Aviation Naval Warfare Land Systems Small Arms Space By Flag By Year By Tag

Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-17 (Fresco)

History

The first air-to-air duels with jet fighters revolved around the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 "Fagot" in the east and the North American F-86 "Sabre" in the west. During the 1950-1953 Korean War, fighting took place over the Korean peninsula, ushering in a new era of aerial warfare.

The arrival of the subsonic MiG-15 surprised Western observers and quickly accelerated the course of the war, leading to an uneasy truce.

The MiG-15 family has evolved significantly over time, and while its later operational versions are impressive, there are lingering problems with their untapped power which is very largely limited by its structure. As a result, Mikoyan-Gurevich engineers began work on a successor as early as 1949, even as MiG-17s began to outnumber front-line squadrons.

This work spawned the successor MiG-17 "Fresco", a major improvement based on lessons learned from the design of the former. The MiG-15 represents research gathered from captured German documents after World War II, and the MiG-17 represents everything a MiG-15 could possibly recommend - improved handling and structure to improve the MiG-17 was the best of the Cold War One of the fighter jet designs.

The Fresco was developed from the "I-330", although it was similar to the earlier MiG-15, the aircraft was essentially a completely new design, using a main aircraft with extended wings and a larger sweep And a redesigned tail with greater surface area inclusion range and increased horizontal sweep -- all of which should ensure the fighter beats the poor high-speed handling qualities that plagued its predecessor, which limited top speed to around Mach 0.92.

The improved aircraft will retain much of the form and function of the previous design, but can be identified by subtle physical features - primarily the addition of a third boundary layer fence to each wing main aircraft. The fighter continues to be powered by a turbojet, with a crew seated under a teardrop-shaped canopy while carrying a full range of artillery armament in the nose, including 1 x 37mm gun and 2 x 23mm artillery. Underwing storage allows a limited ordnance capability to be carried in the form of missiles and conventionally dropped bombs, giving fighter jets an equally limited ground-attack capability.

Also, the MiG-17 is easily confused with its predecessor.

The truncated nature of the nose allows air to flow unimpeded to the turbojet engine buried in the middle of the rear of the fuselage. This also keeps the propulsion scheme consistent, reducing the number of bends in the ducts and allowing the engine to breathe cleanly from the front and exhaust under the rear wing.

At the heart of the Fresco design was an evolution of the British "Nene" turbojet - the Klimov's unlicensed Soviet-produced "VK-1". As powerful as this engine is, it has proven to be fuel-hungry, even though the new fighter has roughly the same fuel capacity as the MiG-15.

This resulted in the MiG-17 deploying a pair of underwing fuel tanks almost constantly to maintain a useful operational range.

The prototype of the MiG-17 flew for the first time on February 1, 1950, and serial production was ordered as early as August 1951 (by which time production of the MiG-15 had ceased). The service was launched in October 1952.

MiG-17s were deployed jointly with the Soviet Air Force, but were also transported to Soviet borders to support Allied satellite states and regimes around the world - some owners even assumed local production to increase inventories (as evidenced in China a little), Czechoslovakia and Poland). Reliable and responsive, the MiG-17 is an excellent addition to the MiG family of fighters and poses a new, verifiable threat to the West.

In practice, the MiG-17 was a high-speed stable mount and had better control of the turning radius than most Western fighters available at the time. During the Vietnam War (1955-1975), communist-aligned forces would successfully use the MiG-17 against the United States.

U.S. efforts were further thwarted when the U.S. military began to shift its aircraft development from cannon- and machine-gun-armed fighter jets to what they see as the future the homing/guided air-to-air missile (AAM). Instead, the Soviets continued to provide their frontline fighters with standardized stationary artillery weapons for close quarters combat. As a result, turning to tighter MiGs could simply bring the American fighters closer, disabling the enemy's short- and medium-range missiles, and in turn subjecting the Americans to salvos of 37mm and 23mm artillery fire, with a good chance of hitting the realization .

Due to the low kill rate of the MiG-17 by the Americans in the Vietnam conflict, samples were secretly evaluated in Nevada (ex-Syrian model vs Israel) to develop a better doctrine against the nimble fighter.

Communist China has not only put the new MiG-17 into service, but has also produced a local variant with the Chengdu brand label "J-5/JJ-5" - respectively a single-seat fighter and two-seat trainer Aircraft variant. While the Soviet Air Force felt that their MiG-15UTI two-seat fighter was still more than adequate, China produced the JJ-5, the only two-seat trainer version of the MiG-17. These feature two separate cockpits for students and faculty with a slightly elongated fuselage. The first flight of the JJ-5 prototype was recorded on May 8, 1966, after which approximately 1,060 were built until the mid-1980s.

Its export designation became "FT-5".

The MiG-17 is often referred to as a mid-level design, bridging the gap between the classic post-WWII/Joseon era MiG-15 and the more powerful MiG-19. However, this improved single-seat jet fighter is far better in the air than its own, and history will show that the Eastern powers are well-positioned to produce fighter jets capable of surpassing the capabilities of most to match or surpass the West A technology-focused, hypersonic, missile-laden design. Ultimately, the MiG 17 went down in history as a Cold War-era classic, forging its own enviable history through combat engagements, outstanding export numbers and local production initiatives, and ultimately a long career that gave it longevity.

Reality.

The variants of the series started with the I-300 development model, which inevitably led to the first mass-produced fighter "Fresco-A" powered by the original VK-1 engine. From it was forged the MiG-17A, which was equipped with the VK-1A turbojet engine for greater durability.

The MiG-17AS is a "multi-role" modification of the Type A, designed to carry both air-to-air and unguided missiles. The MiG-17P ("Fresco-B") introduces all-weather capability as it incorporates the "Izumrud" radar system.

The last MiG-17F ("Fresco-C") switched to a VK-1F turbojet with afterburner/reheat capability for short bursts of speed, thus improving level flight performance. Its engines put out 6,000 pounds of thrust (dry) and, when reheated, can boost thrust to 7,600 pounds, propelling the fighter to an altitude of 55,000 feet at 685 mph.

The rate of climb is 12,800 feet per minute, making the MiG-17 a viable interceptor.

The MiG-17PF ("Fresco-D") is another all-weather, radar-equipped variant, now powered by a VK-1F turbojet and carrying a fixed armament of 3 x 23mm NR-23 autocannons nose. The MIG-17PM/PFU ("Fresco-E") is also equipped with radar and is certified to carry AA-1 "Alkaline" (K-5) air-to-air missiles.

The MiG-17R is a modified reconnaissance platform equipped with cameras and powered by a VK-1F turbojet.

The MiG-17SN is an evolution of the Fresco with a completely redesigned air intake system - a truncated nose that now houses the 23mm autocannon in a "trainable" casing, and the turbojet is fed through the side of the fuselage Air port intake. This novel aircraft was not further developed into production-quality form.

Despite its age, the MiG-17 is still in service with limited capabilities. Total production reached 10,649, of which about 8,000 were produced in the Soviet Union, with manufacturing in China, Czechoslovakia (as the "S-104") and Poland (as the "Lim-6") driving the increase.

While almost all MiG-17 operators deviate from this type, some remain in Guinea-Bissau, Madagascar and Somalia (2019).