The MikoyanGurevich MiG15 is a jet fighter aircraft developed by MikoyanGurevich for the Soviet Union. The MiG15 was one of the first successful jet fighters to incorporate swept wings to achieve high transonic speeds. In aerial combat during the Korean War, it outclassed straightwinged jet day fighters, which were largely relegated to groundattack roles. In response to the MiG15’s appearance and in order to counter it, the United States Air Force rushed the North American F86 Sabre to Korea.

When refined into the more advanced MiG17, the basic design would again surprise the West when it proved effective against supersonic fighters such as the Republic F105 Thunderchief and McDonnell Douglas F4 Phantom II in the Vietnam War of the 1960s.

The MiG15 is believed to have been one of the most produced jet aircraft with more than 13,000 manufactured. The MiG15 remains in service with the Korean People's Army Air Force as an advanced trainer.

The first turbojet fighter developed by MikoyanGurevich OKB was the MikoyanGurevich MiG9, which appeared in the years immediately after World War II. It used a pair of reverseengineered German BMW 003 engines. The MiG9 was a troublesome design that suffered from weak, unreliable engines and control problems. Categorized as a firstgeneration jet fighter, it was designed with the straightstyle wings common to pistonengined fighters.

The Germans had been unable to develop turbojets with thrust over 1,130 kilogramsforce (11,100 N; 2,500 lbf) running at the time of the surrender in May 1945, which limited the performance of immediate Soviet postwar jet aircraft designs. They did inherit the technology of the advanced axialcompressor Junkers 012 and BMW 018 engines, in the class of the later RollsRoyce Avon, that were some years ahead of the thenavailable British RollsRoyce Nene engine. The Soviet aviation minister Mikhail Khrunichev and aircraft designer A. S. Yakovlev suggested to Premier Joseph Stalin that the USSR buy the conservative but fully developed Nene engines from RollsRoyce (having been alerted to the fact that the U.K. Labour government wanted to improve postwar UKRussia foreign relations) for the purpose of copying them in a minimum of time. Stalin is said to have replied, "What fool will sell us his secrets?"

However, he gave his consent to the proposal and Mikoyan, engine designer Vladimir Yakovlevich Klimov, and others travelled to the United Kingdom to request the engines. To Stalin's amazement, the British Labour government and its Minister of Trade, Sir Stafford Cripps, were perfectly willing to provide technical information and a license to manufacture the RollsRoyce Nene. Sample engines were purchased and delivered with blueprints. Following evaluation and adaptation to Russian conditions, the windfall technology was tooled for massproduction as the Klimov RD45 to be incorporated into the MiG15.

Designers at MiG's OKB155 started with the earlier MiG9 jet fighter. The new fighter used Klimov's Britishderived engines, swept wings, and a tailpipe going all the way back to a swept tail. The German Me 262 was the first fighter fitted with an 18.5° wing sweep, but it was introduced merely to adjust the center of gravity of its heavy Junkers Jumo 004 pioneering axialcompressor turbojet engines.

Specifications (MiG15bis)

MiG15UTI

MiG15 drawing
Data from OKB Mikoyan, MiG: Fifty Years of Secret Aircraft Design

General characteristics

Crew: 1
Length: 10.102 m (33 ft 2 in)
Wingspan: 10.085 m (33 ft 1 in)
Height: 3.7 m (12 ft 2 in)
Wing area: 20.6 m2 (222 sq ft)
Airfoil: root: TsAGI S10; tip: TsAGI SR3
Empty weight: 3,681 kg (8,115 lb)
Gross weight: 5,044 kg (11,120 lb)
Max takeoff weight: 6,106 kg (13,461 lb) with 2x600 l (160 US gal; 130 imp gal) droptanks
Fuel capacity: 1,420 l (380 US gal; 310 imp gal) internal
Powerplant: 1 × Klimov VK1 centrifugalflow turbojet, 26.5 kN (5,950 lbf) thrust
Performance

Maximum speed: 1,076 km/h (669 mph, 581 kn) at sea level
1,107 km/h (688 mph; 598 kn) / M0.9 at 3,000 m (9,843 ft)
Maximum speed: Mach 0.87 at sea level
Cruise speed: 850 km/h (530 mph, 460 kn) Mach 0.69
Ferry range: 2,520 km (1,570 mi, 1,360 nmi) at 12,000 m (39,370 ft) with 2x600 l (160 US gal; 130 imp gal) droptanks
Service ceiling: 15,500 m (50,900 ft)
Rate of climb: 51.2 m/s (10,080 ft/min)
Wing loading: 296.4 kg/m2 (60.7 lb/sq ft)
Thrust/weight: 0.54
Armament
Guns: **2 × 23 mm NudelmanRikhter NR23 autocannon in the lower left fuselage (80 rounds per gun, 160 rounds total)
1 × 37 mm Nudelman N37 autocannon in the lower right fuselage (40 rounds total)
Hardpoints: 2 , with provisions to carry combinations of:
Bombs: 100 kg (220 lb) bombs
Other: drop tanks, or unguided rockets