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LRonTupperware — Chengdu F-7 II 'Fishbed'
Published: 2011-08-01 23:20:24 +0000 UTC; Views: 645; Favourites: 9; Downloads: 33
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Description
The Eastern Bloc light fighter and possibly my favorite aircraft. I love the Fishbed. It's an airframe that refuses to die, much like the DC-3/C-47, AN-2, and UH-1; there's always some variant out there, flying.I especially fancy those Romanian LanceRs.
I did not list this as a MiG-21PF as it was made in China by Chengdu and not in Russia by Mikoyan-Gurevich. I listed it as F-7 and not J-7 as F-7 is the export designation.
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Comments: 10
Even today some countries want it more than F-8 (J-8), as many F-7s are sold with really cheap price. For now the PLAAF using it as a trainer or reserve jet, but they seems go careless and less desirable to keep this beauty well, and crashed few of it...
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Well, the Fishbed series was never terribly kind to its newer pilots. It comes over the fence at about 170 knots (Well over 300km/h) for approach. They've also been plagued with CG issues relating to their fuel load and that problem was never addressed until probably the PF/PFM and not completely rectified until the MF and bis. Despite all of this, it's an airframe that demands your respect if you're behind the yoke. When you're touching down at those speeds, it makes it very difficult. And, since jets don't give you the near-instant power that a piston does, it makes it even more difficult since it's harder to just throttle up and perform a missed approach. Even once you get used to those characteristics, there's still yet another quirk to the airframe. If you roll it too fast, you will lose control. It will eventually rip itself to pieces from the forces of that roll.
Still, despite all that it remains one of the best light fighters in existence, only second to the F-5E Tiger II.
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I see, seems the Gen.2 fighter jets are having the most disastrous designs to fulfill the great speed with small airframe and engine. If they don't majorly modernize it I don't see much survivability for future defense.
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Well, it's days are numbered, pretty much. It will be relegated to reserve units and warbird enthusiasts, like myself, willing to fly them. You must acknowledge, though, it had a most impressive service record and can attest to have being involved in every major conflict with an airborne theatre. J-7PG, HAL Bison, and MiG-21-2000 were probably the best the airframe would get. It's just simply out performed by competitors and, most importantly, their support networks. Even an old F-16A still has a very vibrant and easily accessible support network for parts and maintenance. Fishbed really lacks that, sadly.
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That explain why it stands no chance when IAF totally ruined Syrian air force's day before... (well actually, it had involved with mass amount of jamming and radar scanning to make all MiGs like a flying targets, while they had no idea what is happening.) Willing to FLY is something, but willing to DIE would be too much for nowadays military strategics.
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It also helps that the IAF isn't at all afraid of being a belligerent. In their case, technological advancement is but one of their advantages. The preemptive strike is even more devastating. A good example of this would be the Biafran Babies from the Nigerian Civil War. Using two-seat straight wing airplanes with the same engine as the Cessna 150 I fly, they strapped small rocket pods to them and were able to destroy Soviet-supplied MiG-17s and Il-28s on the ground. These aircraft were superior to anything else in theater, but because they have to take off and land like any other aircraft of the time, a simple and low-cost solution was more than enough to deal with them.
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Well, the side which is attack first always have the advantage than the defending opponent, as long as it's not getting intercepted.
And yea, it's good to knew more stuffs from you.
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There's something about the MiG-21 that I really love
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It just looks wicked fast, even on the tarmac.
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