KEY
Glass-fibre radome, moveable
fore-and-aft (three positions)
Radome track and rollers
Steel intake lip
Pitot head
Boundary-layer bleed
Boundary-layer exit ducts
Divided intake duct
Spill door
Suction relief door
Stone guard
Spin-scan fire-control radar
Forward avionics compartment
Inertial platform
Canopy hinged to starboard
Rear-view mirror
Radar display
Pilot's ejection seat
Ejection-seat footrests
19 Rudder pedals
20 Throttle
21 Cockpit armoured bulkheads
fore-and-aft
22 Electrical equipment and
environmental-system
equipment bay
23 Avionics equipment
Span 23 ft 5.5 in
Length overall 51 f t 8 .5 in
Height 14ft 9 in
W ing area 247sqft
Max T-O w e i g h t . 20,725lb
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
Communications equipment 40
Emergency auxiliary power unit, 41
battery-powered 42
Fuselage bag-type fuel tanks 43
Refuelling point 44
Fuel recuperator 45
Control-system signalling rods 46
Wing main box-section spars 47
Auxiliary spars 48
Wing integral fuel tanks 49
I08gal drop tank
Inward-retracting mainwheef 50
leg with pneumatic brakes 51
Leg actuator/lock strut 52
Wheel well, vertical stowage 53
Forward-retracting nosewheel 54
(steerable) 55
Bolted aft-fuselage joint, (engine 56
removal)
Tumansky RDI3-300 powerplant,
11,2401b thrust, 14,5501b with
afterburning
Engine oil tank
Accessory gearbox
Variable exhaust nozzle
External nozzle actuator duct
Hydraulic accumulator
Engine-bay venting air intake
All-moving tatlplane
Mass balance
Tailplane actuator
Tailplane control hydraulic
group
Rudder actuator
Aileron jack
Blown flaps
Flap jack and track
Flap blowing duct
Ventral fin
Airbrake, each side
57 Brake parachute stowage
58 Retractable landing/taxi lamp
59 IFF antenna
60 VHF antenna
61 UHF antenna
62 Tail warning radar
63 Twin-barrel 23mm GSh-23
cannon with 200 rounds
64 K-I3A Atoll air-to-air missile
65 UV-16-57 rocket pack (16 x 57mm
air-to-ground rockets)
' £)oc/roci
FLIGHT International, 25 September I97S
u
KEY
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Pitot head
Port for camera or laser seeker/
ranger
Doppler aerial
Upward-hingeing canopy,
redesigned and raised for
improved forward view
Rear-view mirror
Simplified, fixed-geometry inlet
Suction relief doors
Landing/taxi lights
Semi-recessed Gatling-type gun,
23mm(?)
Fuselage-mounted pylons (3)
I I
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
i y
20
21
22
Wing-glove pylon (2)
ECM (!) antenna
Wing pivot point
Leading-edge dog-tooth
Drooped leading edge
Two-section, full-span plain flaps
Wing-root sealing plates
Pressure-relief vent holes
Auxiliary power unit (APU)
inlet and exhaust ports
Ventral fin folded to starboard
when undercarriage extended
Four-segment airbrakes
Shortened, simplified exhaust
nozzle
"Flight" artist Mike Radrocke illustrates here the main points of interest
to have emerged in recently seen photographs of the MiG-23
Flogger, which show for the first time a quite considerably modified
ground-attack variant. The retraction sequence of the unique main
undercarriage is particularly noteworthy—the relatively substantial unit
is designed to fit neatly into a limited volume of the fuselage while at the
same time leaving room for the carriage of pylon-mounted stores beneath
the fuselage and the wing-root glove
The ground-attack MiG-23 is now operational in East Germany. The
photograph above shows one of these aircraft and is reproduced from our
West German contemporary "Flug Revue". The side-view drawings
(right) show the three principal operational variants of the MiG-23
Flogger identified so far. At the topiis the basic intercepter, with nose
radar, variable-geometry inlet and variable jetpipe. In the middle is the
two-seat trainer based extensively on the intercepter and carrying air-
to-air missile pylons as well as the twin-barrelled 23mm gun. At the
bottom is the ground-attack variant with redesigned nose section, no
radar, fixed inlet, different pylons, a Gatling-type gun and fixed
jetpipe. Whether the revised inlet and exhaust are the result of a new
engine being installed is not known