MiG-21

The Mikoyan‑Gurevich MiG‑21, produced under licence by the Tbilisi Aircraft Manufacturing (TAM) plant in the former Georgian SSR, became one of the most prolific supersonic jet fighters of the Cold War. First assembled in 1960, the TAM line delivered more than 600 aircraft to Soviet allies and to the Georgian Air Force, extending the type’s operational life well beyond the original Soviet production run. The MiG‑21’s design centers on a slender, delta‑wing fuselage powered by a single Tumansky‑11 engine, giving it a top speed of Mach 2.05 and a climb rate of 210 m/s. Its simple yet robust avionics suite, including an optical gunsight and later upgrades with radar and beyond‑visual‑range missile capability, made it adaptable to air‑to‑air and ground‑attack missions. The aircraft’s minimal maintenance requirements and low operating cost allowed it to serve in more than 30 nations, shaping aerial doctrine throughout the 1960s‑80s. In the Caucasus, TAM’s version supplied not only frontline units but also pilot training schools, cementing the MiG‑21’s reputation as a workhorse that introduced generations of pilots to supersonic flight and contributed to the global diffusion of Soviet jet technology.