Arms races have existed as long as humans have been warring and the Cold War was no exception. In the late 1970’s the U.S. fielded the F16 Fighting Falcon and F/A18 Hornet air superiority fighters. The Soviet Union, meanwhile, fielded its own advanced fighter that was in many ways superior. With amazing agility, a high thrusttoweight ratio, and a helmetmounted sight with associated high offboresight weapon, the MiG29 Fulcrum was a credible opponent to the West.

On this episode, retired Indian Air Force Air Marshal Harish “Fulcrum 1” Masand phones in from Central India to describe the MiG29 and his key role inducting the Fulcrum into the IAF. He describes the variants, weapons, and how it was so easy to fly that he was able to put on aerial demonstrations with only 20 hours of experience in the Fulcrum.

Read more about Air Marshal Masand’s experience flying the MiG29 (https://hushkit.net/2019/08/12/flying..., fighting it against a Mirage 2000 (https://hushkit.net/2019/08/12/mig29..., and why he lovingly referred to the it as the “Super Hunter” (https://hushkit.net/2019/09/07/themi....

Guest cohost Darin “Wang” Chung from episode 26 joins us after the interview to describe his experiences training against Malaysian MiG29s during one of his Marine Corps F/A18D Hornet unit deployments. There is no listener question segment in this episode.

Bumper music by Jaime Lopez / announcements by Clint Bell. Episode artwork adapted from original photography by Rich Cooper. This episode was produced by our friends at the MuscleCar Place Podcast Network.