COBI MiG-21MF Set 5918

COBI's MiG-21MF is a 1:48 model built from 381 blocks, 37.5 cm long. The control surfaces move, the wheels detach, brick engine flame is included, and R-3S missiles are fitted. The set contains markings for both the Polish and the Soviet versions, along with a display stand and two descriptive plates. All markings are printed; no stickers.

The most-produced supersonic aircraft ever built

Around 11,500 MiG-21s were made in the Soviet Union, plus licensed production in India and Czechoslovakia and an unlicensed Chinese copy that added several thousand more. No other supersonic aircraft of any kind comes close, and more than sixty air forces have flown it.

The reason is not that it was the best fighter of its generation. It is that it was simple. A MiG-21 had modest avionics, short range and carried little, and in exchange it was cheap to buy, easy to maintain with basic equipment, and could be flown competently by a pilot with limited training hours. For most of the world's air forces that was the deciding calculation, and it still is: a handful of countries fly them today.

The dragon on the nose

The black dragon holding a lightning bolt, with a chequerboard shield, is the emblem of the 10th Fighter Aviation Regiment at Łask in Poland — the unit that flew MiG-21MFs. Poland received 120 of this version between 1972 and 1975 and kept MiG-21s in service until 2003, which means Polish pilots flew the type for forty years, across the entire second half of the Cold War and thirteen years beyond it.

The MF was the substantially improved version: RP-22 radar, R-13-300 engine, R-60 missiles and more fuel.

In the COBI range

Set 5919 is the MiG-21 in East German and Czechoslovak markings at the same scale.

Specifications

Pieces: 381 · Scale: 1:48 · Polish and Soviet markings included · No stickers
Model dimensions: 37.5 × 15 × 9.5 cm (14.8 × 5.9 × 3.7 in), 14 cm high on the base