{"id":1729,"date":"2014-01-23T11:00:53","date_gmt":"2014-01-23T11:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.migflug.com\/jetflights\/?p=1729"},"modified":"2026-03-31T22:38:44","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T20:38:44","slug":"tourist-fighter-jet-rides","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/tourist-fighter-jet-rides\/","title":{"rendered":"Fighter Jet Rides for Tourists – A bit of History"},"content":{"rendered":"

Development of fighter jet rides<\/h2>\n
\"Fighter<\/a>

Fighter Jet Rides in the L-39 Albatros<\/p><\/div>\n

It all started with the end of the Cold War and the downsizing of military services and air forces due to strained public finances in the former Eastern Bloc –\u00a0the former communist states of Central and Eastern Europe.
\nAt this time, many former Warsaw Pact\u00a0military aircraft appeared on the Western market. One of the reasons was a lack of state control in the\u00a0Eastern Bloc countries in the years after 1991 – or 1989, respectively. This led to a lack of control and chaos. Given the vast amount of military hardware these countries possessed, including nuclear weapons, this was an extremely dangerous situation. Corruption and\u00a0unscrupulousness\u00a0was widespread, things simply vanished. A former Swiss pilot who made a fortune by buying Aero L-39 Albatros jets and selling them in the west, mainly in the US, told MiGFlug: “In some countries those who were in the positions were just trying to earn something from the diminishing stock of military equipment. In the Ukraine for example you could give them a waggon full of potatoes, they would give you an L-39 in exchange. ” This was at this time modern jet, it was produced until 1999! And it was a multi-million trainer and light attack aircraft. The Czech L-39 is still in use with many Air Forces today, but many of the 2800 jets produced have private operators today – and some of them are available for passenger fighter jet rides via MiGFlug<\/a>.<\/p>\n

State operators making jets available<\/h2>\n
\"Mikoyan

MiG-31 Foxbat<\/p><\/div>\n

Another, more surprising path, is the jets made available for civilian fighter jet rides by state operators, in Russia. The jets made available included different very modern fighter jets of the 4th generation, such as Sukhoi Su-27 Flanker,\u00a0\u00a0Mikoyan MiG-29 Fulcrum and MiG-31 Foxhound. These incredible Russian fighter jets – top secret before, were now suddenly made available for fighter jet rides even to US tourists. \u00a0It all started during the huge financial crisis in 1997, when the\u00a0Russians tried to earn some hard currency from everything they had. Flights took place from Zhukovsky airbase, where the MAKS airshow takes place. Other supersonic jets available for flights at this time included the MiG-23 Flogger and the MiG-25 Foxbat.\u00a0Luckily, flights are still available today, even though Zhukovsky was closed for civilian supersonic jet rides in 2006. Today, flights are available from Sokol airbase in Nizhny Novgorod. This is one of the MiG production sites. MiGFlug was the first company to offer MiG-29 supersonic flights<\/a>\u00a0as well as Edge of Space flights<\/a> there.<\/p>\n

Associations\/Clubs keep aircraft in the air<\/h2>\n

The third possibility of fighter jet rides made available are associations and aviation clubs with the aim of keeping historic aircraft airworthy. MiGFlug plays a similar role: we help operators to finance the extremely expensive jets. It is not only fuel costs but also maintenance and spare parts. Even with a great deal of voluntary work involved – these jets are still a black hole. “It’s easy to make a small fortune in aviation. You just start off with a large fortune”, and a fighter aircraft is not comparable with a small plane. Jets operated by associations include the Swiss Hawker Hunter or the Polish MiG-15. MiGFlug customers profit from the unique constellation – they can book rides in all these famous fighter jets.<\/p>\n

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Additional Resources<\/strong><\/p>\n