[sukhoi-30mki]

MiG-29 © Vladimir Astapkovich / Sputnik

[fieldmarshaldj]

RIP.

[mountn man]

For his work on the MiG-29, Mikoyan twice received the USSR State Prize state honor.

"WASHINGTON, DC – Today, President Barack Obama named 21 recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom. The Presidential Medal of Freedom is the Nation’s highest civilian honor, presented to individuals who have made especially meritorious contributions to the security or national interests of the United States, to world peace, or to cultural or other significant public or private endeavors. The awards will be presented at the White House on November 22nd.

(snip)

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Ellen DeGeneres
Robert De Niro
Tom Hanks
Michael Jordan
Lorne Michaels
Robert Redford
Diana Ross
Vin Scully
Bruce Springsteen
Cicely Tyson

https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2016/11/16/president-obama-names-recipients-presidential-medal-freedom

[Fiji Hill]

His father, Anastas Mikoyan (1895-1978) was a government figure

Mikoyan was more than a "government figure." He was an Old Bolshevik who survived the Stalin purges and served in the Politburo as one of the top Soviet leaders into the Brezhnev era. He was known as a Communist hardliner.

[SkyPilot]

Mikoyan was of the most brilliant aerospace engineers in history. He was in the same class as Kelly Johnson, Igor Sikorsky, Wernher von Braun, Hugo Junkers, Thomas Sopwith, Dr. Willy Messerschmitt, and Jiro Horikoshi.

[Imnidiot]

29’s (and her cousins) are some of the most beautiful aircraft around.

[BradyLS]

I seem to recall a defecting Soviet MiG-29 pilot landing his craft in Japan.

[rmlew]

Russian of Armenian ancestry