Hobby Master HA0108 | MIG-21 SPS " The White Shark", 22+02, JG-1, Drewitz Air Base, Germany, 1990

General Background:

The Mig-21 was originally built by the Mikoyan and Gurevich Design Bureau in the Soviet Union with a NATO nickname Fishbed. No other jet has had as many planes produced as the Mig-21. Depending on the reference source 8,000 - 13,000 planes of all versions were made in the Soviet Union, under license to allied countries and China without license. A small, fast, agile, dependable and most importantly simple making it easy to turn out great numbers of the plane.

The Aircraft:

In 1990 when the Soviet Union ceased to exist the united German Air Force received 251 former East German MiG-21s. One variant of the MiG-21 were 24 MiG-21SPS that like all the others received new serial numbers, crosses and German flags on the tail. These aircraft only flew a few sorties before they were sent Drewitz and stored until 1992-1993 when most were scrapped. MiG-21SPS 22+02 “Der Weisser Hai” “the white shark” first flew in 1968 as former East German LSK #441 and in 1992 was scrapped.

MiG-21SPS was an export variant of the MiG-21PFM
MiG-21PFM was part of the Soviet Second Generation of Interceptors 1961 - 1966
MiG-21PFM (1964; Izdeliye 94; NATO – Fishbed F
Export version with a different IFF system, not capable of carrying S-24 rockets or ZB-62 Napalm
Bombs
PFM meaning P – Perekhvatchik (Interceptor) F – Forsirovannyy (Uprated) M – Modernizirovanyy (Modernized)

Mig-21MF Specs:
Power Plant:
One 41.55kN (9,340lb st) or 64.73kN (14,550lb st) with afterburner Tumansky R-13-300 turbojet
Dimensions
Wingspan: 7.15m (23ft 5½in)
Length: 15.76m (51ft 8½in) - including Pitot boom
Max T-O weight: 9,400kg (20,725lb)
Performance
Max speed: Mach 2.1 (2,230km/h - 1,385mph) above 11,000m (36,000ft)
Mach 1.06 (1,300km/h - 807mph) at low level
Range: 1,100km (683 miles) - internal fuel only 1,800km (1,118 miles) - with three external drop tanks, one under fuselage, one under each wing
Armament
One 23mm twin-barrel GSh-23 cannon with 200 rounds in belly pack
Various air-to-air and air-to-ground stores carried on four under wing pylons including: K-13A "Atoll" or "Advanced Atoll" a-a missiles, UV-16-57 rocket packs, S-24 a-s rockets, 250kg and 500kg bombs 1 X centre line drop tank.