Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21bis

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Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21bis
FGAddon
Mig-21 splash.png
MiG-21bis cockpit.png
Type Fighter aircraft, Military aircraft, supersonic jet fighter
Configuration Low wing aircraft
Propulsion Jet aircraft
Manufacturer Mikoyan and Gurevich
Author(s)
MiG-21bis team
  • Petar Jedvaj
  • David Culp
  • Raptor
  • Stuart Cassie
  • Gary Brown
  • Brendan Black
  • bugman
  • Tomaskom
FDM JSBSim
--aircraft= MiG-21bis
Status Early production
 FDM Stars-3.png
 Systems Stars-2.png
 Cockpit Stars-3.png
 Model Stars-5.png
Supports Bombable
Development
 Website The website for the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21bis developments.
 Repository The development repository of the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21bis.
Download Download the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21bis aircraft package for the current stable release (2020.3).
Forum 'Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21bis' topic on the FlightGear forum.
License GPLv3+
This aircraft is NOT available under the GNU GPL 2, the primary license of the FlightGear project. This means that parts cannot be reused in the official FlightGear repositories.

The Mikoyan and Gurevich MiG-21bis is a supersonic jet fighter aircraft, designed by the Mikoyan-Gurevich Design Bureau in the Soviet Union.

FlightGear Versions

There are currently 2 versions of the MiG-21bis available in FlightGear:

Eventually, the version in FGAddon will be updated at intervals with the version on Git. The instructions below are covering the Git version, as it is more complete and realistic both in terms of flight model, systems and for supporting military simulation.

Performance Data

Maximum Speed: 1,468 mph

Rate of climb: 44,280 ft/min

Service Ceiling: 58,400 ft

Range: 751 mi

Keyboard Controls

Key Function
s Press start button
Ctrl+f Toggle Afterburner Reheat (CLR)
Shift+Q Fuel cut off
Ctrl+B Air brakes
Ctrl+d Deploy braking parachute
Ctrl+t Jettison braking parachute
m Engage nose wheel steering
c Toggle canopy

Flaps and Gears

Key Function
] Flaps down
[ Flaps up
Shift+G Gear handle down
g Gear handle up
Ctrl+g Gear handle safety

Weapons

Key Function
f Gun trigger
q Weapons release - release selected store
Shift+Q Trigger flare release
n Lock on target
Shift+N Unlock target
i Rotate throttle drum up grossly
Shift+I Rotate throttle drum up fine
k Rotate throttle drum down gross
Shift+K Rotate throttle drum down fine

Ground-Controlled Interception (GCI)

Key Function
F5 Request Picture
F6 Request Bogey Dope
F7 Request Cutoff

Aircraft Help

Checklists

There are ca. 10 Aircraft_Checklists, which can help in many situations.

Minimal Start-Up

If using the automatic startup using the drop-down menu MiG-21 -> Autostart/Shutdown, then you still should do a couple things:

  • Set the needle of the fuel gauge manually to the correct level depending on the loaded fuel. The fuel gauge does not automatically set to the level in the tank, you need to set the initial level. In drop-down menu Equipment -> Fuel and Payload Settings you can read the value - maybe after having added an external drop-tank and having manually clicked into the "Ventral Drop Tank" slider to get it filled. Please observe that the total displayed will be in gallons, however the MiG uses litres (i.e. you need to multiply by a factor of ca. 3.8).
  • Slave the gyro compass - hold down the FDS button until the Heading Indicator compass needle settles. The compass will drift over time, press the FDS button every now and again to re-slave. The FDS button is positioned just to the right at the top of the attitude indicator.
  • Set the magnetic declination instrument to your current latitude to help minimize gyro error. You can find the current latitude by going to the drop-down menu Location -> Select an Airport, select your airport and read the value in the Airfield Information on the right side. The magnetic declination instrument is situated on the lower right part of the console between the pilot's legs.
  • Turn on the auxiliary hydraulics for full aileron control (switch on in the middle of the top row on the switch panel on the right wall of the cockpit). Not doing so will make it very challenging to handle the roll stability and get decent roll rates.

Engine and Throttle Management

In general the engine of the Mig21-bis is less responsive than that of a modern jet fighter - and throttle and engine management is more subtle.

N1 and N2 are the rotational speeds of the engine sections expressed in percentage instead of in the actual rate of rotation. If N1 gets too much higher than N2, you will cause an engine surge (can happen at as low as 20% separation, it's guaranteed by 30%). Therefore one needs to keep an eye on the N1 and N2 needles and sudden changes in the throttle over a large range are bad. The max N1 to N2 ratio depends on airspeed as well, so you'll have to make sure you don't blow up your engine on a dive. The tachometer r.p.m. gauge is situated on the right side of the front panel in the cockpit - below the radar warning receiver and to the left of the radar screen.

On the other hand the air intake cone in the nose is handled by the plane automatically, i.e. without necessary pilot intervention.

Second reheat (CTRL-f) is only effective below 15,000 feet mean sea level, and use should be limited to 3 minutes.

Weapons Management

There is a separate wiki article for MiG-21_Weapons_Management.

Navigation

There is an external article about navigation, which eventually will be migrated to this wiki.

YouTube Videos

Videos Describing the Git Version

Older Videos on the FGAddon Version

External links