Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-29 Fulcrum - History, Design, Performance & Dissection

https://handoutset.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Jet-Propulsion-A-Simple-Guide-to-the-Aerodynamic-and-Thermodynamic-Design-and-Performance-of-Jet-Engines-Nicholas-Cumpsty.pdf

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I am a little confused how the airflow is not uniform.

@BBCRF what about in regard to high angles of attack and Intake Louvers? There should be zero flight regimes where the airflow is not uniform.

The MiG-29 is the world’s first aircraft fitted with dual-mode air intakes.

This refers to the uneven flow around the compressor blades
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You are 100% correct and the Devs have their reasons beyond what is technical. It is a competitive game of balance and most importantly it is a business.

It is something we must always consider when dealing with them.

However, every time you all document these discrepancies it does help.

Man, after @EpicBlitzkrieg87 's Mig23 thread back in the day and how hard it was to get them to move on the Mig23M performance, took months and all of Red Skies and following patch to get fixed (still think its missing acceleration), I almost want to say there is no way in hell Russian bias exist.

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But how? In high angles of attack? Or basic ass subsonic/transonic level flight? I am just trying to get a perspective of what the devs see and it’s not making sense to me.

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Are they even considering the dual-mode air intakes? Which literally serve to reduce uneven airflow in flight, especially at high angles of attack?

We all understand what distorted airflow can do to a compressor blade, such as reduced thrust. Too much can lead to a flameout.

In what flight regime does the RD-33 suffer from uneven airflow? The entire flight envelope? Did they say?

Fun fact.

Do you know what fighter adopted Mikoyan’s (first in the world) Dual Mode Air Intake Louvers of the Mig29?

The F-22 Raptor.
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I do not think many of you or GJ truly understands or appreciates just how special the Fulcrum is, how it shaped western combat doctrine as well as air superiority fighter design of the 5th generation.

Mikoyan understood how critical dual mode air intake technology is regarding designing the Mig29M,

After redesigning LERXs, with the intake louvers on top eliminated, and FOD protection provided by intake screens. In the time-honored Soviet tradition of “maskirovka (masquerade / deception)”, early MiG-29Ms apparently had louvers painted on the LERXs to camouflage the fact that they were new-model aircraft.

It is a key feature Western analyst look for when new Soviet/Russian aircraft appear.

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Gaijin’s so called “Russian bias” in action. UFO F-16’s with borderline unflareable missiles fighting MiG-29’s which are treated as having not even fully open air intakes where a magic unevidenced design flaw conveniently cripples the plane.

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Indeed the fulcrum is an amazing aircraft, although mediocre in bvr, in close quarters it was a monster. Sadly the platform was kinda forgotten by the russians probably because of money issues, they only could choose one of their main fighters to keep improving and obviously the best option was to stick with the flanker. I’m like 90% sure that if the ussr didn’t fell they would modernize the mig, fix its limitations and then it would serve the country well, just like the f16 did with the americans…

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Not quite forgotten. The mig 29 fell behind because it’s such a highly specialized fighter. Close quarters point defense. Its size and combat range are perfect for the task it was designed. It’s a one trick pony. Dogfighting.

Squeezing out additional capabilities when you have the flanker is not feasible. So naturally it falls to the wayside.

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Its’ dominance in close quarters was heavily inflated, mostly due to the HMS and HOBS missiles. Overrated imo, and yet still iconic. Like the old dudes glorifying the F-4 because it fought MiG-17s.

MiG-29 flight performance was good, but it’s relatively close to the F-16 and a decade behind it.

MiG-29 is only 3 years after the F-16, hardly a decade lol

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In the sense that it lacks all of the things the Su-27 later inherited such as FBW, advanced radar, RWR suite, etc.

It literally does the same thing as the MiG-23P but slightly better. It took a decade to meet the basic expectations of a proper modern fighter with the exception of its (at the time) unique HOBS and HMS combo.

It really doesn’t exist. It started as a joke way back in the day; goes as far back as 2013 when the Yak-3P was added, but in 2015-2016 it gained momentum as something to be taken very seriously because some parts of the community needed a scapegoat for these two errors: that the IS-2 1944 used a shell it didn’t have irl and the IT-1’s fuel tank could not explode, and it was annoying them.

Since then it was reused a few times when the community saw fit whenever new Russian content annoyed them. It’s the go-to excuse in such instances to reuse, because it’s already there and Gaijin is based in Russia, so when content from another nation is overperforming you never hear for example “American bias” or “German bias” etc.

Nothing more than a meme turned into a myth. Just wanted to speak out on it. Gaijin even joked about it and released a limited bundle in mid 2015 with an IS-2 iirc, and that “Master of the Russian Bias” title.

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It just that they have solid line ups at every thing that makes it seem that way

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8 Years ago. Can never get the title again. : (

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Russian engineers had plenty of free time and I’m guessing Gaijin being Russian, it wasn’t difficult to dig out the needed information to add plenty of vehicles for the nation.

Also you may be feeling that way because this kind of joke (or at this point accusation) is only ever directed at Russia, and because it’s reused so many times one begins to believe it’s true.

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I think you’re downplaying the original MiG-29, the N019 while not the greatest thing ever was still much more modern than the N003/006/008, and compared to the F-16 it did have a major advantage over it, being having BVR in the first place, and while not being FBW it still had a very modern FCS, I mean the F-15 didnt have FBW until relatively recently too so I wouldn’t really put too much stock against it over that. The RWR suite is the same as the Su-27 both using fighter versions of the SPO-15, only ground attack aircraft got the full SPO-15 feature set.

The main reason the MiG-29 died was simply because post cold war there wasnt much of a need for frontline fighters operating in “final war” conditions, and without that niche role why would you choose a MiG-29 over a Su-27, it simply does everything better. Especially since post cold war russian air industry is fueled heavily by export money, where the MiG-29 doesnt compete against the Su-27 well for reasons I highlighted earlier.

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I was still in school back then so I didn’t have my own credit card to buy it. Rip

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It’s mostly ppl that have just 1 tree that say shit like “russian bias”, once you play with multiple countries you realize that such thing doesn’t exist, each br has a specific nation that is better than the others… These guys talk about things like the MLD and the r27er but they forget stuff like the f14 when it was released, f16 being an absolute ufo and so on. There’s no such thing as “x country bias”

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The only bias is the what makes most money bias

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