MiG-33 was the development designation of the aircraft that was eventually delivered as the

MiG-29 The Mikoyan MiG-29 (russian: Микоян МиГ-29; NATO reporting name: Fulcrum) is a twin-engine fighter aircraft designed in the Soviet Union. Developed by the Mikoyan design bureau as an air superiority fighter during the 1970s, the Mi ...

. Certain variants of the MiG-29 were designated MiG-33. The designation MiG-33 has been associated with two different Mikoyan fighter designs. It was first employed for a single-engine, lightweight strike fighter similar in capabilities to the

General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon The General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon is a single-engine Multirole combat aircraft, multirole fighter aircraft originally developed by General Dynamics for the United States Air Force (USAF). Designed as an air superiority day fighter, it ...

. More formally known as ''"Project 33"'', development work began on this design about 1980, but was cancelled in 1986 as the result of changing

Soviet Air Forces The Soviet Air Forces ( rus, Военно-воздушные силы, r=Voyenno-vozdushnyye sily, VVS; literally "Military Air Forces") were one of the air forces of the Soviet Union. The other was the Soviet Air Defence Forces. The Air Forces ...

requirements. More recently, the ''MiG-33'' designation was introduced at the 1994 Farnborough Airshow as the briefly used marketing name for the '' MiG-29ME'' export model of the MiG-29M Fulcrum-E, a comprehensively upgraded, fully multirole version of the

. Although only a few MiG-29M aircraft were built (and none exported), they have served as prototypes for the development of the latest, most advanced Fulcrum variant, the MiG-35.

Project 33

Around 1980, the Mikoyan OKB design bureau began working on a light "strike fighter" that was intended to be a direct competitor to the

F-16 Fighting Falcon The General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon is a single-engine multirole fighter aircraft originally developed by General Dynamics for the United States Air Force (USAF). Designed as an air superiority day fighter, it evolved into a successful ...

. This new Mikoyan design, designated ''Izdeliye 33'' (''Izd 33'') (and variously translated as "Article 33", "Project 33", "Product 33", or "Project R-33"), was of conventional layout and similar in appearance to the F-16. It was powered by a single Klimov RD-33 afterburning turbofan engine – the same engine used by the twin-engined MiG-29. While extensive wind tunnel testing was conducted on the design, no prototypes were built since the Soviet Air Force (VVS) dropped its support for concept about 1986. The program was one of several victims of the VVS’ changing operational needs, financial constraints, and a growing preference for multirole designs.

MiG-33 "Super Fulcrum"

During the early 1990s, it became briefly popular for Sukhoi and Mikoyan to assign new designations for upgraded models to make them appear "new and improved" instead of just "improved". The VVS did not accept these marketing designations and most were soon dropped. Following Sukhoi's initiative in this approach, Mikoyan's first such offering was the ''MiG-29ME'', which first publicly appeared as the ''MiG-33'' at the 1994 Farnborough Airshow. The MiG-29ME was the export version of the ''MiG-29M'' (Product 9.15) "Super Fulcrum", a comprehensively upgraded, fully multirole version of the MiG-29.

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{{Mikoyan aircraft MiG-033 1970s Soviet fighter aircraft Abandoned military aircraft projects of the Soviet Union

Project 33

MiG-33 "Super Fulcrum"

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