Where to fly a mig 29 at supersonic speed

The 4th-generation jet fighter aircraft Mikoyan MiG-29 was designed and developed by the Mikoyan design bureau in the USSR as a replacement for the MiG-23 Flogger for the Soviet Airforce. The MiG-29 Fulcrum air superiority jet fighter has been developed during the 1970s and joined the Air Force of the Soviet Union from 1983 at the well-known Kubinka airbase near Moscow.

The Soviets were afraid about the US Fighter X program that lead to the F-15 fighter. Finally, the Soviets decided to develop two fighter designs to counter the American advantage: The PFI program (the smaller part of the program, about 1/3) resulted in the bigger and heavier Sukhoi Su-27 Flanker jet fighter, while the bigger part was the LPFI (Perspektivnyy Lyogkiy Frontovoy Istrebitel) that resulted in the Mikoyan MiG-29 Fulcrum. Both come from the same aerodynamic studies, and the similarities of the two concepts can easily be recognized. LPFI means "Advanced Lightweight Tactical Fighter" program. The LPFI could be described as Soviet version of the US- lightweight program that finally resulted in the General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon and the Boeing F-18 Hornet program, respectively. The Su-27 remained the counterpart of the F-15.

The MiG-29 was that good, that the west was quite afraid that it has not only lost the advantage, but was now behind the Soviet Union. Especially the aerodynamics seemed to be superior, a fact that has been supported after the newly developed MiG-29 performed at airshows in the west years later, showing the famous Pugachev Cobra, a maneuver unparalleled by western jet fighters.

Today, after the cold war finally ended without becoming hot, flying a mig is possible to civilians from the west, which was totally unthinkable two decades ago. Firstly, it became possible to fly migs at the Zhukovsky flight test center near the town of Ramenskoe. Ironically, this is exactly the place where the new model was first spotted by western reconnaissance satellites and therefore got the name Ram-L. The possibility to fly mig 29 became possible due to financial problems of the Russian Federation. In 2006, fly a mig 29 and other aircraft like mig 23 or also the mig 25 or su 27 became unavailable at Ramenskoe airbase. The reason why fly migs stopped is not fully transparent, it is expected that it came with the improved financial situation after soaring commodity prices.

The operator flyfighterjet.com had therefore to find another opportunity to fly migs, which it luckily founds in the Russian town of Nizhniy Novgorod. Flying mig 29 and other models became available again, although the available models are limited compared to the wider range of migs that where available at Zhukovsky airbase. Fly migs was limited to the mig 29 fulcrum and the mig 31 foxhound, an even faster and heavier military jet that was often used for edge of space passenger flights up to an altitude of 24km. After 2009, however, the mig 29 became the only jet left for passenger jet fighter flights. Flying migs, flying the beast from the cold war today is surely one of the more exciting things. It is, to historians as well as to aviation specialists, still unbelievable.