AP 118 · No. 10 Section II · Aircraft Plate 172 / 183

Plate 172 of 183 · Cold War · Swing-wing interceptor

Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-23ML

MiG-23ML, painted as c/n 024003607, Newark Air Museum’s Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-23ML ‘Flogger-G’, a Soviet-built fighter that came to Newark in 2002, was shown for years in Polish markings as ‘458’, went off site in 2019 for a film and was repainted in Soviet markings in 2024: the Warsaw Pact’s swing-wing interceptor, 46 ft in span with the wings fully forward, with one Tumansky R-35 afterburning turbojet fed by slab-sided intakes beside the cockpit, a variable-sweep shoulder wing, a long dorsal fillet running into a tall swept fin, an all-moving tailplane with anhedral and a ventral fin that folds to starboard with the undercarriage down, shown standing level on its tricycle undercarriage with the wings at 16 degrees, the canopy raised and a GSh-23L gun pack under the belly: light grey with wavy blue-grey bands that differ from side to side, a red ‘44’ edged in white on the nose, red stars on the fin and upper wings, a dark fin-tip cap, red intake covers stencilled ‘44’ and green wheel hubs, as displayed (the probe is the airframe’s short stub; no photograph shows the upper surfaces squarely, so the bands there are continued from the sides, and the port wing star is assumed to match the starboard one).

3D model

Turn it over

A procedural model built in Blender from published dimensions, drawings and photographs, painted as c/n 024003607, Newark Air Museum’s Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-23ML ‘Flogger-G’, a Soviet-built fighter that came to Newark in 2002, was shown for years in Polish markings as ‘458’, went off site in 2019 for a film and was repainted in Soviet markings in 2024: the Warsaw Pact’s swing-wing interceptor, 46 ft in span with the wings fully forward, with one Tumansky R-35 afterburning turbojet fed by slab-sided intakes beside the cockpit, a variable-sweep shoulder wing, a long dorsal fillet running into a tall swept fin, an all-moving tailplane with anhedral and a ventral fin that folds to starboard with the undercarriage down, shown standing level on its tricycle undercarriage with the wings at 16 degrees, the canopy raised and a GSh-23L gun pack under the belly: light grey with wavy blue-grey bands that differ from side to side, a red ‘44’ edged in white on the nose, red stars on the fin and upper wings, a dark fin-tip cap, red intake covers stencilled ‘44’ and green wheel hubs, as displayed (the probe is the airframe’s short stub; no photograph shows the upper surfaces squarely, so the bands there are continued from the sides, and the port wing star is assumed to match the starboard one). Drag to orbit, scroll or pinch to zoom · download .glb (772 KB)

Data plate

Specification

First flight, number built and top speed are for the whole family (); engine, crew and dimensions are for the MiG-23ML modelled here.

History

The MiG-23ML

By the early 1960s the Soviet air force wanted a successor to the MiG-21 with more range and more weapons that could still operate from short, rough airfields. The Mikoyan-Gurevich bureau tried two answers: a tailed delta with extra lift engines in the fuselage, and a wing whose sweep could be changed in flight, spread wide for take-off, landing and cruising and folded back for speed. The swing wing won. The prototype, 23-11/1, first flew on 10 June 1967 with Alexander Fedotov at the controls and was shown in public at the Domodedovo air display a month later. The pilot chose one of three sweep settings, 16, 45 or 72 degrees, with a lever in the cockpit.

The first production MiG-23S and MiG-23M brought a radar and medium-range missiles, and the export MiG-23MF followed, but the early aircraft were heavy and restricted in manoeuvre. The MiG-23ML, NATO’s “Flogger-G”, flew in 1976 and was a thorough rework: a lighter, stronger airframe, the more powerful R-35-300 engine, less fuel in the rear fuselage, a lighter Sapfir-23ML radar and higher g limits. It became the main Soviet fighter version of the late 1970s, and the MLD added further aerodynamic changes. The MiG-27 was a separate ground-attack branch of the family, with a new sloping nose for a better view downward, fixed intakes and a simpler exhaust.

About 5,000 MiG-23s were built, and with the MiG-27 the family passed 6,000. They served with the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact and with some thirty other air forces, and fought over Lebanon, in the war between Iran and Iraq, in Angola, Afghanistan and Syria. Russia retired its last in the 1990s, but a few remain in service elsewhere. The only UK museum in the gazetteer to hold the family is Newark Air Museum, which has both a MiG-23ML and a MiG-27K.

This airframe

MiG-23ML “44”

024003607The airframe modelled

Construction number 024003607 is a MiG-23ML that came to Newark Air Museum at Winthorpe in 2002. It was shown at first as a Soviet aircraft numbered “07”, and from 2008 in Polish markings as “458”. In 2019 it left the site for a time to appear in the film Black Widow, and in 2024 it was repainted in Soviet markings. The model shows it as photographed in March 2025: light grey with wavy blue-grey bands that are laid out differently on the two sides, a red “44” edged in white on both sides of the nose with a small red badge ahead of it, red stars on the fin and upper wings, a dark fin-tip cap, red covers in the intakes and on the intake sides stencilled “44”, and green wheel hubs. It stands with the wings fully forward at 16 degrees, the canopy raised, the ventral fin folded and a GSh-23L gun pack under the belly, and its nose probe is a short stub. No photograph shows the upper surfaces squarely, so the bands there are continued from the sides, and the port wing star is assumed to match the starboard one.

See it at Newark Air Museum

Where to see one

In the gazetteer

The gazetteer records the MiG-23ML in one UK collection. The airframe modelled here is marked.

Every airframe and serial All 183 plates

Profiles and models are procedural interpretations built in Blender from published dimensions, three-view drawings and photographs of each airframe. Treat the museum aircraft as the reference.