Threat Axis

The first new exhibit – was a Mig-29 Fulcrum on the fence line (along Valencia Road).

Even though the Mig is in Russian Air Force markings, one of the other photographers on the trip seemed to think that this is one of the former Moldovan Mig-29′s that the US bought back in 1997 (because this version of the Mig-29 – ‘S’ had a built in jammer on the spine, and was capable of being equipped with nuclear stand-off weapons).

[Wikipedia - does not list this Fulcrum on its list of Mig's on display in the United States, so I don't know who you could check with to confirm the Moldovan connection].

If you scroll through the slide show above – two of the pictures give a clue that this plane did at least take a stop in the custody of the US Air Force in Florida.  So if I had to guess – I would say that this was the Mig-29 that had been on display at MacDill AFB (because the canopy on the plane looked like a replacement – and Wiki listed the Fulcrum on display at MacDill as missing its canopy).

[BTW - if anyone happens to go by MacDill and finds that the Fulcrum is no longer there - please let me know so I can update Wiki and my picture notes]

Update – 1/23/2009 – doing some more searching on Flickr for other Mig-29 photos – most notably – this one – it seems pretty conclusive that the canopy on the Fulcrum at Pima is NOT the original canopy.  Which means it is highly likely that this was the Fulcrum that had been at MacDill.  Now the only outstanding question is – who gave it this crappy canopy?  Pima or the USAF/LockMart clean-up crew?