The world’s most beautiful MiG-21: A Cold War icon, dressed in millions of colourful beads
September 27, 2025
On June 21, 2025, the Museum of Flight unveiled the world premiere of The MiG-21 Project, a decommissioned Soviet-designed MiG-21 transformed by South African artist Ralph Ziman into a riot of colours and patterns. The fighter’s metal skin is completely sheathed in tens of millions of hand-applied glass beads.
The exhibit runs through January 26, 2026.
The artist’s thesis: “Weapons of Mass Production”
Ziman’s beaded jet is the latest and most ambitious work in his long-running trilogy, Weapons of Mass Production, which previously recast AK-47s and an apartheid-era Casspir armoured vehicle using beadwork, wire, and collaborative craft.
The MiG-21 completes the arc by elevating an entire airframe to sculpture. In the words of the artist, “The re-imagined jet turns an icon of violence into a symbol of resilience and collaboration.”
The work of art prompts viewers to consider how tools of war circulate, and how communities might reclaim them.
Beautifying a MIG-21: Millions of beads, hundreds of hands
The project unfolded over five years, with a collaborative studio relying on Southern African beadwork traditions—especially from Zimbabwe and South Africa’s Mpumalanga province.
Around 100 artisans contributed to the bead skin; local organisers helped structure the effort. Tens of millions of beads were used to ‘paint’ a multitude of patterns across the stark 52-by-24-foot Duralumin alloy airframe.
The scale of the project is staggering, and the surface reads like a living tapestry, with geometric motifs rippling across the wings and fuselage, and cockpit lines traced in luminous glass.
Why decorate a MiG-21?
Few silhouettes say “Cold War” like the MiG-21, with its simple delta wing and needle nose. The aircraft was built by the thousands and flown by dozens of air forces.
The MiG-21 at a glance
- Type: Supersonic interceptor/fighter
- First flight: 1955 (entered Soviet service 1959)
- Top speed: Mach 2.0 (≈2,175 km/h / 1,350 mph)
- Range: 1,210 km (750 miles)
- Service ceiling: 19,000 m (62,000 ft)
- Armament: 1× 23 mm cannon, up to 2,000 kg of missiles/bombs
- Production: around 11,500 built, making it the world’s most produced supersonic jet
But Ziman’s choice of the aircraft is pointed. The jet was present in conflicts that shaped Southern Africa’s late-20th-century history.
Re-skinning the MiG with beadwork connects a global symbol of militarism to local material culture and labour, reframing the aircraft as both an object of beauty and a critique.
Near the beaded jet, the museum showcases the artist’s MiG regalia collection, featuring other MiG equipment.
MiG pilot helmets and flight suits have been equally embellished with beads, paint, and other decorative elements.
How to see the world’s most beautiful MiG-21
The MiG-21 Project is anchored by a larger temporary exhibition spread across the Aviation Pavilion and Red Barn galleries at the Museum of Flight.
Call it a “glow-up” or a reclamation: the Museum of Flight’s beaded MiG-21 is the rare crowd-pleaser that’s also conceptually sharp.
It’s visually irresistible at first glance, then increasingly layered the longer you look.
And like the best museum pieces, it sends you back into the world seeing familiar shapes a little differently.
With thanks to Isaac Alexander (@JetCityStar) for his kind permission to use these amazing photos.
