Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15
The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 was a Soviet single-seat jet fighter, first flown in late 1947, that shocked the West when it appeared over Korea in 1950. Built around a swept wing and engines copied from the British Rolls-Royce Nene, it fought the American F-86 Sabre in the first large-scale jet-versus-jet battles. More than 12,000 were built in four countries, and the type served with air forces around the world for decades.
Why It Mattered
The MiG-15 was designed in 1946 to answer an urgent Soviet need for a high-altitude day interceptor. First flown on 30 December 1947, it reached combat over Korea in late 1950, flown at first by Soviet pilots. There its performance shocked the West: it outclassed the piston-engined aircraft and first-generation jets of the United Nations forces. The fighting that followed defined the opening of the jet age, and the MiG-15 made "MiG" synonymous with "Soviet fighter plane" for a generation of Western reporting.
Design Notes
The MiG-15 gave the Soviet Union its first production swept wing, its first pressurized cockpit and its first ejection seat in a single design. Its power came from Britain: Rolls-Royce sold its new Nene and Derwent turbojets to the Soviet Union, and Soviet engineers immediately copied and refined them into the RD-45 and the more powerful VK-1. Armament was one 37 mm and two 23 mm cannon, a heavy battery for an interceptor expected to destroy bombers. The airframe had real faults: it was not very stable as a gun platform, tended to Dutch roll at high speed, and its cockpit instrumentation was primitive, with heavy stick forces. Deficiencies in the early aircraft were corrected in the more powerful and robust MiG-15bis.
Operational History
Production was authorized in March 1948, only three months after the first test flight, and substantial numbers were in service by the end of 1948. Late in 1950, MiG-15s flown by Soviet pilots appeared over North Korea; Chinese and North Korean pilots later joined them. Their cannon attacks quickly ran the piston-engined aircraft from the skies, including the B-29, and by October 1951 the big bombers had been restricted to night missions. The first-generation American jets were no match, and the United States rushed the F-86 Sabre into Korea to re-establish air superiority. The United States credited its Sabre pilots with a 10:1 advantage in the fighting between the two types. That figure is contested: later research drawing on Soviet-era records puts the F-86's actual advantage at about 1.8 to 1 overall, and closer still against Soviet-flown aircraft. The type's most famous single flight came after the shooting stopped: on 21 September 1953, No Kum-Sok, a North Korean lieutenant, flew his MiG-15 to Kimpo Air Base in South Korea and defected. He earned the $100,000 reward the United States had offered to any pilot who defected with a MiG-15, and American test pilots then measured the aircraft against the Sabre in 11 test flights.
Afterlife
More than 12,000 MiG-15s were built, in the Soviet Union and under licence in Poland, Czechoslovakia and China. The type was ultimately flown in some 35 countries, and in China, where it was called the J-2, it remained in service as late as 1978. The two-seat MiG-15UTI trainer was used throughout the world, and the type is reported to remain in North Korean service as an advanced trainer. Lessons from the Korean fighting were built into its successor, the MiG-17, which also served around the world. Survivors are widely preserved: the Smithsonian's Chinese-built example is on display at the Udvar-Hazy Center, No Kum-Sok's aircraft is at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force in Dayton, and Chinese-built F-2s can be seen in flight displays at American air shows.