The MiG 15: Effective enough to deter the 1950 nuclear war! (revised the 14 / 10 / 2023 *)

At the end of the WWII, all the airmen in the world were fascinated by the brand new turbojets aircrafts operationally used by the Luftwaffe. 

These aircrafts demonstrated clearly the advantages of the swept wings (the Me 262 fighters had a swept of 18.5°).

Lockheed had experienced a good initial success with the prototype Lulu-Belle despite her straight wings.

The British, more wise, developed the good De Haviland Vampire fighters, which combined good flying qualities with performances clearly better than the last propeller driven fighters of the last months of the WWII. 

The Gloster Meteor, with 2 turbojets, more imposant and heavier for this reason, was not very fast, but she had a longer range.

The French decision makers, at the French Libération time, demanded over-armored and over-armed fighters to their nationalized aero industries. So, these fighters (SO 6020 and Arsenal VG 90) became too heavy, too slow and had poor climbing performances.

Very simple and logical choices

 After an very ordinary first draft (the MiG 9), Mikoyan and Gurevitch created their MiG 15.

After the victory over Germany, MM Mikoyan and Gurevitch managed to create a very light (but sturdy) fighter, able to fly at more than 1,000 kph at sea level and to climb at more than 15,000 m.

The MiG 15 was the first efficient turbojet fighter in the world to be really efficient. 

From this point of view, she was equivalent, for the Cold War, to the 1916 Bébé Nieuport.

• She was 10.10 m long and weighted 3,250 kg empty, and 4,920 kg for take off.

• {The Korean War demonstrated that the little MiG 15 was more resistant to the Colt-Browning M2 fire of its American adversaries than the latter were to its cannon fire..}

• Her wingspan was 10.08 m, and her wing area totaled 20.60 m², but she had a swept angle of 37°, twice the one of the Me 262.

• So, the wing loading of 239 kg/m², was lighter than those of most of her opponents, allowing a good dogfighting ability.

• The relative thickness was about 10% at the root.

Hungarian Mig 15: A slim silhouette

At the very beginning of the Cold War, Russian engineers were relatively late about the turbojets technology. 

Incredibly, they were able to obtain from the Britishs 40 Rolls-Royce Nene turbojets then seen as the most powerful (2,200 kp) and the most reliable engine in the world. 

{Such a transaction toward USSR was completely forbidden for all other West countries, but busyness busyness.} 

The Russian team chose already the Pitot air intake : The simplest and the best device for tackling all the difficulties of an air current approaching the speed of sound.

This neatly sidestepped over all boundary layer issues. (Henry Pitot was a French scientist of the XVIIIth century who was one of the first to understand the basis of hydrodynamics. He discovered the boundary layer.)

The  Pitot air intake of a MiG 15 -

Now, this fighter may take advantage of all its power, fineness and agility. 

Climbing to 5,000 m took 2' 24" and to 10,000m, less than 7 minutes.

At  5,000 m, a 360° turn (at 600 kph) was done with a 1,050m radius in 40 seconds, at 10,000m, the 360° turn - with a radius increased to 2,000m - was done (at 650 kph) in 70 secondes.

The maximal speed at sea level was 1,042 kph, decreased at 5,000m to 1,021 km/h and, again at, 10,000 m, to 974 km/h.

The instantaneous climbing speed at sea level was 41m/s.

The climbing speed decreased to 28 m/s at 5,000m and to 16 m/s at 10,000m (the US Lockheed P 80 demonstrated only 20 m/s at sea level).

The service ceiling was 15,100m.

Mig 15 - plan

The MiG 15 had a very powerful armament (one 37mm Nudelman N 37 cannon  and two 23mm Nudelman-Richter cannons).

These weapons outclassed clearly the six 12.7 mm M2 machine-guns of the F 86 Sabre US.

The rate of fire of the 23 mm was good and the muzzle speed of 690 m/s, was sufficient for a 180 gr shell.

