Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-3

infobox Aircraft
name =MiG-3
type =Fighter
manufacturer =Mikoyan-Gurevich



caption =Soviet Air Force MiG-3's in winter camouflage. The slogan on the nearest aircraft reads "Za Rodinu" – "For the Motherland"
designer =
first flight =Late October, 1940
introduced =December 20, 1940
retired =
status =Withdrawn
primary user =Soviet Air Force
more users =
produced =
number built =
unit cost =
variants with their own articles =

The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-3 ( _ru. Микоян и Гуревич МиГ-3) was a Soviet fighter aircraft of World War II. It was a development of the MiG-1 by the OKO (opytno-konstrooktorskiy otdel - Experimental Design Department) of zavod (factory) No.1 to fix the issues that had been encountered seen over its development and deployment cycle.

Development

Mikoyan and Gurevich made a large number of modifications to the MiG-1 design following both field use and research in the T-1 wind tunnel belonging to the Central Aero and Hydrodynamtics Institute (TsAGI). These changes were mostly done piecemeal on the assembly line.

These changes included:

*Moving the engine forward 4 inches (100mm) which improved stability.
*Increase the outer wingpanel dihedral by one degree which also increased stability.
*Introduction of a new water radiator (OP-310), which allows for an additional 55 imp. gallon (250L) fuel tank.
*Adding an additional oil tank under the engine.
*Venting and piping exhaust gas into the fuel tanks to reduce fire in case of enemy fire.
*Adding 8mm armor behind the pilot (increased to 9mm in later models).
*Streamlining supercharger intakes.
*Strengthening the main landing gear.
*Increasing the size of the main wheels to 25.5"x 7.87" (650mm x 200mm).
*Improved canopy, which improved views to the rear and allowed for the installation of a shelf behind the pilot for an RSI-1 radio (later upgraded to an RSI-4).
*Redesign of the instrument panel.
*Upgrade of the PBP-1 gunsight to the PBP-1A gunsight.
*Increase in ammo load for the ShKAS guns to 750 rounds per gun.
*Additional underwing hardpoints added to carry up to 485lbs of bombs (220 kg), spray containers or 8 RS-82 unguided rockets.

The first aircraft to see all of these changes applied to them was I-200 No.04, which was the fourth prototype of the I-200, which later became the MiG-1. It first flew in late October 1940. Following its successful first flight it was then passed to VVS (Voyenno-voz-dooshnyye seely - Military Air Forces) for State trials.

During this testing, NKAP (Narodnyy komissariat aviatsionnoy promyshlennosti - People's Ministry of the Aircraft Industry) announced that the three zavods building the MiG-3 at the time would be required to build a total of 3600 in 1941.

Operational history

The first production MiG-3 rolled off the assembly line on December 20 1940. By March 1941, 10 of these aircraft were coming off the production line every day. It was not long before the type would see combat, claiming a pair of German Junkers Ju 86 reconnaissance aircraft even before the start of hostilities between Germany and the Soviet Union.

By the time of Operation Barbarossa, over 1,200 MiG-3's had been delivered.

During initial testing of production aircraft was found to be inferior to the MiG-1 due to its weight increase, and fuel consumption was well over what Mikoyan and Gurevich were promised by the manufacturer (zavod No.24), but the fuel consumption was actually found to be an issue with the testing of the aircraft and the failure to take into account altitude correction.Mikoyan and Gurevich went as far as arranging for two more flights between Leningrad and Moscow to prove the MiG-3 could fly 1000 km.

However that was not the end of the issues that the MiG-3 encountered during its deployment. Several MiG-3s produced were found to have unacceptable performance at altitude due to oil and fuel pressure. It was also found that pilots attempted to fly the MiG-3 as if it were an earlier aircraft (especially the forgiving Polikarpov I-15, I-153 and I-16's) and which led to several other problems. Soon new oil and fuel pumps were introduced as well as attempts at better pilot training to familiarize them with the MiG-3.

Over the next two years of the MiG-3, several new changes made it into production, including up-gunning to UBS machine guns and ShVAK cannons.

Due to the conditions of battle with the German forces, the MiG-3 was forced into a low altitude and even a ground-attack role, but it was quickly found to be inferior, and withdrawn from this role. The death knell for the MiG-3 was the discontinuation of its AM-35 engine so that Mikulin could concentrate on AM-38 production for the Ilyushin Il-2 "Shturmovik". It was eventually used as a reconnaissance plane-its high service ceiling of 40,000 ft and fast high altitude speed made well suited for such a role.

Even with the MiG-3's limitations, Alexander 'Sasha' Pokryshkin, the second leading Soviet ace of the war with 59 official victories, recorded most of those victories while flying a MiG-3.

Variants

Throughout the rest of the war, Mikoyan and Gurevich continued to develop the MiG-3 along the high-altitude interceptor lines that it had originally been designed for, which led to a series of ever-larger and more powerful prototypes, serially designated from the I-220 to the I-225 [Green and Swanborough 1977, p.59-60.] . (Some sources mistakenly assign the MiG-7 designation to one of these aircraft.) While promising enough, the air war over Germany was demonstrating that the heyday of the piston-engined fighter was over, and no production order followed.

