Category Mig

During the second half of 1941, to improve the aircraft’s maximum speed at high altitude, the ОКБ engineers equipped a MiG-3 with a Mikulin AM-37, an engine then under development that was rated at

1,030 kW (1,400 ch) at 5,000 m (16,400 feet). Matching the new engine was no problem because both the AM-35A and the AM-37 had the same design dimensions and attachment points Test pilot A I Zhukov made a few flights with this reengined MiG-3. But in the end the whole program was canceled, development of the AM-37 having proved too difficult. In some ОКБ documents the MiG-3 with the AM – 37 engine is referred to as the MiG-7.

A few months before the start of World War II, at the dawn of the jet era, members of the MiG design department started to gather and test various ideas for future aircraft. For this purpose, they decided to build an experimental prototype: an unconventional canard, or tail-first, machine (canard is French for duck). This is how Mikoyan and Gurye­vich justified their enterprise in a note enclosed with the preliminary design:

The canard-tailed aircraft we have designed and that is now being built is an experimental machine intended to check the maneuverability and steadiness in flight of that type of aircraft and to verify the characteristics of highly swept wings. We have chosen the pusher-prop formula because it will enable us to check the low-speed handling with a wing that will not be blown by the propeller. This point is of special interest for aircraft pow­ered by jet engines. The Utka ["duck”] will be a useful tool with which to examine thoroughly all the problems of handling, taxi­ing, takeoff, and landing (including go-around and touch-and-go) without any propeller slipstream effects on control surfaces.

In conceptualizing the Utka or MiG-8, the ОКБ project engineers had in mind the installation of a jet engine on an airframe of the same layout so that its hot exhaust gases would keep away from all structural elements. The design was prepared in close cooperation with a team of TsAGI technicians. The MiG-8 had a high wing braced by V-shaped struts with a two-spar fabric-covered wooden structure that displayed a 12 percent constant thickness ratio. The wing’s forward sweep angle was 20 degrees at the leading edge with a 2-degree anhedral. The fuse­lage, fins, rudders, and canard surfaces were made of wood.

The Utka was fitted with a fixed tricycle landing gear (a first for a MiG aircraft). The cabin had room for three people, with the pilot in front. Lateral and forward visibility was excellent because of the high position of the wing and the fact that the engine was in the rear. The engine bay and the fuselage were aerodynamically well matched.

The elevator was controlled by a rod and a bellcrank, while the rudder and ailerons were controlled by cables. The two duralumin fuel tanks had a total capacity of 195 1 (51 US gallons) and were located in the center section of the wing. The 18-1 (4.7-US gallon) oil tank was located behind the cabin. The air-cooled Shvetsov-Okromeshko M-11F radial engine offered 81 kw (110 ch) and was entirely cowled with the

exception of the cylinder heads. The two-bladed, fixed-pitch propeller was made of wood and measured 2.36 m (7 feet, 8.9 inches) in diame­ter. Gear legs were constructed of welded metal with pneumatic shock absorbers; the front wheel (300 x 150 initially) had an oleo strut. The wheels of the main gear (500 x 150) were fitted with pneumatic brakes. Later, the wheel sizes were standardized at 500 x 150. The Utka was flown in 1945 for the first time by test pilot A. I. Grinchik. The two fins were then located at the wing tips, and the leading edge was fitted with protruding slots. The two fins were later moved to midspan. The rud­ders were fitted with balance weights, and the leading edge slots were removed. The ОКБ also tried out wing tips with a strong anhedral.

The MiG-8 was remarkable for its outstanding stability, refusing to spin even when used at great angles of attack. Many OKB pilots such as A. N. Grinchik, A. I. Zhukov, A. N. Chernoburov, and chief engineer E. F. Nashchyekin spent a great deal of time at its controls. Because of its outstanding flying qualities, safety and ease of handling, and low man­ufacturing costs, the OKB tried to sell the aircraft to Aeroflot, hut the offer was not taken into account. The plane served as the design bureau’s liaison aircraft for several years.

