On August 14, the Flight Test Museum at Edwards Air Force Base, California, just announced their acquisition of a Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 (NATO codename “Fishbed”), which has been brought from its longtime home at Santa Maria, CA, to Edwaards AFB, where it will eventually go on display in the new museum site near the West Gate of Edwards.
This particular MiG-21 is a MiG-21PF (P=Perekhvatchik (“Interceptor”), F = Forsirovannyy (“Uprated”)), known by NATO as a Fishbed-D that was built with the construction number 761811 and was flown in the service of the Polish Air Force (Sily Powietrzne Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej; SPRP) as SPRP s/n 1811 from June 1965 to March 1989 until it was reassigned to be a ground trainer at Bydgoszcz Air Base. Like many member states of the Warsaw Pact that disbanded their communist governments in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Poland now had a surplus of military equipment that it no longer needed, but found that many pilots, museums, and private collectors in the West were willing to purchase surplus MiGs from the former Eastern Bloc. As such, MiG-21PF s/n 1811 was sold to businessman Dave Baskett in June 1991 and was issued the FAA registration N21PF. It was first seen in the United States at Mojave Air and Spaceport in 1992 but was later brought to Santa Maria Public Airport, Baskett’s local airport, which is also in proximity to the business he founded, International Emergency Services.
From then on, the aircraft was kept in a private hangar at the airport, but made occasional public appearances, such as being displayed at the Santa Maria Museum of Flight (see our profile on this museum HERE), placed on the flight apron during airshows held at the airport, and according to the Santa Maria Times, it was even placed onto a parade float for a parade hosted by the local Elks chapter. When the aircraft was offered to the Flight Test Museum, the aircraft was still in airworthy condition, save for the afterburner. Instead of being flown to Edwards AFB, a team of volunteers drove out to Santa Maria Airport, disassembled the aircraft, and trucked it to Edwards, where it has since been reassembled in a storage hangar. The museum has also stated that they will be repainting the aircraft before it goes on display at some point in the near future. For more information about the Flight Test Museum, visit their website here: Home – FLIGHT TEST HISTORICAL FOUNDATION
