Истребитель МиГ-15

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It was this aircraft that made the word "MiG" familiar to the world. Since Sikorsky's Ilya Muromets, the MiG-15 became the first design that put the Russian airspace industry to leading position. From that time the words "MiG at your six!" mean "trouble".

The work on the new fighter initially called "1-310" or "S" begun in January 1947. The initial plan was to install on the new aircraft Rolls Roys Nene II an engine. It was soon was put into serial production under the designation RD-45F. Despite the well-known myth the design of the German Та 183 never was a starting point for the MiG-15. Many features of the Та 183 were found to be unsatisfactory and the work on the design was started from the blank sheet of paper. The swept-back wing plane with an air intake in the nose was certainly the most promising that time — most of the fighters of the era had similar layout and nobody blames them for copying them from the Та 183. This legend was born partially by German designers who were willing to sign their name under the good work and partially by Western mass-media that tried to assure everyone that Russians could not produce something worthy themselves (only a few years later they understood how wrong they were!). After the War Kurt Tank developed his Та 183 into Pulgui II — the fighter that turned out to be nothing interesting.

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