There are more Mig 21 airframes laying about than almost any other make of jet fighter….How many thousands of those things did they make? And they were good aircraft! It seems that if they were able to be reclaimed instead of letting them rot in the weeds and put into service with reliable, serviceable engines a great many more airforces would be able to be equipped with good quality aircraft that will last and not bankrupt their nation.

Just a pipe dream…but a refreshed 404 equipped Mig 21 would be cool….sorta of a model T fighter jet…just out gas in it and fly.

I always thought that if a J-79 was a good idea in a Mirage then a J-79 was likely a good idea in a Mig-21. WIth the sea of Mig-21’s in the world, would it not be a good idea to provide an additional source of engines for them? I realize it is certainly not a simple solution but it may be a reasonable one.

I think what would be fair would be if you had an aircraft that would take either engine…what advantages/disadvantages would it have? We could compare anything, even cost. Sure you could put a an F-119 in it and it would be superior in (insert opinions here) but it would cost 5 times as much over the AL-41 over its life. Or maybe not because you claim the F119 ultimately costs less to operate…or does it?

That might bring up situations like the F-20 Tigershark. Two cheap J85’s or one expensive F-404? Wow, this could end up being a real hairball if you go that route…a $10 airplane with a Cabillion dollar engine.

Maybe the basics of thrust, weight ratio and durability would be best in our test aircraft…as suggested.

You act like that’s a bad thing? Planned obsolescence is the capitalist cornerstone. What was said about the Soviets during the cold war? If we didn’t have the Russians, we’d have to invent them.

Here we go…how about we all admit that they all owe their lineage back to the Wright brothers and move on? The Mig-25 was more of a revolution of evolution…Compared to a truly revolutionary design, like the SR-71, it was a conventional design pushed to the absolute maximum.

It was pushed to that extreme performance by one of Russia’s great strengths…as one of the posters pointed out, its engines. You have to give it to the Russians. Their engines put out huge amounts of power for their size and weight. It may be argued that they give up longevity to achieve that…I’m not sure if that’s accurate though due to the differences in how the West performs maintenance and nomenclature describing engine life.

Not a criticism of the OP, but unfortunately this thread seems destined to be consumed by the kinds of nationalist stereotyping and mudslinging that we’ve already had rather too much of lately.

I’m surprised no one jumped on this “Taiwan
strength: naturally and genetically smart”