The Flickr Westernskyaviationwarbirdmuseum Image Generatr

Though the Mikoyan-Gurevich design bureau had put the excellent MiG-15 fighter in production, giving the Soviet Union one of the best fighters of the early 1950s, MiG felt it could further improve on the design. The MiG-15 had shown itself to be unstable as it neared the speed of sound, and it was anticipated that further refinement could be done to the aircraft. As a result, MiG OKB began work on an improved MiG-15, referred to as the MiG-15-45 because of its primary characteristic, an improved swept wing. This new wing was thinner than that on the MiG-15, included wing fences for improved aerodynamics, and was swept at 45 degrees near the wingroot and to a slightly lesser degree at the wingtip, giving the new variant a distinctive “banana-wing” shape.

The fuselage was extended to incorporate an afterburner on the VK-1F turbojet, while a small ventral fin was added beneath the tail to further improve stability. While the MiG-17 could not quite break the sound barrier, it was very stable in most respects and kept the heavy armament and good all-around visibility of the MiG-15. The design changes were enough to warrant a new designation, so it became the MiG-17.

The first MiG-17 flew in January 1950, and despite the loss of the prototype to a fatal crash, low-level production soon began—low-level due to the urgent need for MiG-15s to fight in the Korean War. Not until after the war had ended did full-scale production begin on the MiG-17. By then, it was considered somewhat obsolescent: the supersonic MiG-19 was placed in production alongside the MiG-17, while work had begun on the MiG-21. Nonetheless, it was kept in production for the rest of the decade as the MiG-19 proved to be a bit of a disappointment. The MiG-17 was updated in 1953 after the Soviet Union captured a F-86F Sabre, and copied elements of the Sabre’s ejection seat and gunsight into the new fighter. It was dubbed “Fresco” by NATO. Attempts were made to build all-weather versions of the MiG-17 with mixed results; the all-missile MiG-17PM was reviled by its pilots due to a poor radar and worse missiles. The most common version was the day fighter MiG-17F.

The MiG-17’s combat debut was not auspicious, seeing action in the 1956 Suez War and the 1958 Quemoy Crisis. In the former, Egypt’s few MiG-17s were outnumbered and outflown by French and Israeli Mystere IV and Super Mystere fighters, while over the Taiwan Straits, People’s Republic of China MiG-17s were ambushed by Republic of China F-86Fs equipped with Sidewinder missiles. By 1960, production had ended, and the Soviet Union sold off most of its stock to client states, reequipping with more modern MiG-21s.

In 1962, the Soviet Union supplied the nascent North Vietnamese People’s Air Force with 36 MiG-17Fs as the nucleus of a new air force, and to offset the American-supplied Thai and South Vietnamese air forces. By 1965, when Operation Rolling Thunder began, these aircraft were sent against US Air Force and Navy fighters attacking the Thanh Hoa bridge. On 4 April 1965, a force of four MiG-17s shot down two F-105 Thunderchiefs to score the VPAF’s first victories of the war, but paid a heavy price, losing three out of the four to escorting F-100 Super Sabres and their own antiaircraft fire. The MiG-17 would remain the primary VPAF aircraft throughout Rolling Thunder, though it was gradually supplemented by the MiG-21. Since the MiG-17 was subsonic and lacked radar, it depended on ground radar to guide the pilot to the target, but once in a dogfight, the small, very manueverable, cannon-armed MiG had a definite advantage over American aircraft; only the F-8 Crusader came remotely close to matching it. A favorite tactic of MiG-17 pilots was to hide “in the grass” at low level and pick off any unwary American pilot, or attack during a bomb run when their opponents were at their weakest. It came as a rude surprise to American pilots that semi-obsolete aircraft were still capable of destroying the latest word in military equipment, and it pointed up the deficiencies in American air combat training.

MiG-17s accounted for about 50 USAF and Navy aircraft during Rolling Thunder, enough that when the Top Gun program was formed in 1969, A-4 Skyhawks were assigned specifically to simulate them. This was also secretly supplemented by two ex-Syrian MiG-17Fs captured by Israel in 1968 and given to the United States under Project Have Drill. One deficiency that was found in the MiG-17 was that, at high speeds and low altitudes, compressibility would set in and the aircraft became unresponsive to the controls. These lessons were put to good use when American strikes resumed in 1972. By this time, the VPAF had largely withdrawn its MiG-17s to training units, preferring the more modern MiG-19 and MiG-21. While the MiG-17 did account for a few more kills, they mostly ended up being shot down by better trained US Navy pilots and USAF F-4E pilots, who now had internal guns themselves. In the right hands, a MiG-17 was still a formidable opponent, as US Navy aces Randy Cunningham and William Driscoll found out on 10 May 1972, when a MiG-17 dueled in the vertical with their F-4J for nearly ten minutes before it was finally shot down.

