Originally Posted by
Bevo
It is because of the design of the RD-33 engine combustion chamber on the earlier engines. The Klimow RD-33 was the first Russian turbofan jet engine in mass production. It has a one stage injector which is not as efficient as many western designs. A new version of that engine (RD-33MK) doesn’t smoke as much. Poland’s MiG-29s do not have upgraded engines because of political reasons and cost.
Sometime around 1998, Petr Izotov, V.Ya.Klimov plant chief designer was quoted as saying: “Smoke is absolutely subjective. It would be a problem if it would affect plane’s flight performance or engine characteristics. But it doesn’t!” Obviously the operational implications of being seen at much longer ranges was not mentioned.
Holy crap!
Maybe one of its "secret tactics" is to smoke the enemy to death...
