MiG-21PFM - Vietnam - 1968
VPAF - 1968 - Red 5015 of Nguyễn Văn Cốc

The famous Red 5015 of probably the highest ranking MiG-21 ace of all time, Nguyễn Văn Cốc, credited by the VPAF with 9 air victories of manned aircraft and two other Firebee drones during the Vietnam War. All his claimed air victories were achieved with the R-3S Atoll missiles, which is surprising considering their problematic accuracy. In this tally, there were five F-105 Thunderchiefs (3 Ds and 2 Fs), one F-102A and three F-4 Phantoms.

Originally flown in natural metal finish, this 921st FR MiG-21PFM (Izdeliye 94A) was camouflaged with dark green spots over light green upper surfaces when it was relocated south from Noi Bai to Tho Xuan airfield during 1968. Aces Nguyen Van Coc, Pham Thanh Ngan, Nguyen Dang Kinh, Dang Ngoc Ngu, Nguyen Tien Sam and Dinh Ton subsequently flew this fighter over Military District No 4 on numerous occasions.

His famous MiG-21PFM is depicted in numerous colorful profiles which are illustrating a vertical ruder having a metallic color background and green spots on top. This is just wrong, since the profiles are based on one photograph (see my gallery), where the rudder is just deflected sideways and shines in the sun leaving the impression that the rudder has had a metallic color.

There were also discussions if the dark green dots were applied directly on bare metal or on some grey background or if the entire aircraft was first painted grey before. There is one clear, rare close-up picture of the Red 5015 found in "Aircraft of the Aces 135 - MiG-21 Aces of the Vietnam War" by Istvan Toperczer of Osprey Publishing, where it becomes obvious that the underside is still in bare metal (unpainted), while the dark green dots clearly have another dark background, which in this case could only have been another shade of green.

Also, there are discussions on forums about the actual cockpit (interior) colors of the Vietnamese PFMs. Some people point out, that the displayed aircraft at the Air Force Musem in Hanoi still have the original paint from the Vietnam War and that the PFMs displayed there have the cockpit painted in the known Russian cockpit turqoise. Nevertheless, this was NOT the original color during the war. It is well known that most (maybe all) PFMs have originally had a grey interior, which was later on repainted by most foreign air forces in tureqoise during overhauls. In the book mentioned above, one can find also an undated color picture with the interior of a Vietnamese MiG-21 PFM, where the a grey color can be clearly distinguished for the cockpit.

My depiction of the Red 5015 includes a UB-16-57 pod instead of the R-3S missiles. During the air engagements of the early stages of the war, the lead ‘Fishbed’ in each pair was equipped with two infrared-guided R-3S AAMs, while the wingman’s aircraft carried two rocket pods containing unguided high-explosive fragmentation S-5M rockets. The S-5M rockets were used several times (succesfully) also to down enemy aircraft. Nguyen Van Coc is known to have flown as well as wingman, therefore I mounted the UB-16 pods for some variation in my MiG-21 collection.