MiG-29KUB Deck Landing on Vikramaditya Posted in Internet

01.11.2012 A video recorded from the cockpit of deck-based fighter MiG-29KUB landing on the deck of aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya (former Admiral Gorshkov) was posted in the Internet on Wednesday.

Flight path of the fighter and voice conversation of pilots can be seen and heard on the 4-min videoclip.

The two-seat MiG-29KUB fighter performed the first landing on the deck of Vikramaditya on July 28.

"The aircrew consisting of Hero of Russia and merited test pilot Col. Nikolai Diorditsa and test pilot of the MiG Corporation Mikhail Belyaev successfully landed on the flight deck of Vikramaditya", said a source in defense industry.

Prior to that, pilots several times approached the ship from different altitudes and performed deck "touchdowns".

"Russian aircraft building corporation MiG is conducting test flights of ship-based fighters MiG-29K/KUB on board aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya passing trials in the Barents Sea", reports the company's public relations department.

Flights of deck-based fighters are conducted in accordance with the plan agreed with Indian party.

Ship-based fighters MiG-29K (single-seated) and MiG-29KUB (twin-seated) are multirole 4++ generation aircraft designed for air defense of ship formations, gaining of air supremacy, destruction of sea and land targets by high-precision weapons day and night in any weather conditions.

First flight of the experimental MiG-29KUB was held in Jan 2007. Batch-produced fighter took off for the first time in March 2008. Deck-based fighters MiG-29K/KUB have improved performance characteristics and higher reliability of onboard systems.

Comparing to earlier produced fighters, service life of MiG-29K/KUB is two times longer, and a flight hour cost is 2.5 times cheaper.