
The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 (Russian: Микоян и Гуревич МиГ-21) (NATO reporting name "Fishbed"), and popularly nicknamed "balalaika", from the aircraft's planform-view resemblance to the famous Russian stringed musical instrument or ołówek (English: pencil) by Polish pilots due shape of its fuselage, is a supersonic jet fighter aircraft, designed and built by the Mikoyan-Gurevich Design Bureau in the Soviet Union. Some 50 countries over four continents have flown the MiG-21, and it still serves many nations a half-century after its maiden flight. The plane has the distinction of holding a number of aviation records, including 1) most produced supersonic jet aircraft in aviation history 2) most produced combat aircraft since World War II and 3) longest production run of a combat aircraft. Its Mach 2 capability exceeds the top speed of many later modern fighter types. It has been estimated that more than 10000 MiG-21s were built.
mig-21
Fishbed
Mikoyan-Gurevich
balalaika
Soviet
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Russian
aviation
fighter
aircraft
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