The 37 mm shell was even more powerful, with the same muzzle speed. 

It weighted 735 g, being devastating even for a B 29 or a B 36 strategic bomber.

First flights

The prototype (designated I 310 =  истребитель 310 = istrebitel 310 = fighter 310) first

flew the December 19, 1947, and and exceeded quickly the 1,000 kph.

She was easy to fly, very nimble and demonstrated better performances than its opponents.

 

The production rate of the MiG 15 increased quickly until 200 per month from December 1948.

Therefore, USSR was able to procure this brand new fighter to her allies, particularly to the

communist China and to North Korea.

(The MiG 15 was used by 37 countries. 15,560 of this fighters were built.}

This MiG was not perfect when flying at high transonic speed, because she suffered of pitch-up which may induce a sudden stall followed by a spin difficult to recover by recently trained pilots (as long the elevator command was not of the "all-flying" type). 


Airbrakes were added to limit the speed to Mach 0.92, avoiding such issue.


Another issue with the Mig 15 was her relatively short combat radius (1,350 km): Supplementary tanks were the solution.


29 variants were developed. 


The most important was the MiG 15bis (from 1950) which added these modifications: 

• A more potent turbojet (2,600 kgp), 

• An increase of the ferry range (to 2,500 km),

• A better top speed (1,076 kph at sea level, 1,106 km/h à 3,000 m),

• A better climb speed (51 m/s),

• A better service ceiling (15,500 m). 

8,000 Mig 15 bis were built, the major part of 15,560 MiG 15 produced.


The MiG 17, old but still active during the Viet Nam War (1973), was the ultimate version of the MiG 15, with a swept wing of 49°.






Operational Life




The Asiatic beginning of a very hot part of the Cold War.


A t first communist Chinese MiG 15 downed a P 38 lightning of the Nationalist Army of Tchang Kai Check the April 28, 1950, during the Chinese Civil War.
 
At that moment, this fact did not attract military attention.


Nevertheless, the most significant interventions of the new Russian fighter occurred during the Korean War (1950-1953).


The first act of this war was an impressive North-Korean terrestrial offensive the June 25, 1950. 


All the opposed armies used only propeller driven fighters built at the end of WWII.


The USAF was obviously superior than all of the opponent forces. 


So, all the North-Korean target appeared defenseless against the powerful US bombers B 29 (each one carrying 9 tons of bombs).


 
Unfortunately, the November 1th, 1950, the MiG 15 was flying inside the airspace of Korea: She appeared as the worst surprises for all the UNO airmen. 


The USSR generals had given the order to first destroy the Boeing B  29 bombers 
(or, eventually, B 36), because all may carry nuclear bombs.


After some air battles, the USAF allowed escort turbojet fighters to their B 29. 
The only ones available were Lockheed P 80A Shooting Star (they were 504 in Korea).


Unfortunately for them, the MiG 15 was terrific for the B 29. 


She, also, outclassed completely all the straight-winged turbojet fighters of the UNO:
Gloster Meteor, Lockheed P80A, Republic F-84 and Grumman F9F.


Yes, the prototype of the P 80 (Lulu-Belle) enjoyed a lot her pilots, unfortunately, the enlarged and 25% heavier (!) P 80A caused serious disappointment for them.  




The aerial combat of the April 12, 1951 gave a good picture of the combat value of the MiG 15.
• A Russian group numbering 44 MiG 15 attacked a UNO formation gathering 48 Boeing B 29 bombers protected by:
• 18 North American F 86 Sabre, 
• 54 Republic Thunderjet,
• 24 Lockheed P 80 Shooting Star.  

The combat occurred above the Yalu river, a zone later designated as the MiG Alley.


The Russians were less numerous (44 versus 144 = 30.5%).


They downed or badly damaged 10 B 29, one Sabre and 3 P 80 for only MiG 15 downed.


This numbers suggest that several MiG 15 were needed to shot down one single B 29.









