Any components showing unusual wear or any sort of corrosion or damage were replaced, including both huge RD-33 afterburning turbofan engines, whose replacements had to be specially manufactured by the Klimov factory in Russia.

While Historic Flight Foundation’s MiG-29 lay in pieces in Arlington there were two crashes of Russian Air Force MiG-29s just a month apart. The investigation showed that the twin vertical tails of the MiG-29 were prone to corrosion where they join the fuselage, and that the two crashes were caused by the vertical tail literally coming off in mid-air.

The root cause was found to be a combination of different metals used to attach the vertical tails to the fuselage, which could react with one another and corrode under the right conditions.  It was decided that the only way to be sure this wouldn’t happen to Historic Flight’s MiG-29UB would be to redesign all of the attachment components entirely out of aluminum, thus eliminating any other metals that might cause corrosion.

Throughout the restoration process, experienced MiG-29 mechanics were flown over from Slovakia to offer their expertise with an aircraft that practically no western mechanics had ever worked on. Their assistance proved to be invaluable, offering knowledge only gained through decades of front line MiG-29 service.

The final restoration work to be done was cosmetic. Between being retired and being sold the MiG had sat outside in the Ukraine for years, suffering through many long winters. Then, during shipment to the US, the fuselage was confiscated and spent another two years sitting at a Hong Kong dock.

Because of this, some of the sheet metal on the aircraft had to be replaced, and the entire plane also had to be stripped and repainted. The markings on the aircraft were kept as close to original as possible, from the pattern of the camouflage to the black panther on the nose.

The restoration was finally completed in December of 2010, but there was still one critical component missing: the explosive charges for the ejection seats. These charges were removed as part of the demilitarization of the aircraft in the Ukraine, but acquiring replacements and importing them into the US proved to be quite a challenge. They were finally installed in January of 2011, and the aircraft was ready to fly again.