SimHQ Senior Editor "Cat" interviews Laszlo "Beczl" Becz, the man behind DCS: MiG-21Bis.
Included are 30 new work-in-progress screenshots.

http://SimHQ.com/_air14/air_528a.html

Great article and (upcoming) mod!

As of Mig-21, surprisingly it (with radar upgrade) able to kick some butts still - http://translate.google.com/translate?sl...12%2F98582.html

cool!

Not really. This is a pretty crappy article. On the US side, the 4 F-15E's were simulating a defensive position with no AMRAAMs, while the Indians rolled in 30 planes including those MiG-21's. They're not and will never be a match for an F-15 playing full-up.

With the F-15E and F-15GE upgrades, the Su-30MKI is no longer an even match for those aircraft either.

Excellent read! Thank you!
At least to me, this has to be the most exciting release of the last few years. After seeing the old Flanker slowly becoming A-10 over the years I thought we would never see a decent fast Russian yet outside of FSX (hey, A-10 is brilliant, don't get me wrong; I just find Russsian hardware fascinating). I would have settled for a MiG-21 in the Strike Fighters series, but having it in DCS will be simply amazing. I still have to pinch myself

Very nice Q&A! Wasn't surprised when I saw who made it, nice work Cat.

Good interview, thanks, Cat! The MiG-21 is certainly one of the more interesting aircraft to appear.

Thanks, guys.

This one has got me interested in the DCS series. I was giving the whole thing a miss til I saw the MiG-in-progress. I'm like Capt. Haddock; I'd thought that the days of the good old Flanker 2 etc. were done, but thanks to Beczl, the spirit of the original Flanker is alive and well.

Great article/interview. Probably one of the most in-depth I've read here. I personally am very much looking forward to the Mig-21bis module.

@Cat I was aware you enjoyed flying the Russian equipment, always liked your stories. Don't like the helicopter though?

Enigma-

Thanks . Sacha's projected to make a comeback when the MiG-21 releases. I have a new story arc I'm planning out, and I hope to finally close out the last arc in the first installment.

I tried the Ka-50 when the first version of Black Shark was released. It is very, very well done but for some reason it just doesn't resonate with me. I think that I find the helos too limited; I like to do some air to air, and in Flanker/Flanker2/Lock On I was into f-pole jousting with the R-27. The MiG won't be able to pack R-27s, but the R-3R will be a serious challenge for SARH missile jousting, especially since it is not typically intended for that use.

And I prefer fast movers for air to ground, setting up a good approach and making that bomb run or rocket run to hovering and hosing the enemy down with antitank missiles. I especially like slashing, low-level attacks with high-drag bombs, and the MiG will be well suited to that. I tried to run the Ka-50 the same way I'd do a jet but it's not as maneuverable in linear flight and you have to be careful of overstressing the rotors. To a fixed-wing jet gal it doesn't entirely feel right. I'm sure that Sacha would disagree with me, though; the last story I did revealed that she loves helicopters.

Part of the issue for me is the Ka-50's threat warning system; it does not pick up radar threats and one thing I have historically enjoyed is air-defense suppression. I think that the MiG-21 will not be well suited for that because it has no antiradar missile, but it will still be more survivable than the Ka-50 against tactical SAM systems like the SA-6 and SA-11, I think, and if it can get in close with the X-66 or better yet, high-drag bombs, which Beczl is modeling several of, it can be a threat.

The key, I think, is modeling an aircraft I'm already interested in. I have like 500+ hours in Falcon 4.0 because I loved the F-16, and equivalent in Flanker et al. because I have always been fascinated with the Su-27 and MiG-29, especially the MiG-29 9-12. All this pales next to my interest in the MiG-21, I had one of those tiny Bachmann models of the MiG-21F-13 growing up that hung out with my Barbies....