MiG E-7PD (STOL)

This is a quick, cobbled-together thing I thought of when I was looking at old Soviet V/STOL projects for my Yak-36. Just wanted to try it out.

The Soviet Union was always quite conservative about their fighter planes, but with the British working on the Kestrel/Harrier they had to do something to even the score. One project was the Yak-36/38, resulting in the “Forger”. But there were also a few less known attempts to modify existing aircraft by adding lift engines.

One such project was the MiG (Y)E-7PD. They basically added two Kolesov RD-36-35 lift engines to a MiG-21, although that sounds a lot simpler than it is; the MiG-21 airframe was seriously cut up, adding quite a bit of length (and, unfortunately, weight/bulk) to the donor plane. Squinting, you can still recognize something of a ’21 -but not really. I guess they “recycled” the tail, (most of) the wings and the cockpit -but that’s about it. Easier than designing a new plane from scratch, but definitely not as pleasing on the eyes.

This Frankenstein-ish MiG had its first flight in 1966, and the idea was subsequently shelved; the added STOL capabilities were nice-to-have, but couldn’t make up for the many drawbacks… everything else suffered; speed, range, payload, manoeuvrability, reliability and so on. In the end, only a single prototype was built; it had its moment of propaganda-glory at the 1967 Domodedovo Air Parade, and was then retired as an “educational aid” for the Airplane Design Department of the Moscow Aviation Institute.

So yes, I cheated…

This is certainly not an exact replica of the E-7PD. I found several blueprints and drawings, all of them slightly different; since the original blueprints don’t seem to be available, I simply made it “on the fly”. Looks somewhat credible at least, I guess. I also cheated on the landing gear; the testbed/prototype’s landing gear wasn’t even made retractable, since the plane was only used to test takeoff and landings. And last but not least, the original was never armed. Let’s just say this build is an impression of a possible operational version of the E-7PD.

Flying it…

Spoiler alert: this thing is NOT a Harrier. Not even close. The E-7PD wasn’t designed for vertical takeoff/landing, and it doesn’t hover -not really, at least. From the available info, it didn’t even seem to have any reaction jets (“puffers”) needed for proper attitude control when hovering.

Make no mistake; it actually does exactly what it was designed to do. The lift engines allow it to take off from an airstrip the size of a handkerchief, and to come in for landing at airspeeds which would make a standard ’21 drop from the sky like a brick -which, in combination with the drogue chute, makes sure it doesn’t need much of an airstrip for landing either.

Short takeoff: hit AG1 to enable use of the lift engines. Simply throttle up the main engine, pitch up, and VTOL up (=lift engine throttle) in that order; you will notice the plane takes off quite easily, even from “USS Tiny”. Pick up a bit of speed, then VTOL down slowly for transition to horizontal flight without assistance from the lift engines. You can also just hit AG1 again and simply shut down the lift engines if you don’t mind the plane making a bit of a “dip”. Throttling up the lift engines from standstill doesn’t work; you will only end up crashing the plane without leaving the ground -again, this is not a VTOL plane and the lift engines weren’t designed for vertical takeoff or hovering.

Short landing: throttle down to some 30%, hit AG1 to enable the lift engines, and VTOL up. Do it well in advance, and only if you’re already lined up with the runway. The plane will slow down quite a bit, but only gradually. It will enable you to land at speeds between 100-200 km/h, needing only a very short strip for braking.

A word of warning for landing and, if you want to try it, hovering/low-speed flight for other purposes; the plane has no attitude jets and it’s basically still a MiG-21… which means zero manoeuvrability at low speed.

In an nutshell: AG1 = STOL on/off (VTOL up to throttle), AG2 = airbrakes, AG3 = drogue chute. All the rest isn't very interesting.

Weaponry

Because of the additional weight of the lift engines, the payload of this plane would have been terrible. Your everyday run-of-the-mill MiG-21 was already somewhat challenged in that area, and this version would be even worse. Still, I gave it its standard double-barrel GSh-23 cannon, as well as a pair of Kh-23 “Grom” air-to-surface missiles, which were a development of the K-8 air-to-air missile.

Why ASM’S..? Well, if the E-7PD had entered service, it would have been of zero use as an interceptor/dogfighter… too slow. Realistically, it would have been a terrible attacker/multirole as well, since it lacked manoeuvrability and couldn’t really carry much more weapons than a knife and some brass knuckles…

This is only a silly plaything, but it may still be fun playing around with the lift engines under varying conditions…