Mikoyan Gurevich 21 or commonly known as Mig-21 was the most feared aircraft in the 1960s and 1970s.
Countries like Israel and USA were shit scared of this small aircraft. According to them, it was just a long cylinder with a jet engine and they could never comprehend the prowess of the Mig-21.
Guess what did they do, in the end?
They launched a full scale operation to steal one and study it.
A Mossad agent, Jean Thomas was the first to attempt so. He was supposed to find a pilot in Egypt who would fly the plane to Israel for a huge amount of money. He was, however, not successful. He was later hanged on charges of espionage.
The second attempt also failed and Mossad had to beat up two Iraqi pilots to keep them quiet.
In 1964, Munir Redfa, an Iraqi pilot agreed to steal a Mig-21 and defect to Israel. After several talks and an assurance from the Mossad of Israeli citizenship on August 16, 1966, he was able to steal the aircraft and land in Israel.
In January 1968, after testing the aircraft stringently, Israel loaned the Mig-21 to the USA under the Have Doughnut[3] program. Israel was later able to take down 6 Syrian Mig-21’s successfully as well.
Was it overhyped?
The most produced supersonic aircraft of all time.
The aircraft countries like USA & Israel feared.
The aircraft for which spies gave up lives.
In its glory days, Mig-21 was a fierce aircraft people did not even think could fly, but fly it did and fear it did cause in its enemies.
It was just a cylinder with an engine, after all.