Mikoyan MiG-27

what is it?

The Mikoyan MiG-27 (Russian: Микоян МиГ-27; NATO reporting name: Flogger-D/J) is a variable-sweep ground-attack aircraft, originally built by the Mikoyan-Gurevich design bureau in the Soviet Union and later licence-produced in India by Hindustan Aeronautics as the Bahadur ("Valiant"). It is based on the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-23 fighter aircraft, but optimised for air-to-ground attack. Unlike the MiG-23, the MiG-27 did not have widespread use outside the Soviet Union, as most countries opted for the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-23BN and Sukhoi Su-22 instead.

🔎How to recognise it: 1 jet engine · 14 m wingspan

base stats

• speed 1,885 km/htop speed
• size 20.7 tmax take-off weight
• built 1,075made in total

Bars compare against all aircraft: 3,500 km/h, 20,000 km, 850 seats; size and number built on a log scale up to 640 t (An-225) and 45,000 built (Cessna 172).

fun facts

• 🎂First flew 56 years ago, in 1970.
• 🏎️Top speed is 14.5× a car on the Dutch motorway (130 km/h).
• 💥Faster than sound: up to Mach 1.5 (sea-level speed of sound ≈ 1,235 km/h).
• 🚗Wingspan of 14 m: about 3 cars parked nose to tail.
• 🐘Fully loaded it can weigh as much as 3 African elephants (~6 t each).
• 🏔️Can fly 1.6× higher than Mount Everest (8,849 m).

jet: Gas turbine pushing air out the back (turbofan or turbojet): fast and high-flying.

spec sheet

first flight

1970-08-20

introduced

1975

retired

1993

status

retired

number built

1,075

role

ground-attack aircraft

origin

🇷🇺 Soviet Union

makers

Russian Aircraft Corporation MiG

engines

1× Tumansky R-29-B-300 / Tumansky R-29

crew

1

length

17.1 m

wingspan

14 m

height

5 m

max take-off weight

20.7 t

top speed

1,885 km/h

range

—

ceiling

14,000 m

Specs are for the version in the Wikipedia article's specification section. Blank means the sources don't say.