After Vietnam, the MiG-17 had outlived its usefulness, and though it would see limited service in African brushfire wars and in the Yom Kippur War of 1973, what few air forces retained them relegated them to second-line and training units. A few persisted in the Albanian and North Korean air forces until 2000. 10,603 MiG-17s were built by the Soviet Union, Poland, and China, serving in 40 air forces; today, several hundred still remain in museums and in flyable condition, including 27 in the United States alone.

This MiG-17 is a Lim-5, a MiG-17F built under license by PZL of Poland; it served with the Polish Air Force from 1959 until probably the late 1970s. In the early 1990s, it was purchased by an American warbird collector, and flew as part of the Commemorative Air Force's collection at Amarillo, Texas. In 2009, it was obtained by the Western Sky Aviation Warbird Museum in St. George, Utah, where it's remained ever since. I saw it in August 2020.

Most operational Soviet MiG-17s were bare metal, but this aircraft wears overall light gray--which is much easier to maintain. It is still flyable.

At the end of World War II, the victorious Allies captured both German scientists and research papers in aerodynamics which had given the Germans a slight edge in technology during the war. Among this was research into swept wings, which promised better handling at high speeds, a feature used successfully in the Messerschmitt Me 262. All the combatant nations had been developing jet fighters at the end of the war, and the Soviet Union was no different: like the Western Allies, it found the swept wing concept to be a perfect solution to add speed without sacrificing stability; unlike the West, the Soviets could not take advantage of it due to a lack of adequate jet engines. Soviet metallurgy was simply not up to the task, and experimental jet fighters were severely underpowered. Engine designer Vladimir Klimov, however, came up with a novel idea: he asked the British in 1946 if they could provide a few examples of their latest engine. To the stunned surprise of Klimov, the Mikoyan-Gurevich design bureau, and Josef Stalin, the British complied, providing Klimov with the plans for the Rolls-Royce Nene turbojet, one of the most successful jet engines in history. Klimov quickly reverse engineered it as the VK-1, and just like that, the Soviets had the perfect engine for their planned jet interceptors.

MiG OKB already had a jet fighter in service, the MiG-9, but it was a poor performer. By modifying a MiG-9 into the I-310 prototype, with VK-1 propulsion and swept wings and tail surfaces, the resultant aircraft was superb: it was very manueverable and fast. It was placed into production as the MiG-15. This in turn was superseded by the more advanced and reliable MiG-15bis, which added airbrakes and a few minor avionics changes. Though pilots hated the cramped cockpit, which forced them to fly without heated or pressurized flight suits—a real concern in frigid Russian winters—they loved its responsiveness and speed. Though the MiG-15 was designed to intercept the B-29 Superfortress, hence its heavy cannon armament, it could quite easily hold its own in a dogfight. It rapidly replaced most propeller-driven fighters in the Soviet inventory, and was quickly supplied to Soviet client states.

The MiG-15 would get its first taste of action during the Chinese Civil War, when Russian-flown MiG-15s flew on behalf of the Communist Chinese against the Nationalists; a P-38L was shot down on 28 April 1950 for the type’s first victory. By far, however, it would be Korea where the MiG-15 would see the most action.

After starting out well, the North Korean armies were, by fall 1950, in full rout from South Korea, pursued by United Nations forces. The World War II-era North Korean People’s Air Force had been annihilated by UN aircraft, and though China intended to intervene on behalf of North Korea, it lacked trained pilots. Stalin agreed to secretly provide both MiG-15s and the pilots to fly them, operating from bases in China across the Yalu River from North Korea. The pilots, under command of Soviet top ace Ivan Kozhedub, were instructed to speak in what little Korean they knew, and never fly over territory where they might be captured. The former was rarely heeded in the heat of combat, while the short range of the MiG-15 limited pilots to flying in and around the Yalu valley in any case. This rapidly became known as “MiG Alley.” By November 1950, Russian-flown MiG-15s were in combat against American and British aircraft, both sides fielding pilots who had already flown combat in World War II. Both sides were to find they were close to evenly matched as well: the Russians claimed the first jet-to-jet victory on 1 November, when a MiG-15 shot down a USAF F-80C; four days later, they suffered their first loss, to a US Navy F9F Panther. Most engagements were to occur between the F-86 Sabre and the MiG-15.

