Top 5 Russian fighters of all time

It may have been a little unfair of the other thread to concentrate on US fighters but looking on the bright side, this allows us to consider the best from the rest of the world, here's my Russian selection;

1 MiG 21 - probably the most iconic Russian fighter ever built. Simple and rugged, it was bought, built and copied in VAST numbers, I think I am right in thinking this is the most produced jet fighter of all time, therefore a must at number one.

2 Sukhoi Su -27 Flanker - there are better versions of it nowadays but as the progenitor of the whole Flanker line the Su-27 is the one which merits the place, the Flanker is todays definitive Russian fighter and blindingly good at air shows.

3 MiG 25 - For so long the 'bogeyman' fighter of which the west was terrified, the fastest interceptor fighter ever to reach operational status, even if its overall usefulness was exaggerated.

4 MiG 15 - The very first 'red menace' to get the west's knickers in a twist, establishing what was to become the Soviet tradition of rugged simplicity it was a horrendous shock to the west when it appeared over Korea and outclassed the entire US and Commonwealth air strengths.

5 Yakovlev Yak-141 - Not an obvious choice by any means, this aircraft was in fact the worlds first practical supersonic VTOL fighter and could have been one of the greats if circumstances were different. It was such an achievement that its echoes are to be seen in the F-35B which is still almost a decade away from service.

Pick the bones out of that

The MiG-25 Foxbat would definitely get high scores in the Fear factor department. Man the West was scared of that thing

This is how I would rank them

1. MiG 21- maybe not the best fighter of that period but as Lenin said quantity has a quality all its own.

2. MiG 15- as stated before this plane scared the hell out of american bomber pilots in Korea and was a match for the F-86 in virtually every category. If they had better pilots Korea could have been an entirely different story.

3. Mig 25- true russian innovation at its finest while its combat abilities my be overstated its propoganda usefullness cannot.

4. Su 27- i've always been a fan Sukhoi this craft was a match for any western fighter of the its period.

5. MiG 29- a soviet fighter that in a individual matchup was equal to and possibly better than any western fighter. So says the Federation of American Scientists.

Originally posted by ShadowXIX
The MiG-25 Foxbat would definitely get high scores in the Fear factor department. Man the West was scared of that thing

Because of Iran I don't think U.S. was scared anymore and knew that their planes were doing better beating both russian and french aircrafts. MiG-25's were destroyed countless times by F-5's and F-14's.

where are the ww2 fighters?

the Shturmovik the flying tank




or the Yak-(1 and 3)


Planes that saved the soviet union

NR, that is partially true, another factor was the defection of Victor Belenko, which allowed an actual MiG 25 to be fully examined for the first time, however both these events occurred after many years of service by the MiG 25 during which the west was very worried about it.

Chinawhite, yes, I thought long and hard about WW2 aircraft but the ones I have chosen were truly great in a global sense while the Yak fighters were technically quite pedestrian by the standards of the day, taking nothing away from the acheivements by the brave pilots of the Yak's MiG's and LaGG's during WW2, I think the global impact of the ones I chose just shade it.

The Shturmovik was not a fighter, but WAS one the of the greatest, if not THE greatest, Soviet warplanes ever created.

Apparently the Indian MiG-21 Bison is still performing very impressively in COPE 2005...


Good for such an old airframe

What do you think plus Su-15 Flagon? which was the most four top clime- rate fighter before F-15 eagle

What do you think about Su-15 Flagon which was four top clime rate figher before F-15 Eagle.

Yeah, the Mig-21 sure is a good palne, even tough it looks pretty small in real life... the Mig-25 is also a supreme fighter, but we shouldn't forget the Su-37...

Originally posted by Figher Master FIN
Yeah, the Mig-21 sure is a good palne, even tough it looks pretty small in real life...

the Mig-25 is also a supreme fighter, but we shouldn't forget the Su-37...

It is in fact difficult to over look the Su-37, but we before we include the Su-37 we must put the Su-35 before it. The Su-37 is an Su-35, only with thrust vectoring control. The newest version of the Su-35(production) has thrust vectoring, I believe there to only be one Su-37, it is an experminental test bed utilizing Thrust Vectoring.

Shattered OUT...

Originally posted by ShatteredSkies
[It is in fact difficult to over look the Su-37, but we before we include the Su-37 we must put the Su-35 before it. The Su-37 is an Su-35, only with thrust vectoring control. The newest version of the Su-35(production) has thrust vectoring, I believe there to only be one Su-37, it is an experminental test bed utilizing Thrust Vectoring.

Shattered OUT...

aah, yes of course... It's always my problem, I just want the newest... yeah It's like saying that the F-15 E is the best... Not the F-15 A

Shattered, FIN, I agree with you both but I deliberately chose the Su-27 just to represent the whole Flanker family generically to avoid having a list of all the same basic airframe, I did the same with my British list including the HS Harrier for the whole range rather than having a separate entry for the AV-8B.

Emile, the Su-15 wasn't all that fast really, it was a heavy long range fighter.

The Sukhoi 15 was the russian equivalent of the F-106 being an air defence fighter. The Mig 31 Foxhound is a beast although im more into western stuff.

www.thinkinrussian.org...

Ok i dont mean the firefox just stuck this here for clint eastwoods sake

www.combataircraft.com...

www.testpilot.ru...

I love the MiG-25. What a plane. More spacecraft than aircraft. I used teh MiG-25 in my novel THE HIVE. One is fitted with solid rocket fuel boosters to fly up to about 100 Km.

www.freewebs.com...