Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-17 Fresco
The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-17 Fresco was a Soviet single-seat jet fighter, first flown in January 1950 as a thorough refinement of the MiG-15. A thinner and more sharply swept wing, a lengthened fuselage and, in the MiG-17F, the first Soviet afterburning engine made it faster and more maneuverable at altitude than its predecessor. It entered service in October 1952, too late for Korea, became the standard Warsaw Pact fighter, and was licence-built in Poland and China. Over Vietnam, North Vietnamese MiG-17s used their agility and cannon armament against faster American jets. Sources disagree on production, giving totals from about 8,000 to 10,824 aircraft.
Why It Mattered
The MiG-17 began in 1949 as the Mikoyan-Gurevich bureau's effort to correct the faults that combat was revealing in the MiG-15. Its prototype flew in January 1950, and the type entered Soviet service in October 1952, too late for the Korean War. Walter J. Boyne calls it an interim design, a bridge between the MiG-15 and the MiG-19, that nonetheless built a long and distinguished career of its own. It became the standard fighter across the Warsaw Pact and was exported widely around the world. Its reputation rests on Vietnam, where North Vietnam's subsonic, cannon-armed MiG-17s remained dangerous opponents for far faster American jets.
Design Notes
The MiG-17 kept the MiG-15's basic layout and its Klimov VK-1 engine, but wrapped them in a new, thinner wing with a compound sweep of 45 degrees at the root and 42 degrees outboard. A larger tail, a third wing fence on each wing, a small ventral fin and a rear fuselage lengthened by about a metre marked it off from its predecessor. The F model introduced the afterburning VK-1F, the first afterburner fitted to a Soviet fighter; Pima describes its engine as the first Soviet engine to use an afterburner. Armament stayed with guns: one 37 mm cannon and two 23 mm cannon under the nose. A parallel line, the MiG-17P, carried radar for all-weather interception; Pima calls it the Soviet Union's first true all-weather radar-equipped interceptor, and its PF version combined that radar with the afterburning engine. Testing was costly: in March 1950 the prototype developed flutter that tore off its tail, killing test pilot Ivan Ivashchenko.
Operational History
Serial production began in August 1951, but large-scale output waited while factories kept building MiG-15s, and the type did not enter service until October 1952. It therefore missed the Korean War entirely. Its first combat came in 1958, over the Taiwan Strait, where Chinese MiG-17s fought Republic of China F-86 Sabres. By the late 1950s it was the standard fighter of every Warsaw Pact country, and other buyers spread it through Africa and Asia. Arab air forces used it extensively in the Middle East wars of 1956, 1967 and 1973. In Vietnam it was North Vietnam's primary fighter against the United States. Pima credits that showing to agility and armament: the type proved highly maneuverable, and its guns gave it a significant edge over the missile-armed F-4 Phantom at close range. Wikipedia's account agrees, rating the MiG-17 more agile and maneuverable than the F-105 Thunderchief as well as the Phantom, both types designed around speed and long-range fighting. Boyne's assessment is cooler: the MiG-17 was slower than the American fighters it met over Vietnam, but formidable when flown inside a comprehensive air defence scheme.
Afterlife
Pima puts total production at 10,824 aircraft, built in Russia, Poland, Czechoslovakia and China. Boyne's accounting is lower: more than 6,000 built in the Soviet Union before production there stopped in 1958, about 2,000 more in Poland and China combined, roughly 8,000 in all. Wikipedia's figure, 10,649 including the Polish, Czechoslovak and Chinese licence variants, sits between the two. The licence lines had long lives of their own: Polish Lim-5P interceptors were rebuilt from 1971 as Lim-6M ground-attack aircraft and as camera-carrying Lim-6MR reconnaissance aircraft. In China, Boyne credits the licence-built Shenyang J-5 with putting that country on the path to producing its own modern jet fighters. Across some three decades the type served in more than 40 air forces. Wikipedia reports the type still flying today with several African air forces and, through the J-5, in North Korea; no stronger source confirms it, so the claim stands as reported. After obsolescence some airframes became target drones, and in 1969 the U.S. Air Force flight-tested two MiG-17s supplied by Israel under the Have Ferry programme. Preserved examples include two Polish-built aircraft at the Pima Air & Space Museum, on loan from the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force since July 1992.