KerbalX

Details

• Type: SPH
• Class: aircraft
• Part Count: 574
• Pure Stock
• KSP: 1.10.0

The Little Swing Wing

The MiG-23 - NATO reporting name Flogger was a variable-geometry fighter aircraft designed in the same period as the F-111 Aardvark, the F-14 Tomcat, and the Panavia Tornado. Unlike the western twinjet variable geometry designs, the MiG-23 was powered only by a single large engine, making it far lighter and smaller, while still maintaining a Mach 2 dash speed.

A high wing loading resulting in all-around poor dogfighting characteristics, but its pilots excelled in minimizing this limitation through tactical innovation - they would intercept targets as supersonic speeds, taking advantage of their look-down shoot-down radar (the first of its kind in a Soviet design) and beyond-visual-range combat abilities, attacking their targets from relative safety, a tactic once referred to tounge-in-cheek as zero turn fighting. Thanks to this and other tactics, well-trained pilots were formidable threats to even modern, fourth-generation fighters (such as the F-14 and F-16.)

Unfortunately for historical perceptions of the Flogger, much of its combat history belongs to export models flown by secondary powers, most notably in Libya and Iraq, where they were opposed by F-14s flown by highly trained American and Iranian pilots, respectively.

Even today, Floggers are still flown in small numbers by the Syrian air force, as well as in various civilian hands throughout the world.

Flying the Replica

AG 1 - toggle the wings
RCS - Afterburner
AG 2 - toggle flaps
GEAR - custom landing gear + ventral fin toggle
AG 3 - lock gear (precaution, not necessary typically)
AG 9 - Speed Brakes (visual only)
ABORT - deploy drogue chute
AG 10 - cut drogue chute

Happy Flying!