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Mikoyan Gurevich MIG-23 "Flogger"

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The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-23 (Russian: Микоян и Гуревич МиГ-23; NATO reporting name: "Flogger") is a swing-wing fighter aircraft, designed by the Mikoyan-Gurevich bureau in the Soviet Union. It was the first soviet fighter with a Look-down/shoot-down radar and beyond visual range missiles. Production started in 1970 and reached large numbers with over 5000 aircrafts built. Today the MiG-23 remains in limited service with various export customers.he MiG-23's predecessor, the MiG-21 (NATO reporting name 'Fishbed'), was fast and agile, but limited in its operational capabilities by its primitive radar, short range, and limited weapons load (restricted in some aircraft to a pair of short-range air-to-air missiles). The MiG-23 was to be a heavier, more powerful machine designed to remedy these deficiencies, and, it was hoped, rival Western aircraft like the F-4 Phantom. The new fighter was to feature a totally new S-23 sensor and weapon system suite capable of firing beyond-visual-range (BVR) missiles.

A major design consideration was take-off and landing performance. The existing Soviet fast jets required very long runways, which combined with their limited range, limited their tactical usefulness. The Soviet Air Force demanded that the new aircraft have a much shorter take-off run. Low-level speed and handling was also to be improved over the MiG-21. This led Mikoyan to consider two alternatives: lift jets, to provide an additional lift component, and variable-geometry wings, which had been developed by TsAGI for both "clean-sheet" aircraft designs and adaptations of existing designs.

The first prototype, called "23-01" but also known as the MiG-23PD, was a tailed delta-wing design similar to the MiG-21 but with two lift jets in the fuselage. However, it became apparent very early that this configuration was unsatisfactory, as the lift jets became useless dead weight once airborne. The second prototype, known as "23-11", featured variable-geometry wings which could be set to angles of 16, 45 and 72 degrees, and it was clearly more promising. The maiden flight of 23-11 took place on June 10, 1967, and three more prototypes were prepared for further flight and system testing. All featured the Tumansky R-27-300 turbojet engine with a thrust of 7850 kg. The order to start series production of the MiG-23 was given in December 1967.

The General Dynamics F-111 and McDonnell Douglas F-4 were the main Western influences on the MiG-23. The Russians, however, wanted a much lighter, single-engine fighter to maximize agility. Both the F-111 and the MiG-23 were designed as fighters, but the heavy weight of the F-111 turned it into a long-range interdictor and kept it out of the fighter role. The MiG-23's designers kept the MiG-23 light enough to dogfight with enemy fighters.

The U.S. Air Force operated a small number of MiG-23s, which were officially designated the YF-113G as both test and evaluation aircraft and in an aggressor role for fighter pilot training, from 1977 through 1988 in a program code named "Constant Peg".Many potential enemies of the USSR and its client states had a chance to evaluate the MiG-23's performance. In the 1970s, after a political realignment by the Egyptian government, Egypt gave their MiG-23MS to the United States and the People's Republic of China in exchange for military hardware. These MiG-23MS helped the Chinese to develop their Shenyang J-8II aircraft by borrowing some MiG-23 features, such as its ventral fin and air intakes, and incorporating them into the J-8II. In the US, these MiG-23MS and other variants acquired later from Germany were used as part of the evaluation program of Soviet military hardware. The Dutch pilot Leon Van Maurer, who had more than 1200 hours flying F-16s, flew against MiG-23ML Flogger-Gs from air bases in Germany and the U.S. as part of NATO's aerial mock combat training with Soviet equipment. He concluded that the MiG-23ML has superiority on the vertical plane over early F-16 variants, is just slightly inferior to the F-16A on the horizontal plane, and has superior BVR capability.
* Crew: One
* Length: 16.70 m (56 ft 9.5)
* Wingspan: Spread, 13.97 m (45 ft 10 in)
* Height: 4.82 m (15 ft 9.75 in)
* Wing area: 37.35 m² spread, 34.16 m² swept (402.05 ft² / 367.71 ft²)
* Empty weight: 9,595 kg (21,153 lb)
* Loaded weight: 15,700 kg (34,612 lb)
* Max takeoff weight: 18,030 kg (39,749 lb)
* Powerplant: 1× Khatchaturov R-35-300 afterburning turbojet, 83.6 kN dry, 127 kN afterburning (18,850 lbf / 28,700 lbf)
* Maximum speed: Mach 2.35, 2,500 km/h at altitude; Mach 1.14, 1,350 km/h at sea level (1,553 mph / 840 mph)
* Range: 1,150 km with six AAMs combat, 2,820 km ferry (570 mi / 1,750 mi)
* Service ceiling: 18,500 m (60,695 ft)
* Rate of climb: 240 m/s (47,245 ft/min)
* Wing loading: 420 kg/m² (78.6 lb/ft²)
* Thrust/weight: 0.88

Channel: Autos & Vehicles
Uploaded: October 5, 2007 at 5:28 am
Author: zeoul001

Length: 00:04:00
Rating: 4.52
Views: 18190

Tags: Mikoyan Gurevich MiG-23Russian cold war fighter bomber Sukhoi su-35 multirole jet air force Military aviation aircraft

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