Customer Reviews

Mikoyan MiG-21 (Famous Russian Aircraft)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

First Impression
It has been a while since any serious new publication on the MiG-21 Fishbed appeared in the market and it seems everything on this Soviet aircraft has been said and done. This is true until I received a copy of this new book published by Midland under the "Famous Russian Aircraft" label. It covers everything (actually more) we already knew about MiG-21 but in greater details and much better illustrations. I lost count of the number of pictures (over 1,000), line drawings and colour profiles in the book because they are of very high quality and really attracted my attention during my read. This book is very heavy (7 lb.), hardcover with dust-jacket, 720 pages (2 inches thick). Ask for extra protection if you mail order this book to avoid damages to such a great collectible item.

The Book
A brief description of the 12 parts of this book:-
(1) The Origin of the Family - Design and concept (49 pages)
(2) Off to a Fine Start - Prototypes and testing (49 pages)
(3) The Interceptors - Production and deployment (34 pages)
(4) Mass Production - MiG-21 in Service (76 pages)
(5) The Trainers - MiG-21 Trainer version (20 pages)
(6) Experiments and Projects - (36 pages)
(7) Beyond the Great Wall - (92 pages)
(8) In Soviet Air Force Service - (18 pages)
(9) MiG-21 at War (44 pages)
(10) Face to Face with the Adversary (8 pages)
(11) The MiG-21 in Detail - Close-up photos and line drawings (42 pages)
(12) MiG-21 Operators - Fishbed in foreign services (247 pages)

If you are a Soviet/Russian military aircraft enthusiast, clear up some space on your bookshelf for this book. Any one who is interested in learning more about MiG-21, don't look elsewhere and pick up one of this. THIS IS THE BEST MONEY CAN BUY.

Utterly encyclopedic! This book covers just about everything you could ever want to know about the genesis, development, and operational history of Mikoyan's "supersonic sports plane". About the only thing I would want to see added (as a long time scale modeler) would be topside views for the camouflage profiles. Just about all users of the plane (a LONG list) have color side views and fleet serial numbers. Just outstanding and definitely worth the money.

This particulat hardback textbook is excellent. It will take me months to comprehend all the details of this little fighter plane. The purchase was well worth it as is most of the books I've purchased at Amazon on fighter aircraft systems and history.
Geo McCullough

4th book in the "Famous Russian Aircraft" series the MiG-21 book continues the series fine tradition of providing every bit of info you need to know about the aircraft in question. As always with these books you do have to keep an eye out as the Russian-English translation team mis-translate a phrase or two in the book. But in a 720 page book having 9 translation issues that I found is not a big deal. Unlike the Earlier book on the MiG-29 there is less conflicting data in this book, but then again the aircraft is no longer a front line fighter in Russian service so a more concrete information base exists. I will continue to buy books in this series as this series has no peers in the world today!



I am amending all my FRA reviews with the below datasheet:
I weight the last three far heavier than the first three for my overall score

Translation errors (lower score for more errors) 4.5
On topic Data (Better is higher) 4.5
Pertinent comparisons to similar aircraft 4.0
Data errors from table to text (Lower for more errors) 4.0
Aircraft Sub-Variant data breakdown 5.0
Specific data on Weapons carried 3.0

I always like Yefim Gordon's books. The Russian parts are good as always. However when I read the (7) Beyond the Great Wall - I was shocked. A picture on page 320 was actually made by my friend peter_pan03 for fun. He designed the schemes. It's not really. I don't know why in this serious book, Yefim Gordon went his way to create color plates for these fake schemes and spent more then one page to show that. My friend is not noticed by Yefim Gordon for using his design and picture. I'm not sure if China Olympic Organization was authorized Yefim Gordon's action either.