New Delhi: The Soviet-designed MiG-21, seen as India’s most “iconic” warplane, is entering retirement. Marred with controversies, it witnessed “six decades of admiration—and later infamy,” writes Soutik Biswas in the BBC . From the early 1970s till 2012, 482 MiG crashes were reported—and 117 pilots were killed.

“The MiG-21 has a chequered legacy. The fighter was the mainstay of the IAF for over three decades and served in various roles in all of India’s conflicts since the 1965 Pakistan war,” Rahul Bedi of Eurasia Group, a geopolitical risk consulting firm, is quoted as saying.

Embarking on a sortie was no mean feat. The jet was notoriously uncomfortable and contained only a single seat and “the sky pressing in all-around’, writes Biswas. The air-conditioning was built for icy Rus

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