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The Mikoyan MiG-29 ( NATO reporting name: Fulcrum) is a Russian jet fighter aircraft designed in 1972 as a replacement for the MiG-21 and MiG-23 in the primary fighter role. The multi-role fighter entered service throughout the Soviet bloc in 1985. The high performance MiG-29 equals or surpasses the American F-15 in several areas. Though the F-15 has a longer combat range and is more capable at beyond visual range (BVR) combat, the MiG-29 is superior at closer range. The MiG-29 is closer to the F/A-18A/B variants in weight, dimensions, and especially appearance, being a light frontline fighter with secondary (and severely limited) ground attack capabilities.

The MiG-29 shares an almost identical layout with its much larger brother, the Su-27 heavy air superiority fighter. The MiG and the Sukhoi design bureaus have been mutually accusing each other of industrial espionage, while independent observers put the "blame" on the Soviet computer lab, which performed wind tunnel simulations for both design houses. Both planes have exceptional aerodynamic characteristics, even though the MiG-29 is not fly-by-wire.

In most cases, SovietThe Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR ( Russian: ; tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik (SSSR) also called the Soviet Union ( ; tr. Sovetsky Soyuz , was a state in much of the northern region of Eurasia that existed from 1922 until 1 pilots were not especially enamored with the reporting names assigned to their aircraft by NATOThe North Atlantic Treaty Organisation NATO , sometimes called North Atlantic Alliance Atlantic Alliance or the Western Alliance is an international organization for defense collaboration established in 1949, in support of the North Atlantic Treaty signed, such as " FrogfootThe Su-25 ( NATO reporting name Frogfoot was designed by Sukhoi as a result of studies in the late 1960s on an aircraft to fill the Shturmovik ground attack role (so-named after the famous Ilyushin Il-2 of World War Two renown). It is comparable to the A-" or " BackfireThe Tupolev Tu-22M ( NATO reporting name Backfire was a supersonic, swing-wing, long-range strategic bomber developed by the Soviet Union. Significant numbers remain in service with the CIS. Development The Tu-22 'Blinder' had not proved particularly succ." However, due to the literal meaning of the word "fulcrum" in English, the Soviets were pleased with the assignment of a name which they saw as complementary, to an aircraft which vastly increased their ability to compete air warfare.

Due to the fear of proliferation of advanced ex-Soviet models, the U.S. Air ForceThe United States Air Force USAF is the aviation branch of the United States armed forces. The mission of the USAF is "to defend the United States through the control and exploitation of air and space. Organization There are three components of the USAF: has acquired many used MiG-29s, in blocks as large as squadronSquadrons are groupings of aircraft, naval vessels or armoured fighting vehicles. An air force squadron typically consists of three or four flights,with 12 to 24 aircraft, depending on aircraft type and air force. An armoured squadron typically consists o-size, from former Soviet bloc countries such as MoldovaThis article refers to the Republic of Moldova. For information about the adjacent Romanian region, see Moldavia . For other meanings see Moldova (disambiguation The Republic of Moldova is a landlocked country in eastern Europe, located between Romania to. These purchases tended to be very inexpensive (from a U.S. standpoint), while denying such aircraft to potentially hostile third-world nations. This led to speculation that USAF intended to use the aircraft for aggressor squadrons, such as Top Gun, but this turned out to be unfounded, when the aircraft were subsequently turned into scrap metal. The USAF hires MiG-29 jets and pilots from Germany, whenever comparative dog-fight tests are deemed necessary.

The MiG-29 has been featured at numerous airshows around the world. Its specialty stunt is the "bearded taucher" or "kolokol" (bell) maneuver. It is often more commonly referred to as " Pugachev's Cobra ," after Viktor Pugachev , who developed the technique. In this case the aircraft is flying up vertically until the pilot reduces the thrust to idle and the plane executes a tail-slide. Level flight is resumed by re-applying throttles. Some airshow pilots activate the on-board infra-trap launchers during tail-slide to produce a firework-like effect and further amuse the spectators.

Most Western fighters are incapable of this stunt, because their engines would flame-out during the tail-slide and their airframes are unstable under negative velocity airflow conditions. The experimental F-16 MATV and the production F/A-22 Raptor and pre-production F-35 Joint Strike Fighter are, however, capable of this move. Whether the "kolokol" is useful in actual air combat is a matter being hotly debated. Some say it could be used to fool air-borne doppler radars, thus denying lock-on to attackers.

Later, more advanced models of the MiG-29 have been marketed as the MiG-33 and MiG-35.