Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15bis
Serial Number:
001120
Period:
Post-WWII
Collection Ref: 1994/1338/A
Location: RAF Museum Cosford, National Cold War Exhibition
The MiG-15 was extremely simple although advanced in
concept. It had a better rate of climb, ceiling and high-altitude radius
of turn than any Allied jet aircraft at the time. It came as a shock to
the American pilots who first encountered it in combat over Korea.
Conceived in 1947, the design lacked a suitable engine until the British
Government made a gift of an example of their latest turbojet, the Rolls-Royce
Nene, to the Soviet Union. It was immediately stripped and copied and
went into production for the new fighter and within eight months the prototype
MiG-15 was flying, entering service in 1948.
Put into mass production in the Soviet Union, MiG-15s were also built
under licence in Poland, Czechoslovakia and China. Its very simplicity
made it an ideal jet fighter for many of the Soviet Union's client states
and at least thirty Air Forces have operated the single-seater or the
Mig-15UTI two-seat trainer. In 1950, the MiG-15bis, fitted with a more
powerful engine and improved avionics, replaced the earlier model. By
1994 only the Cuban Air Force was still flying Soviet-built MiG-15bis
aircraft, but several other Air Forces fly examples built in China.
The MiG-15
was quite a
surprise to the
West when it
appeared during
the Korean War.