Once more, the two were closely matched. The MiG-15 had a better rate of climb, was superior above 33,000 feet, and had harder hitting cannon armament. The F-86’s six machine guns were often ineffective against the rugged MiG, but it was more manueverable, especially at low level, and if the machine guns did not cause as much damage, they fired at three times the rate of the MiG-15’s cannons, and usually hit what they aimed at, due to a superior radar-ranging gunsight. Both sides had to deal with instability at high speeds: if the MiG pilot got into trouble, he would climb out of danger, whereas the Sabre pilot would dive. The pilots were evenly matched, though the Russians would later admit that the Americans were better trained. Both sides overclaimed during the war, with both Soviet and American pilots claiming 12 to 1 kill ratios: the truth may never be known, though 40 Russians were awarded the title of ace during the war. The MiGs did succeed in one task, driving the B-29s into night attacks, after six were shot down or badly damaged on a single mission in October 1951.

Interestingly enough, the F-86 was as much a surprise to the Soviets as the MiG-15 was to the West, and both sides attempted to procure an example of the other. The United States’ Operation Moolah, offering $100,000 to any Eastern Bloc pilot who defected with a MiG-15, resulted in three MiG-15s arriving in the West, two flown by Polish pilots to Denmark and the third by North Korean pilot No Kum-Sok.

After the end of the Korean War, the MiG-15 remained in service, though it slowly began to be replaced by the MiG-17 and MiG-19. Nonetheless, MiG-15s were involved in eleven separate incidents during the Cold War, shooting down several US and British reconnaissance aircraft and an Israeli airliner. By the mid-1950s, however, the MiG-15 was beginning to show its age, and in combat with Sidewinder-equipped F-86s of Taiwan and Israeli Super Mysteres, it came off second best. Gradually, single-seat MiG-15s were retired from active service, though hundreds of two-seat MiG-15UTI “Midget” trainers remained in service; the MiG-15UTI is still flown by several air forces to this day. About 16,000 MiG-15s were produced in the Soviet Union, Poland, and Czechslovakia, and a good number remain in existence today in museums and numerous flyable examples, including 43 in the United States.

Like many of the MiG-15s in the United States, this aircraft is a former Chinese example. It was obtained by the Western Sky Aviation Warbird Museum in St. George, Utah in 2005, though it may have been owned by another warbird collector before this. It is painted in an eye-catching overall red scheme; though this would've been suicidal in air combat to have a MiG painted like this, the Soviet Air Force did have a demonstration squadron of MiG-15s painted in red and silver during the 1950s and 1960s.

By the 1970s, the primary entry trainer for Soviet Bloc air forces was still the Yakovlev Yak-18. While the Yak-18 was a good, reliable trainer, it had entered service just after World War II, and was getting long in the tooth. Yakovlev had developed the Yak-50, which was a single-seat aerobatic aircraft that incorporated some design elements of the Yak-18. As the Yak-50 captured several aerobatic records, the Soviet Air Force was interested in developing the Yak-50 into a replacement for the Yak-18. The result was the Yak-52.

The Yak-52 combined the best of the Yak-18 and the Yak-50. Though a new design, it retained the basic layout and cockpit arrangement of the venerable Yak-18, but had the maneuverability of the Yak-50. It was tougher than the acrobatic aircraft, and designed to have the optimal features of a trainer: a rugged, forgiving aircraft able to take the abuse of an untrained pilot. Since most of the Soviet Yak-52s would be operated by the paramilitary DOSAAF organization, based at grass fields, the Yak-52 would be designed to land nearly anywhere with a minimum of ground support. Nearly everything on the aircraft was powered pneumatically rather than hydraulically.

The Yak-52 proved to be a popular trainer, and thousands were produced, both by Yakovlev and by Aerostar of Romania (where it was designated the Iak-52). Several versions were produced, including a ground attack trainer and a "Western" version that used a tailwheel arrangement rather than tricycle landing gear. Production ended in 1998, but Yak-52s are still in use around the world, both in military and civilian roles.

This Yak-52 is probably the older variant, as it has a two-bladed propeller. It is painted a very attractive overall red scheme, and is flyable; it is currently part of the Western Sky Aviation Warbird Museum in St. George, Utah.

Western Sky Aviation Warbird Museum

Western Sky Aviation Warbird Museum

9th November 2012., Nellis Air Force Base, Las Vegas, Nevada, United States

9th November 2012., Nellis Air Force Base, Las Vegas, Nevada, United States