MiG-15 bis “Bassoon-B”

Description

The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 is a mass-produced jet fighter plane by the Soviets at the start of the Cold War. Produced after the delivery of twenty-five Rolls-Royce Nene turbojets by the United Kingdom, it proved to be superior to the best Western achievements during the Korean War, like the F-86 Saber. It made the reputation of its manufacturer who then became the main manufacturer of fighter planes in the USSR, so much so that in the West the term MiG quickly became synonymous with Soviet fighter in colloquial language.

The production aircraft no.101003, designated MiG-1 (SV), was used as a test bed for a series of modifications intended to improve the operational possibilities of the MiG-15. The NS-23KM guns gave way to the NR-23s, capable of a rate of fire one and a half times higher and the ASP-1N collimator was replaced by an ASP-3N. The engine start console, previously used on the ground, is on board the aircraft, at the thirteenth fuselage frame and the RD-45 is modified so that it can be started up to five thousand meters. The elevators are aerodynamically modified and the ailerons see their movement assisted by the mounting of a B7 hydraulic cylinder in the fuselage. The wing is revised to allow a speed of 900 km / h below five hundred meters, which was previously prohibited due to the risk of stalling. The tanks are also pressurized to supply the engine with constant pressure. Only the assembly of the aileron assist cylinder will be applied on around thirty MiG-15s of the 20 series. The rest of the modifications will be put into practice on a new aircraft, the MiG-15bis, which is powered by the all-new Klimov VK-1, more powerful with 2,700 kilograms of thrust. The aircraft was launched into production by ministerial order dated June 10, 1950. It eliminates or lessens most of the MiG-15's youthful flaws and provides superior performance. The assembly of the new engine, a little more bulky, required to reduce the height of the rear tank, reducing the internal fuel capacity of sixty liters. The Vk-1 engine being more greedy, the autonomy is in decline. In addition to the modifications tested on the MiG-15 (SV), other improvements were introduced during the series, such as a canopy giving a better field of vision, the possibility of using an anti-G suit, enlarged airbrakes and a Sirena threat detector 2.

The MiG-15bis will be the most produced version of the MiG-15, with more than eight thousand copies, in the USSR alone. Several modifications will be made on the base model and will sometimes result in mass production. The first responds to a government request of April 25, 1950 to develop a long-range escort variant of the MiG fighter.