The MiG-15 was the first “all-new” Soviet jet aircraft, one whose design did not simply add a jet engine onto an older piston-engine airframe. Employing swept-back wings, a tail fin, and horizontal stabilizers to reduce drag as the plane approached the speed of sound, it clearly exploited aerodynamic principles learned from German engineering at the close of World War II. It was powered by a centrifugal-flow engine that had been licensed from the British company Rolls-Royce and then upgraded by the Soviet manufacturer Klimov. Deliveries to the military began in 1948. Designed as a bomber interceptor, the MiG-15 carried a formidable armament of two 23-mm guns and one 37-mm gun firing exploding shells.
In November 1950 the appearance over North Korea of MiG-15s, bearing Chinese markings though flown by Soviet pilots, marked a major turning point in the Korean War and indeed in all of aerial warfare. Shocked by the speed, climbing ability, and high operating ceiling of the Soviet fighter, the United States hurried delivery to Korea of the new F-86 Sabre, which managed to reestablish U.S. air supremacy in part because of a superior pilot-training system instituted by the U.S. Air Force. Nevertheless, the MiG-15 virtually ended daylight bombing runs by huge, slow, World War II-era B-29 Superfortresses, and Soviet pilots continued to engage in combat with U.S. and allied planes even as they trained Chinese and North Koreans to fly in the new jet age.
More than 15,000 MiG-15s were built, including those produced in Soviet-bloc countries.
This article was most recently revised and updated by Robert Curley.