Mig-15

About

The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 was the Soviet Union's first successful swept-wing jet fighter, and one of the most produced jet fighters in history. The prototype made its first flight on December 30, 1947, with Mikoyan-Gurevich test pilot Viktor Yuganov at the controls. The aircraft entered Soviet Air Force service in 1949 and went on to be license-built across the Eastern Bloc and exported to Soviet allies worldwide, with total production reaching approximately 18,000 airframes — a remarkable number for a Cold War combat aircraft.

The MiG-15's defining moment came over Korea. When swept-wing MiG-15s appeared in the skies over the Yalu River in late 1950, they outclassed every existing United Nations fighter, and the United States rushed swept-wing F-86 Sabres into theater specifically to counter the threat. The resulting jet-versus-jet air combat between MiG-15 and F-86 became the first jet-age dogfights in history. Powered by a Soviet-built copy of a Rolls-Royce Nene turbojet (acquired through a 1946 sale that the British government later regretted), armed with a heavy 37mm cannon and twin 23mm cannons, and designed for high-altitude bomber-killing rather than dogfighting, the MiG-15 set the design template that influenced Soviet fighter design through the MiG-17, MiG-19, and beyond.

The unmistakable MiG-15 silhouette — short, stubby fuselage; sharply swept mid-wing; high T-tail; nose intake — is one of the most-modeled jet subjects in modern RC EDF scale flying.

In the simulator

A demanding swept-wing jet that captures the personality of the real MiG-15. Quick on the controls, with the kind of approach speeds early-jet pilots had to learn the hard way. Use it for jet pattern flying with the visual signature of a Cold War icon. A natural counterpart to the F-86 Sabre (CV Planes Pack 3) — the two airframes that fought the first jet-age air war.