R-29 in the MiG-23. Again the colonel smiled. “You will read in the ‘well-informed’ Western press,” he said, “that our new aircraft is powered by the ‘Tumansky’ RD-33. Such an engine does not exist.”
These engines, he said, were designed and built by the Leningrad/Klimov scientific group, which had taken over from the Isotov Engine OKB. The RD-33 was an entirely new undertaking, which incorporated optimal thrust- to-weight, fuel economy, reliability, and simplicity of maintenance. This was not, the colonel stressed — as the Western aviation press had reported — simply an improvement of an earlier Tumansky engine.
The instructor smiled. “But don’t you fellows think that we might be capable of helping this misconception?”
When our laughter subsided, the colonel presented some highlights of the new fighter’s weapons and fire- control systems.
“The NO-193 pulse-Doppler radar,” he read from his data sheet, “can search for and track moving targets above or below the fighter’s flight level out to a range of almost sixty miles.”
“Computer-assisted?” a colonel asked.
“Of course,” the instructor replied. “The fire-control computer automatically sorts out ten targets and presents them on the head-up display.”
“And the IRST?” a major asked.
“A complete new system from what you had on the MiG-23,” the instructor noted, citing figures from his data sheet. “And this search and track system is interfaced with the laser range finder and the helmet-mounted sight.”
I was jotting notes as fast as I could, but then realized all these systems would be broken down and taught to us in great detail during our stay at Lipetsk.
“The great advantage of this multisensor system,” the colonel noted, “is that the MiG-29 pilot does not have to use his radar constantly, which renders him invisible to enemy radar warning receivers.”
He flipped a page in his data book and cited speed and range figures for the new radar-homing Alamo and infrared-seeking Archer missiles the aircraft would carry.
I had been trained to fly a difficult, relatively low-performance fighter armed with obsolete missiles. But I saw at once that this new aircraft — with its multiple weapons sensors and powerful missiles and cannon — was the equal of anything in the Western inventory. I couldn’t wait to begin to study the fighter in detail.
For the next week, we sat in brightly lit, stuffy classrooms, sweating over a mounting pile of MiG-29 technical data sheets. The aircraft was so new that neither the Mikoyan OKB nor VVS Frontal Aviation had been
