The sun sets the emblematic and controversial Soviet fighter in India

The first time he threw the Mig -21 to full force, rising 20 km above the ground twice the speed of sound, the young fighter pilot felt completely weightless, as if the heaven itself had released it.

“At Mach 2, you can feel the lightness in your stomach. The turns of the Mig -21 at this speed are huge – the banking can sharply carry you through many kilometers before you finish a full arc,” recalls an air marshal (retired) prints Singh bar. He joined the Air Force in 1960, moved to the Soviet aircraft in 1966 and flies it over the next 26 years.

“I loved to fly to the MiG-21 the way a bird loves the sky. In a battle, when the hawk comes for the bird, the smart bird goes away. This is what the MiG-21 was for me,” he told me.

After six decades of admiration -and later, Infamy -the most emblematic combat aircraft in India finally undertakes its last flight on Friday. In its peak, the Mig-21 was the backbone of the Indian Air Force (IAF), which constitutes two-thirds of its fighter fleet. He inspired the fierce loyalty among his pilots, but he also acquired the gloomy nickname “flying ark” after a series of deadly catastrophes in his twilight.

According to official dataBetween 1966 and 1980, India purchased 872 mig aircraft from different models.

Between 1971-72 and April 2012, 482 MIG crashes were recorded, claiming that 171 pilots, 39 civilians, eight officials of official services and one crew, “caused by both human errors and technical defects.” There has been no official data update since then.

“The Mig-21 has a career heritage. The fighter has been the basis of IAF for more than three decades and served in various roles in all India’s conflicts after the 1965 Pakistan war,” says Rahul Bhatiya, an analyst at Eurasia Group, a geopolitical risk company. “However, starting in the early 2000s, the fighter became better known for his high percentage of crash. Pilots look back to the MIG-21, but the plane remained in service far longer than it should,” he adds.

Designed by the tips and for the first time, introduced in 1963, the Mig-21 of the needle with the needle was a razor, a bubble quickly at an altitude and can climb at a fierce speed. In its peak, the aircraft flies with more than 50 air forces – from the Soviet Union, China and India to Egypt, Iraq and Vietnam – which makes it one of the most widely managed supersonic jets in history.

In India, where the State Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (Hal) began to build it a license in the mid-1960s, the Mig-21 became a cornerstone of IAF’s squadrons, valuable for its flexibility in multiple combat roles.

Inside the Mig -21 cockpit, the pilots says there was a little comfort – just one seat and the sky that presses everywhere.

The air conditioner – built for Russian winters – was hardly adequate in the burning of Indian summers. At low levels, pilots often turned into suffocation and pilots can lose a pound or more body weight during a sorting, remember an air marshal (retired) Vinod K Bhati.

“Most of the varieties I flew were about 30 minutes long, so the discomfort was tolerable. In the end, but everything was part of the game and still pleasant,” he told me.

Initially, a high altitude interceptor, built for speed and short-distance climbs to reach the enemy at short distances, the Mig-21 was quickly adapted by IAF for close combat and ground attacks.

Until the 1971 war, he became a great very role -fighter with Pakistan, though in 1965 he was still a new and mainly interceptor. The Mig-21 also shapes India’s defense connections with Russia and helped start its own aerospace industry.

“We adapted the aircraft to the Indian conditions in a remarkable way. Although there were design restrictions and was not built for a close fight, we pushed it beyond what Russian test pilots and manuals teach, mastering a close fight, flying in a truly impressive way,” says the Air Marshal Bar.

This adaptability came to determine his role in the 1971 war. The Mig-21, made a low-level night, hitting deep in Pakistani territory. The MiG-21 form hit the governor’s house in Dhaka, blowing rockets through the fans on its roof.

“Each aircraft wore two 500 kg bombs, and I flew three to four similar missions. Running from Amritsar, we were insidepakistan within 35 minutes, hit our targets at a depth of 250 km and rushed back through Rajastan-the short road,” says the Air Marchal.

Each fighter has its own strangeness, and the Mig -21 was no exception – fast descents and even high -speed stalls were part of its character, according to Air Marshal Bhatia. “Make sure it, respect it, and it was a beautiful plane to fly,” he says.

For the pilots who flew it, the tainted reputation of Mig -21 in the short years is undeserved. “The media was very unscrupulous about the plane,” one said.

Defense analyst Rahul Bedi says there is a lot of “incorrect nostalgia around the MiG-21 because she was responsible for so many deaths.” Many attribute frequent breakdowns to aging air frames and stretched maintenance cycles.

“The biggest challenge of the Mig -21 was his engine and high landing speed, which made the descents difficult on short runs and contributed to many accidents -often blamed for a pilot mistake. Attempts to retire fighters were repeatedly stopped by ineffective and bureaucratic inertia.”

The Air Force had to continue to extend the service life of the MIG-21 as the replacements were not available. The lightweight combat aircraft designed to replace it was conceived in 1981, for the first time it flies in 2001 and even now, decades later, only two squadrons work.

With its last two mig -21 pensioners, India will already have 29 fighters against sanctioned 42. And yet for the pilots who are naked, the Mig -21 has never been a machine -he was a partner in the sky.

Air Marshal Brah believes that Bond first, who took off his last appearance from the northern city of Chandigarh just two days before his retirement in July 2000.

“I was in the sky once more, like a bird that took off for the last time. When I landed and left the cockpit, I felt completely pleased.”

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