Mikoyan

Mikoyan, formerly Mikoyan-Gurevich Design Bureau (Russian: Микоян и Гуревич, МиГ), is a Russian military aircraft design bureau, primarily for fighter aircraft. It was formerly a Soviet design bureau, and was founded by Artem Mikoyan and Mikhail Gurevich as "Mikoyan-Gurevich" and its bureau prefix is "MiG." Upon Mikoyan's death in 1970, Gurevich's name was dropped from the name of the bureau, although the bureau prefix remains MiG. The Russian government is planning to merge Mikoyan with Ilyushin, Irkut, Sukhoi, Tupolev, and Yakovlev as a new company named United Aircraft Building Corporation.^[1] The firm also operates several machine-building and design bureaus, including the Kamov helicopter plant.

List of MiG Aircrafts

Production

• MiG-1, 1940
• MiG-3, 1941
• MiG-5, 1942
• MiG-7, 1944
• MiG-9, 1947
• MiG-15, 1948
• MiG-17, 1954
• MiG-19, 1955, MiG's first supersonic fighter
• MiG-21, 1960
• MiG-23, 1970
• MiG-25, 1970
• MiG-27, 1975, a ground-attack aircraft derived from the MiG-23.
• MiG-29, 1983, comparable to the US F/A-18 Hornet and F-15 Eagle
• MiG-31, 1983, replaced the MiG-25.
• MiG-33, 1989, an advanced version of the MiG-29, also known as the MiG-29M.
• MiG-35, 2005, a new (export?) variant which combines the modern systems of the MiG-29M2 with the thrust vectoring of the MiG-29OVT; marketed in India as the "MiG-29MRCA".

Experimental

• MiG-8, 1945
• MiG I-250 (N), 1945 (aka "MiG-13")
• MiG I-270, 1946
• MiG-23 - (first used) early name of E-8 (E-8/1 and E-8/2), 1960
• MiG-AT, 1992
• MiG-110, 1995
• MiG MFI objekt 1.44/1.42 'Flatpack', 1986-2000
• MiG LFI project
• MiG-105 Spiral, 1965
• