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The MiG-31 displays its varied air-to-air weaponry and its very large Foxbat type intakes. The very large intakes and two 34,000lb thrust class engines enable the MiG-31 to supercruise at Mach 2.35 over ranges of 450nm, making it a formidable interceptor.
Paris 91-Saved By The Soviets, Again
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Paris 89, Farnborough 90 and this year’s Paris Salon all have one thing in common – they were all saved from being publicity disasters by the presence of the Russians.
Indeed the flying display at Le Bourget this year, sans the Soviets, was something more closely resembling a mid eighties Schofields. There was once a time when manufacturers clambered over each other to present their aircraft in the major flying displays but nowadays the onset of recession, a plethora of competing international air shows and vastly reduced publicity budgets have all taken their toll to the point where most manufacturers now prefer to base their pride and joy/s in the static park.
Ironically, this year’s show was the biggest ever, with 1,721 exhibitors from 38 nations and 190 aircraft. Stars of the Salon were the US participants from Desert Storm, their European equivalents and the Soviet’s MiG-31, Tu-204 and Albatross amphibian. However, the international economic recession made one remember back to the major shows of the early eighties when little real news was forthcoming from any quarter and the talk was of how to survive the downturn rather than how to cope with the latest mega order, a term that definitely hasn’t been heard for some time now. Whilst the star of the static park may have been the Lockheed USAF F-117A stealth fighter {which of course is really a bomber) the Soviets again captured most attention by actually flying their hulking MiG-31 Foxhound long range interceptor.
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