Mig-5

The Mikoyan-Gurevich DIS (Russian: Дальний истребитель сопровождения - "long-range escort fighter") was a prototype Soviet fighter aircraft of World War II. It was also intended to develop reconnaissance and bomber versions, but these plans never materialised. The MiG DIS was a sleek, twin-engined, twin-tailed machine of mixed construction. Only two examples were built.

The first, developed under the bureau designation T, was powered by Mikulin AM-37 engines. It first flew in late 1941 and performed well in flight tests. The second machine, the IT, had Shvetsov M-82F engines and was completed in October the following year but did not complete flight testing before the project was cancelled. Despite the promise shown by the type, the NKAP felt that the aircraft's capabities and performance were too similar to those of the Petlyakov Pe-2, which was already in production.

The service designation MiG-5 had been reserved for this aircraft but in the end was never used. The same designation is sometimes erroneously applied to the Mikoyan-Gurevich I-211, a completely unrelated prototype aircraft based on the MiG-3.

Operators

Soviet Union

• Soviet Air Force

Specifications (T)

General characteristics

• Crew: 1
• Length: 10.87 m (35 ft 8 in)
• Wingspan: 15.10 m (49 ft 6 in)
• Height: 3.40 m (11 ft 2 in)
• Wing area: 38.9 m² (419 ft²)
• Empty weight: 5,446 kg (12,006 lb)
• Loaded weight: 7,605 kg (16,731 lb)
• Max takeoff weight: 8,000 kg (17,600 lb)
• Powerplant: 2× Mikulin AM-37 V-12 engines, 1,045 kW (1,400 hp) each

Performance

• Maximum speed: 610 km/h (378 mph)
• Range: 2,280 km (1,415 mi)
• Service ceiling: 10,900 m (35,760 ft)
• Rate of climb: 15.2 m/s (2,980 ft/min)
• Wing loading: 196 kg/m² (40 lb/ft²)
• Power/mass: 0.27 kW/kg (0.17 hp/lb)

Armament

• 1x 23 mm VYa cannons, 200-300 rounds
• 2x 12.7 mm BS machine guns, 300-600 rounds/gun
• 4x 7.62 mm ShKAS machine guns, 1,000-1,500 rounds/gun

MiG-3

The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-3 (Russian: Микоян и Гуревич МиГ-3) was a Soviet fighter aircraft of World War II. It was a development of the MiG-1 by the OKO (opytno-konstrooktorskiy otdel — Experimental Design Department) of zavod (factory) No.1 to fix the issues that had been encountered seen over its development and deployment cycle.

Development

Mikoyan and Gurevich made a large number of modifications to the MiG-1 design following both field use and research in the T-1 wind tunnel belonging to the Central Aero and Hydrodynamics Institute (TsAGI). These changes were mostly done piecemeal on the assembly line.

These changes included:

* Moving the engine forward 100 mm (4 in) which improved stability.
* Increase the outer wingpanel dihedral by one degree which also increased stability.
* Introduction of a new water radiator (OP-310), which allows for an additional 250 l (66 US gal) fuel tank.
* Adding an additional oil tank under the engine.
* Venting and piping exhaust gas into the fuel tanks to reduce fire in case of enemy fire.
* Adding 8 mm armor behind the pilot (increased to 9 mm in later models).
* Streamlining supercharger intakes.
* Strengthening the main landing gear.
* Increasing the size of the main wheels to 650 x 200 mm (25.5 x 7.87 in).
* Improved canopy, which improved views to the rear and allowed for the installation of a shelf behind the pilot for an RSI-1 radio (later upgraded to an RSI-4).
* Redesign of the instrument panel.
* Upgrade of the PBP-1 gunsight to the PBP-1A gunsight.
* Increase in ammo load for the ShKAS guns to 750 rpg.
* Additional underwing hardpoints added to carry up to 220 kg (485 lb) of bombs, spray containers or 8 RS-82 unguided rockets.

