Test Flying MiG Jet Fighters
by
Peter Dancey
SMASHWORDS EDITION
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Peter Dancey on Smashwords
Test Flying MiG Jet Fighters
Copyright © 2010 by Peter Dancey
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Test Flying MiG Jet Fighters
At the beginning of 1939, a number of Soviet OKB’s (design bureau) were commissioned with the task of creating aircraft of a new generation. A group of young enthusiastic engineers at the Polikarpov Company developed technical propositions for a high-altitude fighter with Aleksandr Mikulin’s liquid-cooled engine. Some members of the group eventually went on to become well-known designers, in particular Mikhail Gurevich who was invited to join the group when Artem Mikoyan was appointed as head of a new department.
Eventually the department was transformed into an independent design company, with Mikoyan at its head and Gurevich as his deputy - the MiG OKB. So as not to miss being considered for series production, any new design had to be produced as soon as possible as both the Yakovlev and Lavochkin OKB's had produced new fighters that at the time were preparing for flight evaluation tests. With this in mind the new machine was designed with due consideration that it would be produced with the existing machine tools and technologies, and the plant made preparations for the production of the new aircraft on the existing lines. Initial design work began in late November 1939, and the prototype, known as the I-200, made its maiden flight on 5 April 1940.
Upon completion of the military certification tests, the new aircraft was given the name MiG-1 -- the acronym of the names Mikoyan and Gurevich. It was in fact the improved version of the MiG-1, the MiG-3 that was to be produced on a mass scale at aviation Plant No.1 near Moscow. The improvement mainly consisted in the addition of an auxiliary internal fuel tank for extending the range of the fighter. The range issue arose following the tests performed by the Air Force Research and Flight Test Institute (RFTI), when the aircraft failed to reach the range of 1,000km required by the military specification, despite the additional fuel tank. The failure was reported to Stalin as an reason not to put the aircraft into series production. It had been intended to reduce fuel consumption at high altitudes with the help of a fuel-air ratio corrector, but Mikulin had forbidden use of the corrector until some problems with the engine had been sorted out. To prove the MiG-3 was capable of covering the 1,000km range, the MiG OKB persuaded Mikulin to allow a single demonstration flight with the corrector operating, and the 1,000km range was achieved. The result was reported to the Aviation Industry Minister, who in turn reported to Joseph Stalin. Stalin was not impressed, and immediately came to the conclusion that the military had originally deliberately 'played down' the performance of the aircraft so as to prevent it entering mass production (even though the military had also wished to use the fuel-air ratio corrector from the start). The commander of the Flight Test Institute, Gen Aleksandr Filin was arrested along with a number of other experienced staff. Filin was a highly respected man, a qualified engineer and an excellent test pilot. In fact Stalin knew him personally too, and had always trusted him. Nevertheless, following his arrest in November 1942 he was shot.
The MiG-3 from the very start had been intended as an air-defence fighter, and accordingly its performance was optimised for high-altitude operations. Characteristics that distinguished it from other Soviet fighters of the era; Aleksandr Mikulin's AM-35 engine, was, a high- altitude development of the AM-34 engine designed for bombers. It was the only fighter at the time equipped with an engine of indigenous design, the Yaks were fitted with the M-105 engine based on the Hispano-Suiza motor, and the Lavochkin La-5were equipped with a development of the American Wright-Cyclone engines. To adapt the engine to high altitudes it was supplied with a supercharger which increased its power by increasing the pressure of the fuel air mixture. As a result the altitude up to which maximum engine power could be maintained was up to 7,200m as against the normal 4,000m plus. Therefore the MiG-3 could operate up to 12,000m plus, higher than any fighter plane of the day, while at lower altitudes it was capable of attaining 650km/h.
Although somewhat 'heavy-going' at lower altitudes, it was a capable machine at high altitudes. In WW II whenever a MiG-3 formation encountered Messerschmitt’s at 5,000m or higher, the German aircraft always preferred to opt out of a fight; at that altitude the MiG-3 was superior to all other aircraft. A very common tactic of the Germans was to lure a MiG to a lower altitude - under 4,000m - where the Messerschmitt had an advantage. By the time there were only a few MiG-3 fighters left in the VVS front-line units, the Germans had finally introduced a high-altitude modification of the Messerschmitt, which enabled them to change tactic: to entice the Soviet fighters up instead of luring them down.
At the end of December 1941 three months after Manufacturing Plant No. 1 had been relocated to Kuibyshev, serial production of the MiG-3 fighter ceased. One of the main reasons for this, if not the main one, was that the engine fitted - the AM-35 - was practically the same type (and produced at the same plants) as the one fitted in the Ilyushin-Il-2 Sthurmovik - the AM-38, also designed Mikulin. The AM-38 was a low-altitude modification of the AM-35; there being great demand for Il-2 attack aircraft at the time, and there were not enough engines available to equip both types of aircraft — and Stalin personally had directed the factories to increase the output of the ground-attack Sthurmovik and stop production of the MiG-3. The MiG-3 had served the Soviet VVS well in the Battle of Moscow at the end of 1941, and then subsequently, gave very efficient service in the air defence of Moscow and Leningrad.
Derived from the MiG-3 was the MiG-7 high-altitude aircraft, the prototype of which appeared in 1944 was equipped with the AM-39 engine with two turbo superchargers and a four-blade propeller. Factory designation was I-222 ('I' the first letter of the Russian word for fighter). As a combat fighter it had an exceedingly good operating ceiling of 14,500m and a record high-altitude speed of almost 700km/h.
Two other Mikoyan projects at the time were a modification of the MiG-3 with an air- cooled engine and a twin-engined fighter with the same kind of engine. Both aircraft were to some extent superior to all existing fighter designs at the time, but neither of them (nor the I-222) entered series production, for at the time there was no possibility of stopping the lines to introduce a new model into production. The only exception made was for Tupolev’ new bomber, the Tu-2 which was placed in production in 1943 to satisfy the need for an advanced twin-engined bomber.