Originally posted by Rino
No offense, but I got a chance to get a close look at an ex-Indian
Mig-21 and it made the F-4 look like the Concorde! What amazed me
was that Tumanski was able to make an engine to get that thing to do
Mach 2
This is true of most Russian aircraft, even the newer ones. Not to slam their designers, because their engineering is generally top notch, it's just that their manufacturing capabilities tend to lag behind the west. They usually have lower quality material and components to work with.
And as far as their engines go, historically the consensus was that they weren't terribly reliable. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if some of them have MTBF's comparable to a top-fuel dragster.
The massive Tumanski's back in the old Mig-25 come to mind. Look at them wrong, and those things would self-destruct.