The first aircraft to see all of these changes applied to them was I-200 No.04, which was the fourth prototype of the I-200, which later became the MiG-1. It first flew in late October 1940. Following its successful first flight it was then passed to VVS (Voyenno-voz-dooshnyye seely - Military Air Forces) for State trials.

During this testing, NKAP (Narodnyy komissariat aviatsionnoy promyshlennosti - People's Ministry of the Aircraft Industry) announced that the three zavods building the MiG-3 at the time would be required to build a total of 3,600 in 1941.

Operational history

The first production MiG-3 rolled off the assembly line on 20 December 1940. By March 1941, 10 of these aircraft were coming off the production line every day. It was not long before the type would see combat, claiming a pair of German Junkers Ju 86 reconnaissance aircraft even before the start of hostilities between Germany and the Soviet Union.

By the time of Operation Barbarossa, over 1,200 MiG-3s had been delivered.

During initial testing of production aircraft was found to be inferior to the MiG-1 due to its weight increase, and fuel consumption was well over what Mikoyan and Gurevich were promised by the manufacturer (zavod No.24), but the fuel consumption was actually found to be an issue with the testing of the aircraft and the failure to take into account altitude correction. Mikoyan and Gurevich went as far as arranging for two more flights between Leningrad and Moscow to prove the MiG-3 could fly 1,000 km (621 mi).

However that was not the end of the issues that the MiG-3 encountered during its deployment. Several MiG-3s produced were found to have unacceptable performance at altitude due to oil and fuel pressure. It was also found that pilots attempted to fly the MiG-3 as if it were an earlier aircraft (especially the forgiving Polikarpov I-15, I-153 and I-16s), which led to several other problems. Soon new oil and fuel pumps were introduced as well as attempts at better pilot training to familiarize them with the MiG-3.

Over the next two years of the MiG-3, several new changes made it into production, including up-gunning to UBS machine guns and ShVAK cannons.

Due to the conditions of battle with the German forces, the MiG-3 was forced into a low altitude and even a ground-attack role, but it was quickly found to be inferior, and withdrawn from this role. The death knell for the MiG-3 was the discontinuation of its AM-35 engine so that Mikulin could concentrate on AM-38 production for the Ilyushin Il-2 Shturmovik. It was eventually used as a reconnaissance plane — its high service ceiling of 13,500 m (44,291 ft) and fast high altitude speed made well suited for such a role.

Even with the MiG-3's limitations, Aleksandr Pokryshkin, the second leading Soviet ace of the war with 59 official victories, recorded most of those victories while flying a MiG-3.

On 3 December 1941, a Ukrainian defector flew a MiG-3 to Melitopol airfield and surrendered to Romanian troops. The pilot's aircraft was repainted in Romanian markings and flown at Brasov by Captain 'Bazu' Cantacuzino, one of Romania's top pilots, and used as an "aggressor" for training purposes. The Soviets later seized this aircraft in the early fall of 1944, following Romania's break away from the German Alliance. This aircraft was known to have been seen in at least two different paint schemes during the time it was in the hands of Captain Cantacuzino.

Variants

Throughout the rest of the war, Mikoyan and Gurevich continued to develop the MiG-3 along the high-altitude interceptor lines that it had originally been designed for, which led to a series of ever-larger and more powerful prototypes, serially designated from the I-220 to the I-225[2]. (Some sources mistakenly assign the MiG-7 designation to one of these aircraft.) While promising enough, the air war over Germany was demonstrating that the heyday of the piston-engined fighter was over, and no production order followed.

There were several attempts to re-engine the aircraft with the engine it was originally designed for, the AM-37. This was designated the MiG-7, but with production of this engine ceasing as well, the project stalled.[3] From spring-1942 onwards, the MiG-3's were moved from the front line to air defence squadrons, some of which flew them for the rest of the war. One final attempt made to save the aircraft was to re-engine it with a Shvetsov ASh-82 radial engine, the same engine that had been used to create the Lavochkin La-5 from the LaGG-3. The prototypes were designated I-210 and I-211, and the result was successful enough that production was considered under the designation MiG-9 (not to be confused with the later jet). However, the La-5 was already in production and the I-211 did not offer the air force anything that it did not already have in that aircraft. Some MiG-9 airframes were even tested with the Pratt & Whitney R-2800-63 engine.