Specifications

Span, 9.5 m (31 ft 1.9 in); span of the canard surfaces, 3.5 m (11 ft 5.8 in); length, 6.995 m (22 ft 11.4 in); wheel track, 2.5 m (8 ft 2.4 in); wheel base, 2.996 m (9 ft 10 in); wing area, 15 m2 (161.5 sq ft); empty weight, 642 kg (1,415 lh); takeoff weight, 997 kg (2,197 lb); max take­off weight, 1,150 kg (2,535 lb); fuel, 140 kg (309 lh); oil, 14 kg (31 lh), wing loading, 66.5/76.7 kg/m2 (13.6/15.72 lb/sq ft); aircraft balance, 8% MAC.

Performance

Max speed, 205 km/h (111 kt); landing speed, 77 km/h (42 kt), range, 500 km (310 mi).

In an attempt to correct the inadequacy of the MiG-3 at low and medi­um altitudes, the AM-35A was replaced by the AM-38, the only avail­able engine that could give the aircraft the means to stand up to the Messerschmitt Bf 109Fs first encountered in June 1941. Installing the AM-38 in the MiG-3 required few modifications, since the weight and overall dimensions of both engines were almost identical. The AM-38 afforded 1,178 kW (1,600 ch) at takeoff, and its maximum rating at

2,0 m (6,560 feet) was 1,141 kW (1,550 ch).

A production MiG-3 was reengined in this way and somewhat mod­ified by reshaping the exhaust pipes, removing the bomb racks, and suppressing the inert-gases transfer system. The aircraft was ready at the end of July 1941, and it went up for its maiden flight at the begin­ning of August with an LII pilot, Yu. K. Stankevich. The flight test pro­gram was carried out by Nil VVS pilots A. G. Kochetkov, A. G. Kubishkin, and A. M. Popyelnushenko as well as LII pilots such as G. M. Shiyanov and A. V. Yumashev Tests ended on 17 August. They showed that the reengined fighter was a sound machine if flown in ambient temperatures lower than 16-20° C (61-68° F), but the engine cooling system had to be modified for use in higher temperatures. The

test report concluded, "Below 4,000 m [13,100 feet], the АМ-38-engined MiG-3 offers new tactical possibilities and can successfully face the enemy fighters at low and medium altitudes." The time required for a 360-degree turn had dropped to between twenty and twenty-one sec­onds. Considering this laudatory appraisal, series production of the air­craft was recommended. But this plan too was thwarted by the unavail­ability of the AM-38 engine, which was still reserved for the 11-2 assem­bly lines. However, a repair workshop fitted a small number of MiG-3s with overhauled AM-38s because no more AM-35As could be found. Some of these MiG-3s were equipped with two synchronized 20-mm ShVAK cannons (100 rounds each) to fight in PVO units.

Specifications

Span, 10.2 m (33 ft 5.6 in); length, 8.25 m (27 ft 0.8 in); height in level flight position, 3.325 m (10 ft 10.9 in); wheel track, 2.78 m (9 ft 1.4 in); wing area, 17.44 m2 (187.72 sq ft); empty weight, 2,582 kg (5,692 lb); takeoff weight, 3,225 kg (7,110 lb); fuel, 463 kg (1,020 lb); oil, 45 kg (99 lb); wing loading, 185 kg/m2 (37.9 lb/sq ft).

Performance

Max speed, 587 km/h at 3,000 m (317 kt at 9,800 ft); 592 km/h at

4,0 m (320 kt at 13,000 ft); max speed at sea level, 547 km/h (295 kt); climb to 5,000 m (16,400 ft) in 7.95 min; service ceiling, 9,500 m (31,200 ft); takeoff roll, 380 m (1,250 ft); landing roll, 400 m (1,310 ft).

