The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 (NATO reporting name "Fagot") was a jet fighter developed for the USSR by Artem Mikoyan and Mikhail Gurevich. The MiG-15 was one of the first successful swept-wing jet fighters, and it achieved fame in the skies over Korea, where it outclassed all enemy fighters except the F-86 Sabre. The MiG-15 also served as the starting point for development of the more advanced MiG-17 which would oppose American fighters over Vietnam in 1960s. The MiG-15 is believed to have been the most numerous jet aircraft ever made, with over 12,000 built (and licensed foreign production perhaps raising this to over 18,000.
After WW-II the Soviets were having trouble perfecting the designs of the German axial-flow torbojets that they had acquired. In 1947 the English sold the Soviets a copy of the Rolls-Royce Nene centrifugal-flow jet engine. The Soviets were astounded by the English move to sell the secrets of the Nene to them. In short order the Rolls-Royce engine was reversed engineered as the Klimov RD-45 jet engine. The English later tried to claim 207,000,000 pounds in license fees, we can guess how far that got!!!.
First Flight of the MiG-15 took place in 1948 and entered squadron service with the Red Air Force in 1949. Orinally intended to take out large bombers such as the B-29 the MiG-15 had 2 23mm cannons with 80 rounds per gun and a 37mm cannon with 40 rounds per gun. While this produced a rather heavy rate of fire this was compromised by the slow firing rate, low muzzle velocity and different trajectories of the MiG's cannon. What may be good for knocking down bombers does not mean it will work well for the more nimble fighters. More than one US pilot in Korea had the rather unpleasent experience of seeing the 23mm shells go past overhead while the 37mm shells went underneath his aircraft.
While the Mig excelled in some performance areas versus the United Statesb F-86 Sabres in the crucial high speed perfomance aspect the MiG was lacking. Directional instabilty and poor handling at higher Mach numbers, due in part to a lack of a "flying tail" enabled to superior training and tactics of the U.S. fighters to exact a rather high kill ratio vs the MiGs.
With a top speed of about 660mph and a service ceiling of 50,000ft+ the Mig in the hands of a skilled pilot was aformidable task. Chuck Yeager flew the Mig-15 that a defecting North Korean pilot brough out and was able to wax the U.S fighter pilot that flew against him. Yeager was not impressed with the MiG as he felt is was highly unstable. Well on with the pics.
You know the routine, the head on pic first.
White 15 makes a low level pass or the cameras. A lift of the alfa6 lid to Glenn Alderton for the first two pics.
IIRC this picture was taken the Scott AFB Airshow last June. The cannons show up fairly well in this pic.
A number of MIG-15s are flying in the US. Here a different White 15 show off for the camera ship.
Here is fine example of the Two seater verson of the MiG-15. The NATO name for this model was "Midget"
And to close out the Flyby here is another example of MiG-15 making the airshow circuit.
Well that's it for tonight. Y'all have a great weekend and we'll see ya tomorrow night in the crik don't rise :-)
Regards
alfa6 ;>}