Two final prototypes, the I-230 and I-231[4], attempted to make the most of the original MiG-3 and its engine by considerably lightening the aircraft, but with the type relegated to secondary units, the Soviet air force was simply not interested.

* MiG-3 : Single-seat interceptor fighter aircraft, powered by a 1,007 kW (1,350 hp) Mikulin AM-35A piston engine.
* I-210 : MiG-3 prototype powered by a Shvetsov ASh-82 radial piston engine. Also known as the MiG-3-82.
* I-211 : MiG-3 prototype powered by a Shvetsov radial piston engine.
* MiG-3U : This was another MiG-3 prototype, powered by a 1,007 kW (1,350 hp) Mikulin AM-35A piston engine.

Survivors

In May 2007, a restored MiG-3 flew at Novosibirsk, Siberia. As of July 2007[update], the aircraft had completed 12 flights. In August 2007, the restored plane (number white 17 painted in green-brown camouflage) flew a six-minute aerobatics routine on the third day of MAKS 2007 airshow.

Operators

Soviet Union
Soviet Air Force

Specifications (Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-3)

Data from MiG: Fifty Years of Secret Aircraft Design

General characteristics

* Crew: One
* Length: 8.25 m (27 ft 1 in)
* Wingspan: 10.20 m (33 ft 5 in)
* Height: 3.30 m (10 ft 9⅞ in)
* Wing area: 17.44 m² (188 ft²)
* Airfoil: Clark YH
* Empty weight: 2,699 kg (5,965 lb)
* Loaded weight: 3,355 kg (7,415 lb)
* Powerplant: 1× Mikulin AM-35A liquid-cooled V-12, 993 kW (1,350 hp)

Performance

* Maximum speed: 640 km/h (398 mph, 346 knots) at 7,800 m (25,600 ft)
* Maximum speed at sea level : 505 km/h (314 mph, 273 knots)
* Combat range: 820 km (510 mi,443 NM)
* Service ceiling: 12,000 m (39,400 ft)
* Wing loading: 155 kg/m² (39.3 lb/ft²)
* Power/mass: 0.30 kW/kg (0.18 hp/lb)
* Climb to 8,000 m (26,250 ft): 10.28 min

Armament

* 1 × 12.7 mm UBS machine gun
* 2 × 7.62 mm ShKAS machine guns.

* Weight of round 1.44 kg (3.17 lb). The UBS used high explosive PETN ammunition. Some MiG-3's had 2 × UBK guns under the wings, but this negatively affected flight performance.

* 2 × 100 kg (220 lb) bombs, 2 spray containers for poisons, gas or flammable liquids or 6 × 82 mm RS-82 rockets

MiG-1

The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-1 (Микоян-Гуревич МиГ-1) was a Soviet fighter aircraft of World War II. Although difficult to handle, it formed the basis for the MiG-3, which proved to be a capable high-altitude interceptor aircraft and established a reputation for its designers.

Development and Operational History

The MiG-1 was designed in response to a requirement for a fighter with an inline engine issued by the Soviet Air Force in January 1939. Initially the aircraft, designated I-200, was designed in the Polikarpov construction bureau. Work started in June 1939, under the direction of Nikolai Polikarpov and his assistant M. Tetivikin. Polikarpov himself preferred radial engines and promoted his I-180 design at that time, but when the powerful Mikulin AM-37 inline engine became available, he decided to use it in a fighter. The approach that he selected was to build the smallest possible aircraft around the intended powerplant, thereby minimising weight and drag — the philosophy of the light fighter. As specified, the aircraft was to be capable of reaching 670 km/h (417 mph). In August 1939, Polikarpov made N. Andrianov a leading designer. At that time, however, Polikarpov fell out of favour with Stalin and as a result, when Polikarpov went in November 1939 to tour Germany's aviation works, the Soviet authorities decided to scatter his construction team and create a new Experimental Construction Section (OKO), headed by Artem Mikoyan and Mikhail Gurevich, which remained formally subordinated to Polikarpov bureau until June 1940. Further work upon the I-200 design was assigned to Mikoyan and Gurevich, who later became recognized — not with full justice — as its designers.

