History of Soviet Cold War Military Aircraft

As shown in the video above the undercarriage of the MiG-23 was quite astounding... they needed large diameter low pressure tires for operating on soft grass airfields and they wanted a good wide ground base with the wheels as far apart as possible for good stability, but of course you always want your main gear to fit into the smallest compartment as possible.

The undercarriage of the Flogger series ticked every box and was ruggedly strong too... it looks like a rocket with its wings swept...



(Video I am referring to is on the previous page, post number 148 by Gomig-21).

Without looking it up, anyone know what this beauty is?

Il-102 it competed against the Su-25 but lost badly as it was too heavy and very slow.

Mir wrote:Il-102 it competed against the Su-25 but lost badly as it was too heavy and very slow.

How come I knew you were going to answer that not only correctly, but in record time also LOL!

If there's any design that's pure Soviet ingenuity, that's it. Basically looks like a brick shithouse lol with WWII gunner themes mixed in and just pure, Russian ruggedness.

And it's not like its replacement or winner lacked any of those attributes either, with the exception of the tail & rear-gunner. They clearly made the right choice.

The Il-102 was based on a previous unsuccessful design but it was really interesting and it even had three internal bomb bays under each wing.