1-300 / r

At the end of World War II several OKBs —including MiG—were assigned to design fighters powered by a turbojet engine MiG had the advantage of experience with its 1-250 But above 900 km/h (486 kt) it

was obvious that the technology of this aircraft’s combined power plant was completely outdated. And at that time there was not a single homemade jet engine available in the USSR, since all research pro­grams in this field were postponed because of the war. The Soviets had to make do with the few jets recovered either in eastern Prussia or in Germany itself. Near the end of the war one of the factories that made BMW 003 and Junkers Jumo 004 jet engines fell into the hands of Sovi­et troops. It was then decided to mass-produce them in the USSR. After a close examination of each type the OKB engineers chose the BMW 003, which delivered 784 daN (800 kg st) and 1,568 daN (1,600 kg st) in a twin-jet configuration. A. G. Brunov was named the chief project engineer. In the first preliminary design the future F fighter had two underwing engines like the Messerschmitt Me-262, the Gloster Meteor, and the Sukhoi Su-9, which complied with the same specifications and was first flown in August 1946.

One of Mikoyan’s students, the well-known aeronautical expert A. V. Minayev, wrote in Aircraft of the USSR:

When Mikoyan started working on his fighter project, a lot of spadework had already been done as regards high-speed aerody­namics, aircraft aerodynamic configurations, and aeroelasticity. The more I go into this period, the more I am amazed at discov­ering the huge amount of R&D conducted during the war. No Soviet jet aircraft could have flown in 1946 without all this research work, which was all the more valuable to us because it was original and homemade.

The preliminary designs for the project were highlighted by an innovative proposal made by Mikoyan: to place both jets side by side into the fuselage. With such an arrangement the wing remained aero – dynamically clean, drag was reduced, and maneuverability improved, particularly in the event of engine failure. The preliminary design was approved in the late fall of 1945. A full-scale mock-up was built, and manufacture of the parts and systems was launched. After approval of the mock-up in January 1946 the Narkomaviaprom issued decree no. 157, assigning to the MiG OKB the task of building and flight-testing the aircraft.

The 1-300, coded F at the OKB, was an all-metal midwing single- seater with a front air intake to feed the two jet engines. The two-spar straight wing had a TsAGI-1 series profile, a constant thickness ratio of 9 percent, slotted flaps, and Frise ailerons. The lower part of the rear fuselage was protected against the high-temperature exhaust gases by a heat shield (a 15-mm-thic. k air-gap sandwich of stainless steel plates with a corrugated core). The cantilever horizontal tail was set high on the fin to stay dear of the exhaust flow. Flying controls were standard; the stick rod-operated, the rudder pedals cable-operated. The cockpit was not pressurized.

The fuel system comprised four fuselage and six wing tanks having a total capacity of 1,635 1 (432 US gallons). The engines ran on T-2 kerosene—a fuel commonly used in tractor engines—because aviation kerosene was not yet available. Each BMW 003 was fitted with a Ridel

combustion starter that ran on aviation gasoline. The armament of the prototype consisted of one 57-mm N-57 (100P) cannon in the air intake splitting wall and two 23-mm NS-23 (115Р) cannons with 80 rpg at the bottom of the air intake. This arrangement was to prove somewhat troublesome, as will be explained later. The N-57 was eventually replaced with a 37-mm N-37 with forty rounds.

For the first time, a Soviet fighter was fitted with a tricycle landing gear. The legs and wheels of the main gear retracted outward into wing wells. The castor front wheel retracted backward into the fuselage and was fitted with a hydraulic shimmy-damper. All of the landing gear had levered suspension with lower arms trailing the wheel.

On 6 March 1946 the prototype was rolled out and entrusted to the care of the factory flight-testing team. All systems were checked, the aircraft was weighed without and with fuel, and its engines were run up. No one actually knew the BMW 003’s time between overhauls, so a hypothetical ten-hour TBO was adopted. On 23 March the aircraft was

moved to the Ramenskoye airfield. Meanwhile, several airframes were stressed during static tests; they were progressively overloaded until they ruptured in order to determine their strength.

