To Shalev

Why the hell do you want to post scripts that would result in my browser not being able to respond to your post? Take out the IE scripts.

First of all, you are quoting from normal takeoff weights. Take off weights, man. Are you assuming that when you take off at 7400kg, you will reach the combat area still weighing at 7400kg? Do you forget that you burn off some of the weight? Part of that weight is called FUEL.

And yes, we are talking about afterburning because most T/Ws are computed from afterburning, not normal thrust.

Finally, most dogfights do transpire at subsonic speeds. As a matter of fact, no pilot can sustain 9G turns frequently, (at most one or two such turns) and such turns are only used in emergencies like avoiding a missile. Most combat maneuver is done at 5-6G. At supersonic speeds, you could barely see your opponent and your merging speeds are too fast.

Mach .61 is just right. That’s usually the speed range for a knife fight.

“I think your opponents will certainly be on their burners going as fast as they can trying to gain and retain the maximum energy.”

This is actually a dumb idea in some cases. The Arab pilots used this in the middle of a fight, and lighting their afterburners made them lit up like a beacon for the Israeli missiles to nicely home in into their tailpipe. You do not light your afterburners if an enemy plane is behind you (you do it when he’s not there.)

As for the MiG21bis, yes, it’s T/W is actually quite good, and in fact, this is true for all MiG-21. I don’t know why you isolate the T/W factor for the F7MG, when in fact, it is actually fairly true for the MiG21 in a general range. But the later MiG21s aren’t as good in subsonic and transonic maneuvers due to their heavy wingloading, and ALL MiG21s aren’t all that good in supersonic maneuver either, which is quite moot since you don’t do a knife fight in supersonic speeds anyway. The earlier MiG21s are good subsonic-transonic knife fighters, but the later MiG21s and their progressively worsened wing loading have to take even that away.