Parts commonality is a Good Thing

The MiG-23 tow bar is massive, as you would expect with a 30,000+ pound aircraft. When we rebuilt the tow bar, we found that we were missing the pins to attach it to the nose wheel. After some head-scratching over exactly what we needed, we walked over and took a look at the MiG-21 tow bar we recently received. In an earlier post (In praise of central planning,) we told the story about how one of the parts on the Mi-24 fits the MiG-23. We were pleasantly surprised to find that the MiG-21 and Mig-23 can use the same tow pins! Parts commonality is a good thing for us and I'll bet it made things a lot easier for the base guys too.

Brian inserts the MiG-21 tow pins in the MiG-23.

The Mig-23 tow bar is a massive piece of equipment. Steel cables (not shown in this picture) also connect the tow bar to the main gear.

The job is not complete until George checks it out and lets us know we're ready to go.