MiG Flights: Get an Insight into Mig 29 Jet Fighters

Why fly mig 29 is the only viable option left when you want to fly mig. After flying mig in Zhukovsky became impossible in 2006, Nizhniy Novgorod remains the only place world-wide where everyone can fly migs.

If you want to do a mig flight, you can currently only choose between a mig 29 flight or a flight in the mig-31. A few years ago, many more aircraft were available for a rented ride: Russian mig flights were carried out in mig-21, mig-23 and even mig-25. Those days are gone. What has changed?

To understand the current situation, let's look how the mig flights in Russia have evolved since the break-up of the Soviet Union.

Back in the 1990s, a mig flight was affordable for almost every European or American. Trembling Russian economy and widespread corruption made russian mig flights an incredible, yet affordable adventure - especially if you knew the right ways of booking.

All of these mig flights took off from the LII institute, situated at the Ramenskoye Airfield in Zhukovsky, right outside of Moscow. A big fleet of MiGs, primarily used for flight tests, were available for private rides. At times, Russia's trembling economy along with the low-rated ruble were the reasons why mig jet flights with paying clients accounted for the majority of mig flights in Zhukovsky. In some months, such "commercial" flights even surpassed the regular jet flights of the institute in numbers.

As Russia re-gained strength and recovered from the turmoil of the 1990s, jet flights at LII in Zhukovsky were realigned. In January 2006, a governmental decision to stop mig jet flights with paying tourists was issued, supposedly making mig jet flights for tourists in Moscow a thing of the past. Normal military operations continued, of course - such mig flights were not interrupted, normal operations from air bases like Kubinka were kept in place.

This is not the end of the story, though. Big parts of the Russian military-industrial complex have been suffering from decreasing arms sales. The SOKOL Aircraft Factory in Nizhniy Novgorod, an industrial city in the Volga region not far from Moscow, was desperately searching for new ways to generate revenue. After intensive contact between high-ranked staff of the SOKOL Aircraft plant and the flight broker MiGFlug.com, people at the factory started to realize that russian mig flights were in high demand - and that the unavailability of such flights at LII led to a supply vacuum. As producer of MiG-29UB aircraft (UB is the two-seater version of the MiG-29), people at SOKOL plant started to realize that mig jet flights could be a way to generate revenue and got the necessary permissions to carry out mig 29 flights as well as mig 31 flights with paying clients. Finally, after the uncertainity of early 2006, Russian mig flights were possible again.

In Summer 2006, only months after mig jet flights in Zhukovsky came to a halt, the first-ever so-called "westerner" took off from Sormovo Airfield in Nizhniy Novgorod, where today's mig 29 flights are being carried out. Long and intensive negotiations between the Aircraft Factory and Zurich-based MiGFlug made it possible for a Swiss Citizen in his 30's to open a new era of mig flights. Since that day in July 2006, mig 29 flights are a common sight in the skies of Nizhniy Novgorod and russian mig flights remain possible, even for non-pilots.