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Wild Blue Yonder 1: 50 Years of Gs & Jets
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Wild Blue Yonder - Episode 1 - 50 Years of Gs and Jets (Digital Ranch) (Spectrum Holobyte)(1-107-40-101)(1994).iso
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00115_Field_115.txt
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1994-08-29
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The MiG Ancestry
MiG fighters, the greatest Soviet airplanes, were the inspired
product of the factories of Mikoyan-Gurevich. Artyem Mikoyan
began his career in aviation at Polikarpov, where he worked on
the elegant, gull-winged I-153, the best of all biplane fighters.
In 1938, after studying the DC-3 at the Douglas factory in Santa
Monica, California, Mikoyan teamed with Mikhail Gurevich in a
competition to build a new fighter.
Although their first design was not successful, Mikoyan and
Gurevich's second attempt produced the first of the wartime
generation of low-wing fighters -- the MiG-1. This aircraft
purportedly went from drafting table to runway in only 90 days.
Despite adverse flying characteristics stemming from a lack of
longitudinal stability, 2,100 MiG-1s were built. The fighters
were important in holding back the German tide in 1941.
On the eve of World War II, the MiG-3 succeeded on the production
lines. While it was more successful than its predecessor, this
MiG fighter could not compete with Germany's Messerschmitts. The
MiG design team was then pressed into the jet engine race. Their
first successful jet was the MiG-9, a straight-wing fighter with
an underslung engine.
Next Mikoyan and Gurevich developed the revolutionary MiG-15, an
amalgamation of German and Russian design ideas powered by the
British Rolls-Royce Nene engine. This plane became one of the
most famous jet aircraft in history, solidly establishing the
reputation of the MiG design team in the Soviet Union. A steady
procession of worthy aircraft followed -- MiG-17, 19, 23 and 25.
Each aircraft was more advanced and had higher performance than
the previous fighter, and each MiG was produced in quantities
much larger than possible in the West.
Each MiG aircraft was characterized by a basic simplicity.
Designers reserved the most elaborate construction techniques for
the most vital areas, while leaving less important areas roughly
finished. Perhaps their most important characteristic was that
each MiG fighter was equal to its mission. While an individual
MiG fighter might be exceeded in certain performance areas by
Western counterparts, the performance of the MiG was always
adequate enough to do the job it was assigned to do.