Fake MiG-17
In the second half of 1945 the AI radar
Gneys-5 passed the State acceptance test.
On February 26, 1946, Tupolev OKB was ordered to design a night fighter version of the Tu-2 fast bomber, with 680 km/h top speed, 10,000 m ceiling, 2,000 km range and
Gneys-5S airborne radar. That was enough to intercept the nuclear armed B-29 American bombers.
The Tu-1 prototype flew on March 22, 1947, powered by two AM-43V experimental piston engines, reaching 641 km/h and 11,000 m ceiling. It was mistakenly regarded by NATO intelligence as a likely mass-production type and assigned the
Frosty reporting name.
Between March and October 1947, the prototype was flight tested with two types of AI radars: Soviet
Gneys-7 and German Telefunken FuG 200 SN-2/SN-2d.
On both types, the transmitting dipoles were in the forward fuselage and the receiving antennas in the wings.
During the tests it was discovered that the glare or
Gneys radarscope ruined the night vision of the pilot, who also needed to keep an eye on the airspace around him.
By the time the Tu-1 was flown the prototype of the B-36 American super bomber had already reached 555 km/h flying at 11,280 m.
Therefore, further work on Tu-1 was discontinued.
What the VVS needed at the end of 1947 was a fast jet night fighter with 2,000 km extended range and a second crewmen to take care of the radar.
However the aerodynamic drag generated by the
Gneys dipoles and antennas caused an unacceptable loss of speed.
The Bell SCR 720 B AI radar mounted in the
Black Widow and D.H.
Mosquito NF 36 western night fighters used one parabolic antenna that was installed internally within an aerodynamic radome of dielectric material placed in the nose of the aircraft.
But both the Americans and the British refused to share their centimetric wave lengths technology.
In January 1948 the Soviet Council of Ministers issued a decree calling for a high-performance, long-range, all-weather fighter capable of mounting standing patrols and intercepting the Strategic Air Command bombers far from their targets.
The PVO staff estimated that to achieve this objective a plane with performances similar to those of the MiG-15 would be necessary.
But the fighter would also have to carry a large amount of fuel, a radar of 100 kg and a second crewmen.
To meet the conditions of the specification it would be necessary to use at least two RD-45F centrifugal engines rated at 2,270 kg thrust each, the best turbojet available at the time.
If installed under the wings of the new interceptor, both engines would have generated an unacceptable loss of speed owing to their rather large diameter of 1,273 mm.
Nor would it have been aerodynamically effective to install them under the fuselage belly in side-by-side configuration.
The American long range fighter Bell XP-83 built in 1944 with this basic configuration it had to be canceled due to its poor performance.
The MiG OKB decided to build the I-320 heavy fighter (a 50 per cent scaled up version of the MiG-15) powered by two RD-45F turbojets mounted inside the fuselage in stepped configuration. The forward engine exhausting beneath the fuselage belly and the aft engine exhausting at the tail.
Both turbojets aspirated through the same nose air intake.
This unusual configuration that generated less drag, had already been studied in 1942 by the German designers of the Arado Ar 240 TL heavy fighter project.
And it had also been studied independently by the Japanese designers of the Yokosuka R2Y2
Keiun jet bomber in 1945.
It was expected that the I-320 could operate as high-performance interceptor when the two afterburners were engaged and that could also operate as escort fighter using a single engine to save fuel.
On December 7, 1948, the Council of Ministers issued a decree calling for the development of a new generation of AI radars able to operate on centimetric wavelengths using the German technology of the Telefunken radars FuG 222
Pauke S, FuG 240/3
Berlin N3 and FuG 244
Bremen 0.
The centimetric wavelengths conversion started with the AI radar Slepushkin
Toriy which provided search, track and gun-ranging using a single parabolic antenna with 60 cm of diameter.
But
Toriy proved to have unreliable and too difficult to use, its manually operated antenna based on that of the FuG 244, has scanning angles of only +30 and -30 degrees and could not operate at the 8g design limit of the I-320.
The radar was designed with a range of 15 km, but during flight tests with the I-320 prototype, it only managed to detect a Tupolev Tu-4 bomber (the Soviet version of the B-29) 7 km away.
The I-320 looked like a MiG-15 with a second turbojet mounted in
redan configuration, one radar radome fitted at the top of the nose and a Mosquito-style, two-seat unpressurized cockpit.
