Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21

MiG-21
Croatian MiG-21BIS-D in flight
Role	Fighter and interceptor aircraft Type of aircraft
National origin	Soviet Union
Design group	Mikoyan-Gurevich
First flight	16 June 1955 (Ye-4)[citation needed]
Introduction	1959 (MiG-21F)
Status	In service
Primary users	Soviet Air Forces (historical) Indian Air Force
Produced	1959–1985
Number built	11,496[1] (10,645 produced in the USSR, 840 in India, 194 in Czechoslovakia)
Variants	Chengdu J-7

The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 (Russian: Микоян и Гуревич МиГ-21; NATO reporting name: Fishbed) is a supersonic jet fighter and interceptor aircraft, designed by the Mikoyan-Gurevich Design Bureau in the Soviet Union. Its nicknames include: "balalaika", because its planform resembles the stringed musical instrument of the same name; "Ołówek", Polish for "pencil", due to the shape of its fuselage,^[2] and "Én Bạc", meaning "silver swallow", in Vietnamese.

Approximately 60 countries across four continents have flown the MiG-21, and it still serves many nations seven decades after its maiden flight. It set aviation records, becoming the most-produced supersonic jet aircraft in aviation history, the most-produced combat aircraft since the Korean War and, previously, the longest production run of any combat aircraft.