Ask which is better, the MiG-29 or the Su-30, and you have already misunderstood the question. They were never meant to compete. They are the two halves of a single idea — the Soviet Union's deliberate decision to build one small fighter and one big one, each doing a job the other could not. It is one of the neatest examples in aviation of how a country's whole air-power strategy can be read from two aircraft.

One requirement, split in two

In 1969 the Soviet General Staff issued a requirement for a PFI (Perspektivnyy Frontovoy Istrebitel, roughly “advanced frontline fighter”) — a next-generation machine with long range, great agility, Mach 2+ speed and heavy armament, built partly in response to the American F-15. The specification proved too demanding and too expensive to satisfy in a single airframe bought in the numbers the Soviets needed.

So, around 1971, they split it. The heavy half — the TPFI — went to the Sukhoi design bureau and became the Su-27 Flanker family. The light half — the LPFI — went to Mikoyan and became the MiG-29 Fulcrum. The planned force was roughly one third heavy fighters, two thirds light. If that sounds familiar, it should: it is almost exactly the logic behind the US Air Force's own “hi-lo” mix of the expensive F-15 and the cheaper F-16 — the fly-off that also gave us the YF-17 Cobra.

The MiG-29: the light knife-fighter

The MiG-29, which first flew in 1977 and entered service in 1983, was designed as a nimble frontline fighter to work close to the battlefield. Powered by two Klimov RD-33 engines, it is small, agile and famously good in a close-in dogfight, with a helmet-mounted sight and off-boresight missiles that gave early Western pilots a nasty surprise once they got to fly against captured examples. Its weaknesses were the flip side of its virtues: short range and a modest fuel load meant it was built to defend a patch of sky, not to roam.

The Su-30: the long-range heavyweight

The Sukhoi took the opposite path. The Su-27 that emerged was a big, long-legged air-superiority fighter with the fuel and radar to control huge volumes of airspace. The Su-30 is its two-seat, multirole development: twin Saturn AL-31F engines, enormous range, a heavy and varied weapons load, and — on versions such as the Su-30MKI — thrust-vectoring nozzles for the eye-watering airshow manoeuvres the Flanker family is famous for. Where the MiG-29 is a knife, the Su-30 is a broadsword that can also carry the whole armoury.

Two answers, not one winner

That is why comparing them by a single scorecard misses the point. The MiG-29 was cheaper, lighter and made to be bought in bulk for frontline defence; the Su-30 is heavier, costlier and made to reach out and dominate. Together they were meant to cover the whole spectrum — exactly as the F-16 and F-15 do for the West.

Of the two, it is the little Fulcrum that has become the one enthusiasts most dream of strapping into — and that dream is a real one. Flying the MiG-29 to the edge of space remains one of the most extraordinary experiences in civil aviation.