Happy Birthday to the mighty MiG-15 ‘Fagot’
The MiG-15 owed its success to an unexpected windfall, the British Labour Government agreeing to sell the USSR the Rolls Royce Nene turbojet, and a licence to manufacture it. The…
December 30, 2024
The MiG-15 owed its success to an unexpected windfall, the British Labour Government agreeing to sell the USSR the Rolls Royce Nene turbojet, and a licence to manufacture it. The Nene was copied as the Klimov RD-45, and powered two competing Soviet swept-wing fighter designs – Lavochkin’s La-168, and Mikoyan’s I-310.
The I-310 made its first flight was 30 December 1947, just two months after the North American F-86 Sabre, and it was quickly ordered into production as the MiG-15, flying in production form on 31 December 1948.
NATO’s Air Standards Co-ordinating Committee allocated the reporting name ‘Falcon’, but this was judged to be too ‘laudatory’ and flattering, and ‘Fagot’ was used instead. (Some years later a similar situation arose when the Tupolev Tu-22 was renamed from ‘Beauty’ to ‘Blinder’!)
The MiG-15’s performance was revelatory, and it saw extensive use in the Korean War, proving particularly successful against UN bombers and older straight-winged jets, but proving vulnerable to the F-86.
The type went on to form the backbone of Russian and Warsaw Pact air forces until replaced by the improved MiG-17, but the type remained in use as an advanced trainer for many years, particularly in its two-seat MiG-15UTI form, known by the NATO reporting name ‘Midget’.
The USSR built 1,344 MiG-15s, 8,352 examples of the refined MiG-15bis and 3,434 two-seat MiG-15UTIs. Czechoslovakia built it under license as the S-102, S-103 and CS-102, producing another 3,453, while Poland built 727 as the Lim-1 and Lim-2. In China, Shenyang built between 120 and 500 MiG-15UTIs as the JJ-2.
