Air Power Series>1:72 die-cast display model>MIG-21>HA0127

General Background

In 1928 the Egyptian Air Force was proposed by parliament. Over the years British airplanes played a major part in equipping the EAF. However in the mid-1960s Egypt had completely changed to Soviet built aircraft mostly because it was much less expensive than other countries’. With the super-sonic Mach-2 Mig-21 it greatly increased the EAF combat effectiveness. The first Mig-21s started to arrive early in the 60s and would remain the primary fighter until mid 1982 when F-16s started to arrive.

The Aircraft

Mig-21s were Egypt's premiere aircraft through the 1960's-70's with over 220 Mig-21s of various versions. In 1970 aircraft 8454 arrived in the second shipment of Mig-21MF's. It survived the 1973 Yom Kippur War, the Egypt/Libya border war in 1977 through 1981 when F-16's and Mirages began to replace them. This colorful paint scheme of 2 shades of green and sand with a pale blue under-side is a version of the “spinach and sand” paint scheme. With increased tension with Libya the EAF added black-outlined orange panels as an IFF (Identification Friend or Foe) system.

Specifications :

Power Plant:	One 41.55kN (9,340lb st) or 64.73kN (14,550lb st) with afterburner Tumansky R-13-300 turbojet
Wingspan:	7.15m (23ft 5 1/2in)
Length:	15.76m (51ft 8 1/2in) - incl pitot boom
Max T-O weight:	9,400kg (20,725lb)
Max speed:	Mach 2.1 (2,230km/h - 1,385mph) above 11,000m (36,000ft)
	Mach 1.06 (1,300km/h - 807mph) at low level
Range:	1,100km (683 miles) - internal fuel only
	1,800km (1,118 miles) - with three external drop tanks, one under fuselage, one under each wing
Armament:	One 23mm twin-barrel GSh-23 cannon with 200 rounds in belly pack
	Various air-to-air and air-to-ground stores carried on four under wing pylons including:
	K-13A "Atoll" or "Advanced Atoll" a-a missiles,
	UV-16-57 rocket packs,
	S-24 a-s rockets,
	250kg and 500kg bombs
	Eventually Sidewinder missiles