Hi All,

Kind of an old topic I'm sure, and not certain this is the right forum... but here goes...

I downloaded a Flightgear MiG-15bis and the manual that goes with it (figuring out how to start the a/c is near impossible without it). The author titled it "миг-15бис Серебряная стрела" [MiG-15bis Silver Arrow]. Not sure if that's what Russians really called it, but beats Faggot. Anyway, it got me to wondering, what other names beside the су-25 грач [SU-25 Rook] are out there.

What I've found so far is:

миг-29 стриж [MiG-29 Swift]
су-27 журавль [Su-27 Crane]
миг-27 утконос [MiG-27 Platypus/duckbill?]
миг-23 крокадил [MiG-23 Crocodile]
миг-21 балалаика [MiG-21 Balalaika ... that triangular guitar thing?!?] or улан [Lance?]

I was wondering if Russians really called these aircraft by these names. My grasp of Russian is very basic, so forgive me if I've butchered any of these. благодаря [Thanks].

Soviet/Russian aircraft rarely have "official" names so quite often their pilots and crews will give them nicknames. If the NATO reporting name is flattering, it will often be gleefully appropriated. Thus TU-95 crews happily call their mounts "Bear" and the MiG-29 can also be referred to as the "Fighting Fulcrum", riffing off the F-16 Fighting Fleabag^WFalcon name.

The MiG-15 was often called "солдатский самолет" (Soldier's Aircraft) even by Officialdom because of its ruggedness and simplicity. The MiG-15UTI was called "матушка" (Mother) or "бабушка" (Grandmother).

The Balalaika ('Chatterbox') is indeed a small (except for the Bass instrument, which is a monster) triangular guitar; mine, a Prima Balalaika named Olga, is tuned E,E,A. Other tunings exist.

Chatter box, interesting. Now that I think of it, I can see the delta wing of the -21 resembling balalaika.

Jessie... I'm starting to gather that Russians don't really officially name their a/c like westerners do. Cultural thing I guess. We used to call the T-34C Turbomentor the 'Tormentor'... probably less the a/c and more the instructors...lol. Babushka would have been too nice. ;-)