The Mig Alley, where occurred the April 12, 1951 combat





I do not want go into detail about the various military following operations.


The Allies remembered how they used to destroy simultaneously the Me 262 turbojet fighters and their pilots: A high-altitude dive to strafe enemy fighters in the final landing phase (in the Grand Cirque, Pierre Clostermann). 
Facing the MiG 15, they used again of the same tactic.


Obviously, some Allied and very talented fighter pilots downed MiG 15 with their own propeller driven warbirds (Hawker Sea Fury, Chance Vought F4U Corsair). 
In all conditions, they were very lucky


Russian pilots of MiG 15 claimed more than 1,106 victories against UNO aircrafts.


All communists Air Forces recognized that 650 MiG 15 were lost for any possible reasons. 

The North American F 86 Sabre, the first US fighter using swept wings (35°), was the only US fighter capable of facing the MiG 15 fighter.

This fast fighter was more easy to fly under 8,000m AGL than the MiG 15 who was clearly better in the high altitudes. 

Moreover, the North-American engineers were able to introduce promptly a lot of benefic modifications during all the life-span of their fighter.

Initially, the USAF published 139 US aircraft downed by MiG 15, 68 lost by unknown causes, 237 aircraft missing due to unknown causes and 472 aircraft as "other losses". That totalized 916 losses. 

UNO pilots claimed 792 victories against the MiG fighters. 

At the present time (August 2023), the USAF recognize unofficially that the US pilot might have downed only 200 MiG 15.

The MiG 15 was still active after the Korean truce of 1953.

She was active against the Chinese Nationalist Republic of Marechal Tchang Kaï Check (Taïwan). 

She was involved in most of the military incidents of the Cold War.

She was also the main fighter in the Arabe Middle East against Israël. 

Then she had to fight against the French Dassault Ouragan and Mystère IV fighters with mixed result during the Suez Crisis (1956). 

Later, she meet more junger opponents, as in Cuba, where she was used to train the young fighter pilots of Fidel Castro.

More later, she was used in North Vietnam against USA bombers. 

The efficiency of 8 MiG 17 fighters in a battle against 46 Republic F 105 Thunderchief escorted by 21 North American F 100 Super Sabre (three F 105 shot down, they will be followed by more than 300 other F 105) was very problematic for the generals of the US  Air Force.  

(Click here to read about US losses in Vietnam).  

It resulted in the constitution of the Fighter Mafia which give birth to the F 16 and F 18 fighters.

 Strategic role

Moreover, in the early 1950's, the Mig 15 played a major strategic role.

Among the McCarthyism US politicians of this historic period, some exalted ones wanted the US government unleash a nuclear war to put an end to the USSR and communism once and for all.

My own father, who was university professor, reported me he have been approached by an an US agent to pledge his support to the US. He was totally dismayed...

Nevertheless, in 1949, USSR detonated the first Russian nuclear bomb. After that, the MiG 15 fighters (and her following variants) were in real mass production.

The April 12, 1951 aerial battle over the Yalu river had demonstrated that all the best available US bombers, even the Convair B 36 Peacemaker, were not confident of achieving their objectives. 

Pentagone understood, just in time, that destroying the Earth was not a good solution at all!

Last fires of an impressive career

 

Quickly, the Mig 15 had a little brother to train new pilots. 

She was the Mig 15 UTI with an additional seat at the rear part of the cockpit.

Mig 15 UTI - the new aircraft was only few inches longer than the true fighter!

All countries who bought Soviet's fighters got this plane to ab nihilo create their own modern air forces, and, consequently, their pilots!

That appears as the cause of the great success of Russian military airplanes in many countries in the 60's.

This was well understood by the French engineer and industrialist Marcel Dassault, during the 60's, when he added biplace variants for almost all Dassault fighters.

Very few aircrafts are given a second life after having disappeared from the air in their country of origin.. The Mig 15 was one of them.