The MiG-21 Keeps Getting Copied: Is Iran s Latest Version Any Good?
One of their lesser-known, and indeed less-capable airframes is a copy…of a copy. Meet the J/F-7.
Here s What You Need to Remember: These days the F-7 is relegated to a trainer aircraft for Iranian pilots. It made a slight blip in the headlines in 2018, when one of Iran’s F-7 training airframes crash-landed in the “near the city of Hassanabad in Jarqavieh Olya district, Isfahan province.”
Iran’s motley fleet of airframes includes a wide variety of antiquated aircraft, including American F-14 Tomcats, McDonell Douglas F-4 Phantom II (that have apparently seen combat in Syrian), as well as Northrop F-5 light attack jets.