DTN News: Russia MAKS 2009 Air Show ~ MiG - The High Flying Family History Of 70 Years

DTN News: Russia MAKS 2009 Air Show ~ MiG - The High Flying Family History Of 70 Years *Source: DTN News / Int'l Media (NSI News Source Info) MOSCOW, Russia - August 22, 2009: One of Russia's oldest and most famous aircraft, the Mig, was the star of the MAKS air show on Friday. Despite being 70 years old, the Mig remains a world leader in military aviation. Since the first MIG took to the skies about 70 years ago, these Russian planes have become one of the world's most heralded fighters. Thousands of them were used by the Soviet Union in the Second World War. The MIG strikes a mean and moody figure when stationary on the ground but once airborne it cuts the figure of a bird of prey; graceful yet deadly. During a production run of more than seven decades, roughly 60,000 of these flying beasts have been produced in countless varying forms. Piloting these machines not only requires exceptional flying skill but also intensive physical training. Only the best are allowed to sit in the cockpit. Test-pilot Andrey Shishov is one of the chosen few. “Up in the sky a pilot cannot do without a special helmet and this antigravity equipment. At a height of several thousand kilometers, a nine-unit strong G-force means you feel like you weigh nine times more than you really do, so not 75 kilos for example but 600-700,” he explains. “Here compressed air comes into the suit and covers the legs and stomach. The point is to stop blood flowing to the extremities, otherwise the legs will go numb,” Andrey demonstrates a special costume. Andrey’s favorite is the Mig-29. Designed in the USSR to counter America's latest offerings, it still remains the company’s most popular plane around globe, where it's in use in 25 countries. The Mig-29 is able to destroy air targets up to 200 kilometers away at all altitudes and in any weather. It can fire at four air or ground targets simultaneously while tracking ten others at the same time. The latest addition to the family is the SMT model.“It is a new development, due to new modern requirements for war,” says test-pilot Stanislav Gorbunov. “There are new radars, modern avionics, navigation systems, which allow our weapons to be more exact, while also providing safety in difficult weather conditions and during the night.”But even this jet seems technologically outdated when compared to the corporation’s latest offering. The Mig-35 is faster, more effective, safer – and many say, greater than anything the company's put into the skies before. The main feature is it’s groundbreaking radar design based on space technology. It allows the aircraft to perform all-weather precision ground strikes and aerial reconnaissance and conduct independent multi-role missions.Pavel Vlasov is the senior test-pilot for the Mig corporation. As a hero of Russia – awarded for courage and heroism – he has spent thousands of hours roaring through the skies. Pavel says he took to the heavens before he even started driving a car. “Everything about this plane is top notch, the latest technologies have been applied, things unheard of five or seven years ago. It would have been impossible even to imagine the equipment and weapons that this aircraft has today. To fit so many modern war gadgets in such a small plane, is unbelievable,” he explains with enthusiasm. “And it is possible for one person to control all this effectively, and more importantly, to stay free for making decisions.” But this is not a revolution, just an evolution,” Pavel concludes. And as the evolution continues this latest Mig fighter will certainly not be its last.