The R-1 prototype flew on April 16, 1949, but during the State acceptance trials the plane experienced the same tendency as the MiG-15 to drop a wing at high-speeds.
The appearance of the aerodynamic phenomenon
valyozhka (spontaneous rolling) at Mach 0.895 made it necessary to limit its maximum speed, to avoid structural damage.
The R-2 prototype was flown in December 1949 reaching 1,047 km/h top speed and 15,000 m ceiling powered by two VK-1 turbojets rated at 2,700 kg thrust each.
In July 1951 its unreliable
Toriy-A was replaced by one
Korshun AI radar set, based on the FuG 240/3, which offered better performance although still not adequate.
Both types using manually operated scanners, but the
Korshun's parabolic antenna is only 45 cm in diameter and could operate at greater scanning angles.
The VK-1 turbojets proved to be too thirsty and caused the I-320 to only be able to reach the necessary range using two underwing drop tanks.
The I-320 was cancelled in the spring of 1951 in favor of the Yak-25
Flashlight fitted with one
Sokol (FuG 222) radar with 1 m of diameter parabolic mirror and powered by two wing-mounted, axial-flow turbojets.
MiG-I-320 R-2 technical data
Wingspan: 46.6 ft. (14.22 m), length: 51.7 ft. (15.77 m), height: 16 ft. (4.88 m), wing surface: 458 sq. ft. (41.2 sq. m), take-off weight: 26,190 lb. (11,864 m), maximum speed: 660 mph (1,047 km/h), ceiling: 49,200 ft. (15,000 m), range: 2,075 km with two underwings drop tanks, equipment: RV-2 radio-altimeter,
Barii IFF transponder and RSIU-6 R/T.
Certain information on the MiG I-320 coming from East Germany was filtered to the western press in 1951 and it was interpreted as the description of an advanced version of the well-known MiG-9 with side-by-side axial-flow turbojets, swept wing and tail surfaces.
In December 1951
Flying magazine published an illustration and a three-view drawing of the “Super-MiG/MiG-17” with a landing gear like that of the MiG-15, radar snout and four belly mounted cannon.
According to
Flying the new fighter had been identified by USAF in Korea as "flat" MiG.
On February 16, 1953,
American Aviation Magazine published an illustration coming from Associated Press Wirephoto depicting an operational "MiG-17" with No. 157.
On April 13, 1953,
LIFE magazine publishes the schematic cutaway of a Soviet jet fighter that defines as “latest MiG model 17 with double jets, all weather radar, 50,000 ft. ceiling, 6,000 ft/min climb rate, 650 mph top speed, 15,000 lb. take-off weight and four belly mounted cannon”.
According to
LIFE the “MiG-17” has not yet been used in Korea.
In June 1953, the
Air Trails magazine published an article by James L. Pech entitled “Inside Story of the MiG-19” that included a three views drawing based on the one published by
Flying, an illustration depicting an operational aircraft with the number 107 and a detailed cutaway.
According to
Air Trails, the new Soviet fighter had been revealed in Tushino Air Show in summer of 1952 and was sighted in Korea in October.
The same information was published by Italian magazines
Cielo (December 1953) and
L’Ala D’Italia (April-May 1954).
The
Air Trails article was widely circulated among modelers and aircraft enthusiast, prompting the model maker
Paul Lindberg to release in 1954 the1/48 scale plastic kit Nº R521-79 called “Russian MiG-19”, engineered from drawings in
Air Trails. In the 1955 and 1959 editions the denomination in the box art changed to “Russian Jet Fighter”.
This “Soviet fighter” became so popular that it was used in the cover color of
Men in Action (September 1955).
According to an article by Jean-Claude Mermet published in
Aéro Journal Nº 9 (October-November 1999), a three views black silhouettes of the "MiG-19" was included in
L'Armee de L'Air aircraft identification chart of 1955.
In 1957 the Japanese manufacturer of model kits Bachmann launched the 1/200 scale version of the
Air Trails fighter.
Ironically in 1963 the Soviet State Trading Company bought the
Lindberg mold to produce the “MiG-19” kit in the Moscow City Council of National Economy-Factory of Metal and Plastic Toys.
According to an article by W.R. Matthews published in
Flying Review (March 1964), for some extraordinary reason, possibly connected with the activities of Russian counterintelligence any reference to MiG OKB was omitted from the little leaflet which accompanies the kit. The fact that most of the information leaked to the West belonged to failed Soviet projects seems to support this theory.