The Mig-21 was originally built by the Mikoyan and Gurevich Design Bureau in the Soviet Union with a NATO nickname Fishbed. No other jet has had as many planes produced as the Mig-21. Depending on the reference source 8,000 - 13,000 planes of all versions were made in the Soviet Union, under license to allied countries and China without license. A small, fast, agile, dependable and most importantly simple making it easy to turn out great numbers of the plane.
MiG-21PFM Fishbed 5020 c/n 948601 belonged to the VPAF 927th Lam Son Fighter Regiment and piloted by several regiment aces. On July 5, 1972 in action against the U.S. Operation Linebacker MiG-21PFM 5020 flown by Nguyen Tien Sam and accompanied by his wingman Ha Vinh Thanh, encountered two F-4Es. Nguyen Tien Sam got so close that when his missile hit F-4E 67-0296 he had to fly through the debris temporarily stalling his engine. His wingman downed F-4E 67-0339. 5020 is in Hanoi wearing 12 kill markings.