There have never been any scientific tests that I know of. There are only a few written records. It seems the Soviets never discovered the MiG 21’s capabilities at slow speeds.
I don’t think the MiG-21’s pitch rate is sufficient to surpass the point of flow separation quickly enough to perform Cobra safely. There are too many lateral disturbances.
If that is the case and the MLD is superior to the older models that would finally bring some historical accuracy to the design features.
Certainly not completely Safe, just with a very good or very desperate pilot at the controls. Some reports say something like the Cobra has been used in extreme situations. It’s either try and pull something together or certain death. A very good article on MiG 21 maneuverability is here :
https://www.scribd.com/document/84678072/MiG-21-and-Fighter-Maneuverability-in-Today-s-Terms
? That makes very little sense to me, can you explain this idea?
90° should drastically increase the radar cross section of the plane.
You don’t notch by putting your plane’s surface at 90° but by aligning your direction of travel perpendicular to the radar, right?
The only time a Cobra would help with that is when the speed of the aircraft gets so low, that the radar has trouble picking it up. No idea what the limit for that is, but that’s only possible for a very short time anyway, since gravity is making sure your relative speed won’t stay close to 0.
You can actually keep your relative speed 0 with su-27 at low fuel when TW is bigger than 1. After doing cobra you can just stay vertical without moving
But it’s hard to control
They already could be if not for the issues regarding the fm. I think only the hornet can match the flanker in 1C but idk which plane would be better.
0:45 is MiG-29 not Su

A German-Spanish program to create thrust vectoring for their EFT. So any EFT in Germany or Spain could get it. And then the EFT would become one of the most maneuverable Fighters.
This nozzle can be installed on an airplane, without any modifications to the airframe.
Still, russian aircraft that can turn. But yes that’s a mig and the one at 0:10-0:40 is a Su series
I was mentioning the Thrust Vectoring system more than the plane itself
Btw which variant is the SU at 0:12 with canards?
These 2 are the loadouts i use on SU-27SM, i wish the outer pylons could take something else, R-73 is borderline useless in the current meta, because of short range


Ecm pods on wingtips
Su-30I-6, Su-30MKI prototype
But it’s not useless. So many people call it useless but it can be a life saver.
this is from 20 minutes ago
Agreed, nice kill btw
Again, it is useless. It grants you a last second hail mary in a situation where you already should have been dead in the first place. It allows you to punish someone for making an already severe mistake.
The plane practically doesn’t have anything going for it. It has:
- Obsolete radar
- Inferior missiles
- A flight model that loses in a dogfight to every peer
It’s inferior up close. It’s inferior far away. Being able to pull a “useless” cheap shot out of thin air is one of the only things going for it.
I don’t have any issues with it for being so awful as you claim.
