This is the second book in this series I have read and the second by this author. I was very impressed by his Starfighter book and that continues to this edition.

While not their most recent in the series, this one, published in 2009, is now my new favorite book on the MiG-21. The 'Fishbed' was designed, like the F-104, to be what is known as a point defense interceptor. It was designed without a lot of additional stuff and with minimal fuel capacity to make it as light as possible. The idea was to get off the ground as quickly as possible, get up to the altitude of invading bombers, and shoot them down.

Initially armed with only cannon, when the missile became the 'in' thing to have, one of the two guns was deleted to save weight given to the missiles and the required guidance avionics. Eventually, the MiG-21 evolved through several major upgrades into an excellent fighter and fighter bomber. Though the Russian built MiG-21 is no longer being built, many nations are still flying this aircraft after having airframe and avionics updates to keep them as viable weapons. Thanks to the fall of the Soviet Union, many former Warsaw Pac nations have been able to find ready homes for their now redundant airframes.

The Chinese versions look very much like the initial Russian MiG-21s, yet have all the latest in terms of equipment and are still being built. Thanks to their most favorable price, a smaller nation can afford a squadron of these, called F-7s or J-7s, for the price of only one or two comparable Western fighters like the F-16.

In line with the rest of the series, there is a historical introduction to the book that also covers all of the different variants of the aircraft. This includes a couple of pages of line drawings showing the differences in the airframe from one version to another. This initial 18 pages also includes a bevy of full color photos of the MiG-21 of different versions in service with various nations. The rest of the 96 page book is chock full of full color profiles. These are arranged by nation and includes multiple profiles of the aircraft flown by each nation. And there are a lot of them starting with Afghanistan and ending with Zimbabwe. Only a couple of entries have no profiles as there are no known photos of these aircraft.

In all, it is a real delight for modelers who are seeking to build a kit in a scheme that is a bit different from what is the norm. Those who just like the MiG-21 will also find this to be a great references. It is a book that I can heartily recommend to you.

October 2012

Review book courtesy of  Casemate Publishing, where you can order your copy of this and many other superb books.

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