During the Soviet era, many miracles in the history of human industry emerged, and the MiG-31 fighter was one of them. This fighter was developed on the basis of the MiG-25 fighter, which officially entered service in 1983 and has been in service for nearly four decades.
It is worth mentioning that this type of fighter holds three records in the field of global fighter aircraft, and in the foreseeable future, no other fighter has the potential to break the record set four decades ago. First of all, the MiG-31 is still the fastest flying fighter in the world.
Under the most ideal conditions, such as flight altitude and air flow conditions, the MiG-31 can fly at speeds close to Mach 3, and can reach 2 under normal conditionsHigh speed of around Mach 8. This speed is far beyond the speed of ordinary fighter jets, and even the flight speed of many air-to-air missiles is beyond the reach of dust.
For example, the most advanced fighter in service in the US military, the F-22, has a maximum speed of only 2Mach 25, far inferior to the MiG-31. In addition, the maximum flight speed of the AIM-9 Sidewinder missile in service with the US military is only 2Mach 5, and the MiG-31 can easily shake off the air-to-air missile attack of the US military and go far away.
It is precisely because of the excellent high-speed performance of the MiG-31 that the Russian military often uses this fighter to escort the world's fastest bomber, the Tu-160 White Swan bomber, in service.
For example, according to available information, in July 2022, the Russian military dispatched two Tu-160s to fly continuously over the Barents Sea for seven hours, and the escort of these two bombers was completed by the MiG-31, which belongs to the Russian Northern Fleet. Secondly, the MiG-31 is also the highest flying fighter in service in the world.
According to the data, the practical ceiling altitude of the MiG-31 aircraft can reach 240,000 meters, far more than the average fighter 1About 80,000 meters. Because of its high flight altitude, almost close to the near-earth surface, NATO dubbed the MiG-31 a "stratospheric monster".
The USSR even developed a MiG-31D fighter specifically for striking satellites based on the MiG-31 for near-earth anti-satellite operations. It can be said that the MiG-31 can almost be called a "space fighter", which is really breathtaking. In comparison, the U.S. military's most advanced F-22 in service has a practical ceiling of only 19,812 meters, less than 20,000 meters.
The MiG-31 is also the largest active fighter in the world, with a length of 2269 meters, wingspan 1346 meters, 615 meters. To illustrate the aircraft's enormous size, we found a photo of the Boeing-737 in the same frame.
The Boeing-737, which can carry more than 100 passengers, is a large airliner with a length of 31 meters, a wingspan of 28 meters, and a height of 11 meters, which also looks only slightly larger than the MiG-31. For almost 40 years since its inception, the MiG-31 has been one of the main fighters of the Russian Aerospace Forces, and after improvement, it has been revitalized again.
Russia is currently restarting research on the "anti-satellite version" of the MiG-31D, and using the MiG-31 as the airborne platform for the latest Dagger hypersonic missile developed by the Russian army. It is expected that the latest improved version of the MiG-31, the MiG-31M, will enter service with a total of more than 130 aircraft, and the first batch has been officially delivered to the Russian army.
Introduced 40 years ago, this aircraft can still be called "the sword is ageless" and will remain alive for a long time to come. This is a photo of the MiG-31 and the Su-27, which are also in the same frame as the An-124. These aircraft will continue to spread their wings in the skies to provide us with protection and service.