MiG-29 Fulcrum

05/06/2026

Ukraine's Mirage 2000s have switched roles. New footage shows the French-built delta wings hugging the tree line before pulling up to lob AASM Hammer glide bombs at Russian positions — air defence jets turned strike fighters.

Full story: https://migflug.com/jetflights/ukrainian-mirage-2000-air-to-ground-strike-missions-hammer/

New footage shows a Ukrainian Mirage 2000-5F toss-bombing over the eastern front - the French jets have expanded into air-to-ground strikes with AASM Hammers.

05/06/2026

Two of Germany's biggest rap stars in a navy-blue L-39 over the Alps — and half the internet thought it was AI. It wasn't. Farid Bang and Kollegah really flew with us in Italy's Aosta Valley, and the story behind the footage is even better than the music video. Full story: https://migflug.com/jetflights/farid-bang-kollegah-requiem-l-39-aosta/

The jet scenes in Farid Bang & Kollegah's Requiem video weren't AI - the German rappers really flew a MiGFlug L-39 over the Alps in Aosta.

05/06/2026

Russia's two-seat Su-57D isn't a trainer. The second cockpit is a drone commander's station, built to control Okhotnik stealth drones in combat. TASS confirmed it on 25 May, and it changes how we should read Russia's fifth-gen program.

Full story: https://migflug.com/jetflights/su-57d-twin-seat-russia-drone-commander-tass/

TASS confirms the new twin-seat Su-57D is not a trainer — it's an airborne command post built to direct S-70 Okhotnik drones. What it means for India, China and the future of stealth combat.

03/06/2026

Mach 3. Titanium. 600 patents. And just 10 flights. And... probably one of the funnier-looking aircraft. I can't help but think it looks like a cartoon figure. What do you think?

In 1972, the Soviets rolled out their answer to the American XB-70 Valkyrie — a 122-tonne monster of titanium and high-temperature steel that could theoretically outrun any interceptor on Earth. The Sukhoi T-4 "Sotka" had a drooping Concorde-style nose, four afterburning turbojets, and ambitions to hit 3,200 km/h.

It flew beautifully. It generated nearly 600 inventions. And then it was killed — not by engineering failure, but by Andrei Tupolev, who'd lost the original contract to Sukhoi and never forgave it. Ten flights, 10 hours 20 minutes total, and the program was scrapped.

The sole survivor sits in the open air at Monino near Moscow to this day — a monument to one of the Cold War's great "what ifs." By the way, the Monino museum is highly recommended. Maybe once the War is over?

The Sukhoi T-4 'Sotka' was the Soviet Union's titanium-built Mach 3 bomber. First flight 1972, cancelled 1974 after Tupolev lobbied for the Tu-160. The story of 600 patents and 10 flights.

29/05/2026

Carrier-based U-2!? Say whaaaaaaaaaat?

In 1963 the CIA modified a U-2 spy plane to fly off aircraft carriers. The first carrier landing nearly destroyed the aircraft. The next one stole a French nuclear test.

28/05/2026

Caught on camera: a Chinese Y-20 tanker refueled two J-16 fighters mid-flight — inside Taiwan's air defence identification zone.

This isn't just a training run. It's Beijing showing off a capability that changes how long their fighters can hunt over the Strait.

Full story: https://migflug.com/jetflights/china-y-20-tanker-j-16-refuel-taiwan-adiz-may-2026/

The infrared image is grainy. Two delta-winged shapes flank a much larger silhouette, and a thin line connects them — a refueling hose, suspended somewhere over the East China Sea. It is May 25, 2026, and a Republic of China Air Force F-16 has just locked its Sniper targeting pod onto something Ta...

28/05/2026

June 3, 1973. 250,000 spectators at the Paris Air Show watch the most dramatic disaster in air show history. The Tupolev Tu-144 — the Soviet Union's answer to the Concorde — disintegrates in the sky over Le Bourget. The Cold War's supersonic race ended in burning wreckage that day.

https://migflug.com/jetflights/the-tu-144-at-le-bourget-when-the-soviet-concorde-broke-apart-over-paris/

On June 3, 1973, a Tupolev Tu-144 disintegrated over Paris during the Le Bourget air show, killing 14 people and ending the Soviet supersonic dream.

27/05/2026

35 years ago today, the Luftwaffe flew its last F-104 Starfighter out of Manching — ending 31 years of flying the jet Germany called the "Witwenmacher."

292 German Starfighters crashed. 115 pilots died. And still, the survivors say it was the finest stick-and-rudder jet they ever flew.

https://migflug.com/jetflights/luftwaffe-f-104-starfighter-last-flight-35-years-1991-manching/

On 22 May 1991, the German Luftwaffe flew its last F-104 Starfighter — closing 31 years and 292 lost airframes of the "Widow Maker" era.

20/05/2026

🤣🤣🤣
Every pilot has a favourite ATC moment. Most of them involve Kennedy Steve. 🎙️
For two decades, the man running Ground at JFK turned taxi instructions into stand-up comedy. "Follow the whale on Alpha" is still quoted in crew rooms worldwide. He retired in 2017, and the legend only grew.

He's not alone. There's Boston John at Logan. The mythical Speedbird 206 at Frankfurt — "Yes, twice. In 1944. But it was dark." The Lufthansa captain told to check the oven for his missing passenger. Aviation runs on these stories whether they happened or not.

He's not alone. There's Boston John at Logan. The mythical Speedbird 206 at Frankfurt — "Yes, twice. In 1944. But it was dark." The Lufthansa captain was told to check the oven for his missing passenger. Aviation runs on these stories, whether they happened or not.

And then last week, two regional-jet crews at Reagan National reminded everyone the genre is alive and well — by meowing and barking at each other on the emergency frequency until a controller delivered the line of the year: "This is why you still fly an RJ." 🐱

30 million views and one FAA investigation later, we figured it was time to round up the funniest radio moments in aviation history — the verified, the legendary, and the gloriously apocryphal.

Pilots making cat and dog sounds on the DCA frequency triggered an FAA probe. The story behind aviation's most ridiculous ATC moments — old and new.

18/05/2026

Caught on camera: two U.S. Navy EA-18G Growlers collide mid-air over an Idaho airshow — and all four crew eject seconds before the wreckage hits the ground.

Sunday 17 May 2026. Gunfighter Skies Air Show. Mountain Home AFB.
The two jets locked together in a formation pass, pitched up, stalled — and the canopies blew off in sequence: Four ejections. Four parachutes. Zero fatalities.

The last U.S. demo-team crash this catastrophic was the Thunderbirds' 1982 "Diamond Crash" — and that one killed all four pilots. Sunday's outcome is, by any honest measure, a miracle of training and engineering.

Full story with video on the MiGFlug blog 👉 migflug.com/jetflights