NEW DELHI: A month before the retirement of MiG-21s, which were the first supersonic fighters to be inducted by India from Russia in 1963 but plagued by an alarmingly high crash rate in later years, the IAF chief and other officers flew sorties in the single-engine jet as a final farewell to the old workhorse.“It’s an amazing aircraft to fly, very agile and manoeuvrable…It will be missed by all who flew it,” Air Chief Marshal A P Singh said after the MiG-21 sorties at Nal airbase. “But everything has a time and place. The technology is outdated and difficult to maintain now.”It’s time to move on to newer platforms: Singh“MiG-21 technology is outdated. It’s time to move on to newer platforms like Tejas, Rafales and Sukhoi-30s,” Air Chief Marshal A P Singh said.One of the MiG-21 sorties ACM Singh flew was in a formation led by Squadron Leader Priya Sharma, who is among the over 20 women fighter pilots in the IAF who are also flying Sukhoi-30MKIs and Rafales. The formal ceremonial farewell for the MiG-21s, after over six decades in service that saw the delta-wing fighters take part in all major conflicts but were highly unforgiving to pilot errors, will take place at Chandigarh on Sept 26. The MiG-21s were among the most massproduced supersonic fighter jets in history, with over 11,000 aircraft operated by more than 60 countries.
