MiG-29 Fulcrum: Roof-Breathing Intakes, a Spy's Radar Leak and HARM Hacks

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In November 1977 a U.S. reconnaissance satellite photographed an unknown twin-tailed jet at the Ramenskoye flight test center, and analysts dubbed it Ram-L. It was the Mikoyan MiG-29, later NATO's Fulcrum. Its roots lay in Vietnam, where nimble MiG-17s troubled heavy American F-105s and pushed the U.S. toward the F-15 and F-16. Alarmed, the Soviets issued the 1969 PFI requirement for an advanced frontline fighter, then split it in 1971: Sukhoi's heavy, long-range Su-27 and Mikoyan's lightweight MiG-29. Leading edge root extensions and a wide-spaced pair of Klimov RD-33 engines with a lifting-body fuselage let it pull 9 G and turn hard at low speed, and doors sealed its main intakes on rough runways while louvers on top of the wing roots fed the engines.

The cockpit was another story: hydraulic controls without fly-by-wire, no early HOTAS, and a heavy heads-down workload. Phazotron could not deliver the planned planar-array radar in time, so the jet flew with an older twisted Cassegrain antenna from the MiG-23 and slow analog processing that struggled to track targets at its own missiles' range. Phazotron designer Adolf Tolkachev passed radar secrets to the CIA and was executed in 1986, forcing the hurried N019M Topaz. Air shows in Finland in 1986 and Paris in 1989 stunned observers, but Iraqi MiG-29s were outmatched in the Gulf War. In 2008, after crashes in Siberia, Russia grounded about a third of its fleet for tail corrosion.

• The early centerline drop tank blocked the 30 mm cannon's shell ejection port, so pilots had to jettison it before firing.
• The cannon carried about 150 rounds, roughly two seconds of continuous fire.
• The RD-33 engines left a thick black smoke trail visible from miles away.
• Ukrainian MiG-29s fire U.S. AGM-88 HARM missiles wired to the pylon and programmed from a commercial tablet in the cockpit.
• The MiG-29 was exported to more than 30 nations, and North Korea assembled its jets from knocked-down kits.