The result was a highly conventional aircraft that flew on schedule on April 5, 1940, although its intended powerplant was not ready in time. The flight was conducted by Arkadij Ekatov on the Khodynka (Frunze) Airfield in Moscow, and was able to attain a speed of 648.5 km/h (402.9 mph) at 6,900 m (22,638 ft).[1] Instead, the new fighter flew with the less powerful AM-35, and even with this soon broke the Soviet air speed record by 40 km/h (25 mph). It could not, however, attain the speed originally specified by the air force with this engine. The I-200 was put into production almost immediately, on May 31, 1940. In contrast to the other competing designs, the I-26 (Yak-1) and I-301 (LaGG-3), the I-200 successfully completed the state trials in August on its first attempt. By the end of the year, the type was already being delivered to test squadrons, where it was soon discovered that the high wing loading of the small aircraft produced some very nasty handling problems, including tendencies towards both stalling and spinning, and a lack of directional stability.

As reports of the handling problems came back to Mikoyan and Gurevich, they worked to remedy them, incorporating many design changes. They also increased the aircraft's range by increasing fuel tank capacity. The improved plane was first flown on October 29, 1940. According to a new naming system, from December 9, 1940 the first 100 I-200 were designated MiG-1 (after the initials of Mikoyan and Gurevich), while further improved aircraft were designated MiG-3.

Variants

* I-61 : This was the original designation of the I-200 prototype.
* I-200 : MiG-1 prototype.
* MiG-1 : Single-seat interceptor fighter aircraft for the Soviet Air Force.

[edit] Operators

Soviet Union

* Soviet Air Force

[edit] Specifications (Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-1)

General characteristics

* Crew: One
* Length: 8.16 m (26 ft 9 in)
* Wingspan: 10.20 m (33 ft 5 in)
* Height: 2.62 m (8 ft 7 in)
* Wing area: 17.5 m² (188 ft²)
* Airfoil: Clark YH
* Empty weight: 2,602 kg (5,736 lb)
* Loaded weight: 3,099 kg (6,832 lb)
* Max takeoff weight: 3,319 kg (7,317 lb)
* Powerplant: 1× Mikulin AM-35A liquid-cooled V-12, 1,007 kW (1,350 hp)

Performance

* Maximum speed: 657 km/h (410 mph)
* Range: 580 km (362 mi)
* Service ceiling: 12,000 m (39,370 ft)
* Rate of climb: 16.8 m/s (3,306 ft/min)
* Wing loading: 177 kg/m² (36 lb/ft²)
* Power/mass: 0.32 kW/kg (0.20 hp/lb)

Armament

* 1 × 12.7 mm BS machine gun
* 2 × 7.62 mm ShKAS machine guns

MiG

Russian Aircraft Corporation MiG, or RSK MiG, is a Russian joint stock company. Formerly Mikoyan or Mikoyan-i-Gurevich Design Bureau (Russian: Микоян и Гуревич, МиГ), it is a military aircraft design bureau, primarily designing fighter aircraft. It was formerly a Soviet design bureau, and was founded by Artem Mikoyan and Mikhail Gurevich as "Mikoyan and Gurevich", with the bureau prefix "MiG." Upon Mikoyan's death in 1970, Gurevich's name was dropped from the name of the bureau, although the bureau prefix remained "MiG". The firm also operates several machine-building and design bureaus, including the Kamov helicopter plant.

MiG aircraft were also used by the Chinese, North Korean, and North Vietnamese in aerial confrontations with American and allied forces. The Soviet Union sold many of these planes within its sphere of influence.

The Russian government is planning to merge Mikoyan with Ilyushin, Irkut, Sukhoi, Tupolev, and Yakovlev as a new company named United Aircraft Corporation.