An experienced LII pilot, Aleksei Nikolayevich Grinchik (nick­named Lesha), was put in charge of the flight tests of the 1-300 (F). In 1941-42 he flew sixty-two missions in a MiG-3 (later he flew an LaGG-3) and fought on the Kalinin front. He was wounded in the leg during a dogfight and forced to make a pancake landing. When he was released from the hospital he was appointed deputy director of flight tests at the LII. In the spring of 1946 there were no more than eleven first-class test pilots in the USSR; Grinchik was the youngest but probably the most experienced. Before the war he was a student at the Moscow Avi­ation Institute (MAI). When the war ended he joined the TsAGI to add to his knowledge. The flight-test team also included chief engineer A. Karyev and two field mechanics, V V. Pimyenov and G Bushtinov.

On 12 April 1946 Grinchik made the first ground rolls, and three days later he lifted it a few feet into the air. At more than 900 m (2,950 feet), the takeoff roll proved to be longer than expected. On 19 April the F climbed to 4 m (about 13 feet), and on 24 April it made its true first flight, which lasted twenty minutes. The first Soviet jet aircraft had flown. Three hours later the Yak-15 went up for its maiden flight.[1] The USSR’s jet era was under way.

The second flight took place on 7 May 1946, and the third flight on the eleventh. Not until the eighth flight was severe buffet noticed around the engines. The next three flights failed to identify their cause and eliminate them. On 5 June an emergency meeting was called in Mikoyan’s office to analyze the problem. After listening to the pilot and examining the flight-test data, well-known scientist M. V. Keldish pro­posed that the present layout of the aircraft be abandoned and the engines relocated either above or underneath the wings. He thought that the vibrations were caused by the stepping of the fuselage behind the engines. But during the twelfth flight on 7 July, after the heat shield was strengthened, the vibrations vanished inexplicably and test flights were finally resumed. Tragically, during the nineteenth flight four days later Grinchik was fatally wounded while giving a flight demonstration for a group of WS officers. The wing-to-body fairing broke off in flight, smashing the horizontal tail to pieces, and the aircraft crashed. This first 1-300, the F-l, had spent a total of six hours and twenty-three min­utes in the air.

Two more prototypes, the F-2 and F-3, were assembled quickly in the experimental workshop The F-3 was flown for the first time by LII pilot M. L. Gallai on 9 August 1946, and the F-2 followed with G M. Shiyanov at the controls two days later. On 18 August Shiyanov led a flyover in this prototype during the air force day cele­brations at Tushino.

By 28 October all of the following GK Nil WS pilots had flown the 1-300: A. G. Proshakov, A. M. Kripkov, A. G. Kubishkin, Yu. A. Antipov, and G A. Sedov (who is today chief constructor at the MiG OKB). The aircraft’s joint tests (factory tests plus state acceptance trials) got under way on 26 October, leading to certification During the state trials, over two hundred aerobatics were performed—including the first spin ever attempted by a jet aircraft—without a single engine failure. The certifi­cation document contained the following statement: "Its handling char­acteristics have made this aircraft, on the whole, easy and pleasant to fly. Its controls are not binding and it is not hard to get accustomed to this machine.” Mass production was consequently recommended and launched immediately. The aircraft entered service in the WS with the service designation of MiG-9.

Specifications

Span, 10 m (32 ft 9 7 in); length, 9.75 m (31 ft 11 8 in); height, 3.225 m (10 ft 6.7 in); wheel track, 1.95 m (6 ft 4.8 in); wheel base, 3.072 m (10 ft 0.9 in); wing area, 18 2 m2 (195 9 sq ft); empty weight, 3,283 kg (7,236 lb); takeoff weight, 4,860 kg (10,710 lb); fuel, 1,334 kg (2,940 lb); oil, 35 kg (77 lb); wing loading, 267 kg/m2 (54 .7 lb/sq ft); max operat­ing limit load factor, 6.

Performance

Max speed, 910 km/h at 4,500 m (491 kt at 14,760 ft), max speed at sea level, 864 km/h (467 kt), climb to 5,000 m (16,400 ft) in 4.5 min; to 10,000 m (32,800 ft) in 14.3 min; service ceiling, 13,000 m (42,640 ft); landing speed, 170 km/h (92 kt); range, 800 km (497 mi); takeoff roll, 910 m (2,985 ft); landing roll, 735 m (2,410 ft); rate of turn, 9.73°/sec.