The Yak-28 occupies a strange place in Cold War aviation history—mass produced, widely used, yet almost completely forgotten. On paper it promised speed, range, and versatility; in reality, it became known for difficult handling, questionable design compromises, and a...
In the 1990s, Russia would produce an assortment of strange but interesting concept aircraft. Experimenting with forward swept wings to supermanoeuvrability, several designs would emerge inspired by Soviet-era concepts. One such design was the MiG 1.44. Originally a...
The Soviet Buran space shuttle, developed in the 1970s as a rival to NASA's Space Shuttle, was a reusable orbiter capable of unmanned flight and launched by the powerful Energia rocket. Completing its only automated orbital mission in 1988 with superior payload...
Forgotten Soviet VTOL jets include Yak-36 prototypes, underpowered Yak-38 Forger naval strikers with limited range, upgraded Yak-38M, canceled multi-role Yak-39, and supersonic Yak-141 promising advanced capabilities. Scrapped post-USSR collapse due to funding and...
The Su-30, Russia's best multirole fighter evolved from the Su-27 Flanker, features thrust-vectoring engines, canards in variants like Su-30MKI, Mach 2 speeds, and advanced standoff weapons like R-37M hypersonics. Exports to India, China, and domestic SM/SM2 models...
Staying aloft 100 years of in-flight refuelling traces pioneering experiments from 1923 hose-and-reel trials to modern boom-and-drogue systems enabling global reach for fighters and bombers. Milestones include WWII adaptations, Cold War KC-135 tankers, probe-drogue...
The MiG that flew itself to the West refers to a 1989 incident where a Soviet MiG-23MLD pilot ejected during training over Poland, but the jet continued flying on autopilot across East Germany, Czechoslovakia, the Netherlands, and Belgium before crashing in Belgium....
The Su-25 Frogfoot, developed in the mid-1970s by Pavel Sukhoi as a Soviet close air support aircraft akin to the A-10 Warthog, features robust armor, high munitions load, and speeds over 500 knots for contested environments. Battle-tested in Afghanistan, Chechen...
The J-16, China's advanced multirole variant of the Su-27 Flanker family, features AESA radar, thrust-vectoring engines, superior electronic warfare suite, and long-range PL-15 missiles. With greater payload, range, and sensor fusion than legacy Flankers, it excels in...