There were several attempts to re-engine the aircraft with the engine it was originally designed for, the AM-37. This was designated the MiG-7, but with production of this engine ceasing as well, the project stalled. From Spring 1942 onwards, the MiG-3's were moved from the front line to air defence squadrons, some of which flew them for the rest of the war. One final attempt made to save the aircraft was to re-engine it with a Shvetsov ASh-82 radial engine, the same engine that had been used to create the Lavochkin La-5 from the LaGG-3. The prototypes were designated I-210 and I-211, and the result was successful enough that production was considered under the designation MiG-9 (not to be confused with the later jet). However, the La-5 was already in production and the I-211 did not offer the air force anything that it did not already have in that aircraft. Some MiG-9 airframes were even tested with the Pratt & Whitney R-2800-63 engine.

Two final prototypes, the I-230 and I-231 [Green and Swanborough 1977, p.61.] , attempted to make the most of the original MiG-3 and its engine by considerably lightening the aircraft, but with the type relegated to secondary units, the Soviet air force was simply not interested.

* MiG-3 : Single-seat interceptor fighter aircraft, powered by a 1,350-hp (1007-kW) Mikulin AM-35A piston engine.
* I-210 : MiG-3 prototype powered by a Shvetsov ASh-82 radial piston engine. Also known as the MiG-3-82.
* I-211 : MiG-3 prototype powered by a Shvetsov radial piston engine.
* MiG-3U : This was another MiG-3 prototype, powered by a 1,350-hp (1007-kW) Mikulin AM-35A piston engine.

urvivors

In May 2007, a restored MiG-3 flew at Novosibirsk, Siberia. As of July 2007, the aircraft had completed twelve flights. [Flypast Magazine, August 2007, Key Publishing Ltd] In August 2007, the restored plane (number white 17 painted in green-brown camouflage) flew a six-minute aerobatics routine on the third day of MAKS 2007 airshow.

Operators

;USSR: Soviet Air Force

pecifications (Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-3)

aircraft specification

plane or copter?=plane
jet or prop?=prop
crew=One
length main=8.25 m
length alt=27 ft 1 in
span main=10.20 m
span alt=33 ft 6 in
height main=3.50 m
height alt=11 ft 6 in
area main=17.44 m²
area alt=188 ft²
airfoil=Clark YH
empty weight main=2,699 kg
empty weight alt=5,965 lb
loaded weight main=3,355 kg
loaded weight alt=7,415 lb
more general=
engine (prop)=Mikulin AM-35A
type of prop=liquid-cooled V-12
number of props=1
power main=993 kW
power alt=1,350 hp
max speed main=640 km/h
max speed alt=412 mph
max speed at sea level main=495 km/h
max speed at sea level alt=307 mph
combat range main=820 km
combat range alt=510 miles
ceiling main=11,500 m
ceiling alt=37,700 ft
climb rate main=14.7 m/s
climb rate alt=2,890 ft/min
loading main=192 kg/m²
loading alt=39.4 lb/ft²
power/mass main=0.30 kW/kg
power/mass alt=0.18 hp/lb
more performance=
avionics=
armament=
*1x 12.7 mm UBS machine gun
*2x 7.62 mm ShKAS machine guns.
** Weight of round 1.44 kg (3.17 lb). The UBS fired through the spinner hub at 1,050 rpm and used high explosive PETN ammunition. Some MiG-3's had 2 UBK guns under the wings, but this negatively affected flight performance.
*2x 100 kg (220 lb) bombs, 2 spray containers for poisons, gas or flammable liquids or 6x 82 mm RS-82 rockets

ee also

aircontent
related=
*MiG-1
*MiG-7
*I-211
*I-225
*I-231
similar aircraft=
*Heinkel He 100
*Curtiss XP-37
sequence=
lists=
*List of military aircraft of the Soviet Union and the CIS
*List of fighter aircraft

References

Notes

Bibliography

* Gordon, Yefim. "Mikoyan's Piston-Engined Fighters (Red Star Volume 13)". Earl Shilton, Leicester, UK: Midland Publishing Ltd., 20038. ISBN 1-85780-160-1.
* Gordon, Yefim and Khazanov, Dmitri. "Soviet Combat Aircraft of the Second World War, Volume one: Single-Engined Fighters". Earl Shilton, Leicester, UK: Midland Publishing Ltd., 1998. ISBN 1-85780-083-4.
* Green, William. "War Planes of the Second World War, Volume Three: Fighters". London: Macdonald & Co.(Publishers) Ltd., 1961. ISBN 0-356-01447-9.
* Green, William and Swanborough, Gordon. "WW2 Aircraft Fact Files: Soviet Air Force Fighters, Part 1". London: Macdonald and Jane's Publishers Ltd., 1977. ISBN 0-354-01026-3.
* Morgan, Hugh. "Soviet Aces of World War 2". London: Reed International Books Ltd., 1997. ISBN 1-85532-632-9.
* Stapfer, Hans-Heiri. "Early MiG Fighters in Action (Aircraft number 204)". Carrollton, TX: Squadron/Signal Publications, 2006. ISBN 0-89747-507-0.
* Tessitori, Massimo. "Mikoyan Gurevich MiG-1/MiG-3". Sandomierz, Poland/Redbourn, UK: Mushroom Model Publications, 2006. ISBN 83-8945-026-7.

External links

* [http://mig3.sovietwarplanes.com/ MiG-3 history and photos]
* [http://www.wio.ru/tacftr/mig.htm MiG-3 versions]
* [http://www.ctrl-c.liu.se/misc/ram/mig-3.html MiG-3 from ctrl-c.liu.se]
* [http://members.tripod.com/bf1o91/allied/Fighters/mig3/mig3.htm MiG-3]
* [http://www.fiddlersgreen.net/AC/aircraft/MiG-3/MiG-3.php MiG-3 from fiddlersgreen.net]