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Company type | Private |
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Industry | Military Tourism, Spaceflight |
Founded | 2004 |
Headquarters | Switzerland |
Website | https://migflug.com |
MiGFlug GmbH is a Zurich, [1] Switzerland-based [2] [3] Aviation and Space Adventure company specialized in fighter jet flights. [4] The company was founded in 2004 by current CEO Philipp Schaer [5] [6] [7] and Flavio Kaufmann. As of 2015 [update] , offerings included jet trainer flights, supersonic flights, edge of space flights, zero gravity flights and suborbital space flights. [8] [9]
Philipp Schaer is the current CEO of MiGFlug. [10] He co-founded the company in 2004, [11] with another student at the University of Zurich. [12] They initially got the idea during a trip to Moscow, when bumping into a fighter pilot and convincing him to take them for a ride. [13] A few days later that pilot smuggled them into a Russian airbase and took off with both of them. Later that year, the pair found a legal way to offer those flights in Russia using aircraft such as a Sukhoi Su-30 and the then-fastest fighter jet ever built, the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-25. [14] The company is headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland, [15] and registered in the commercial register of Lucerne. [16] MiGFlug's main business is offering flights in military fighter jets for civilians, including supersonic flights. [17] It started with jet flights from Ramenskoye Airport, Russia. [18] MiGFlug has been shown on Lonely Planet's Year of Adventures with Ben Fogle, [19] [20] [21] and broadcast on BBC. A number of notable passengers have flown in one of the company's fighter jets, including Anthony Bourdain, [22] Zoltán Báthory, [23] Joel Kinnaman, Miss India 2010 Manasvi Mamgai, [24] TyDi, [25] Josh Cartu, [26] [27] [28] [29] [30] [31] "Evil" Jared Hasselhoff, [32] Alan Walker, Jake Paul, [33] Klaas Heufer-Umlauf, Joko Winterscheidt, Jan Marsalek, Roberto Chevalier [34] [35] and Pauline Nordin. [36]
Several of MiGFlug's jets and pilots have appeared in movies, TV, and advertisements. For example, an L-39 appeared in the 1997 James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies in the opening scene. [37] MiGFlug has produced several Galileo episodes for ProSieben, as well as a zero gravity flight for Joko gegen Klaas . [38] Porsche, [39] Mercedes-Benz [40] Diesel, OnePlus, [41] IGN, [42] and Swiss diary company Emmi AG [43] produced advertisements or advertorials with MiGFlug.
MiGFlug's subsidiary GoAviator specializes in vintage flights, for example in warbirds and biplanes. [44] [45] MiGFlug also has a popular blog, covering aviation topics, with a focus on military aviation. [46]
Since 2015, MiGFlug has offered formation jet flights with up to six passengers flying at the same time in close formation in an L-39. [47]
In some locations MiGFlug also offers flights to customers in wheelchairs, who enter the L-39 jets with the help of a forklift. [48]
Aircraft | Origin | Type | Variant | Notes | Flight Location |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Combat Aircraft | |||||
Mikoyan MiG-29 Fulcrum [49] [50] [51] [52] [53] [54] | Soviet Union | Multirole combat aircraft, air superiority fighter | MiG-29 UB | Only supersonic flight currently available for civilians. [55] Edge of space flight up to 20 km (12 mi). [56] [57] [58] [59] [60] [61] [62] [63] MiG-29 flights temporarily stopped in 2017 and haven't resumed since. | Russia |
Lockheed F-104 Starfighter [64] | United States | Interceptor aircraft, fighter-bomber aircraft | Lockheed F-104 Starfighter | Currently only for qualified pilots (with Private pilot licence or Commercial pilot licence). | United States |
Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 (NATO reporting | Soviet Union | Jet fighter aircraft | S-102 | Built in Czech Republic in license as S-102 by Aero Vodochody | Czech Republic [70] |
Hawker Hunter [72] [73] [74] [75] [76] | United Kingdom | Fighter-bomber | Hunter Mk-58 | Operated by Swiss Air Force as long as 1994 | Switzerland [77] |
De Havilland Vampire | United Kingdom | Jet fighter aircraft | Vampire DH-115 Mk 55 | Operated by Swiss Air Force as long as 1990 | Switzerland |
BAC Strikemaster [ citation needed ] | United Kingdom | Attack aircraft | United Kingdom | ||
Military Jet Trainer | |||||
Aero L-39 Albatros [78] [79] [80] [81] | Czech Republic | Military trainer aircraft, light ground attack | L-39C | Highest production number of any military jet trainers worldwide with 2900 units produced. The L-39 Albatros was the first second-generation jet trainer in production and the first trainer aircraft with a turbofan powerplant. | United States [82] [83] [84] Switzerland [92] [93] [94] [95] (earlier in Spain) [97] |
Aero L-29 Delfin | Czech Republic | Military trainer aircraft, light attack | Slovakia [98] | ||
SIAI-Marchetti S.211 [99] [100] | Italy | Military trainer aircraft, light attack | Germany [101] | ||
Aermacchi MB-326 [102] | Italy | Advanced trainer/light attack | The MB-326 did not see service with the Italian Frecce Tricolori aerobatic team, who kept the Fiat G.91. They were later replaced by the MB-326 successor, the MB-339. | Italy | |
BAC Jet Provost [103] | United Kingdom | Military trainer aircraft | Italy | ||
Lockheed T-33 | United States | Military trainer aircraft | Canada |
Jets offered from Ramenskoye Airbase near Moscow in Russia from 2004-2006 included MiG-23, MiG-25, MiG-29 and the Su-27. [104] Through a cooperation with Thunder City in Cape Town, South Africa, MiGFlug offered English Electric Lightning and Blackburn Buccaneer flights. [105] MiGFlug also organized T-38 supersonic flights in the US for Galileo/ProSieben. [106] From 2006-2009, MiGflug offered Mikoyan MiG-31 Foxhound flights and from 2006-2017 Mikoyan MiG-29 Fulcrum flights from Sokol Airbase, in Nizhny Novgorod.
Weightless flight offers include the Ilyushin Il-76 from Star City (Zvyozdny gorodok) [107] [108] [109] near Moscow and a Boeing 727 in the United States, through a cooperation agreement with the Zero Gravity Corporation. [110] [111] MiGFlug also had an arrangement to offer future sub-orbital spaceflights in the XCOR Lynx; [112] Xcor filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in 2017. [113]
According to monthly German aerobatic magazine FliegerRevue, MiGFlug plans to offer stratosphere flights, or so-called "Edge of Space" flights, in both MiG-21 and MiG-23 aircraft to replace the MiG-29, which has no longer been available since late 2017. [114]
After the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, MiGFlug announced to stop all remaining offers in Russia and spend any profits made with Russian flights to support Ukraine. [115] [116]
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