I mean, we’re talking about over 100 years of combat aviation! Do I pick a WWI biplane? A WWII fighter? Something from the cold war? And a fighting plane can be everything from bombers, to interceptors, to AWACS and tanker aircraft- hell, I could easily name those last two as “underappreciated” since they’re not frontline combat aviation, yet play a vital role in both command and control and keeping aircraft in the fight!
But I’m gonna go with the most expected definition, fighters, and my preferred era of expertise, the cold war, and point to what is, in my eyes, a greatly under appreciated aircraft in contemporary eyes, the MiG-21.
“Fishbed” in NATO identification parlance, it was nicknamed “Balalaika” for its shape by Soviet pilots. Though originally designed as a dedicated interceptor in the late 1950’s, as the design evolved, it became a very effective dogfighter, being the bane of western planners over the skies of Vietnam, Angola, Egypt and Syria. We tend to look down upon Soviet aviation because of the incredible victories scored by western pilots, and indeed, victory rates tend to lean heavily western, but the Balalaika is notable, and deserves a place in history, for its incredible service life (they’re still flying with some countries today!) and its extremely good effect in the hands of a skilled pilot.
Plus it’s still one of my favorite study sims in DCS 😜
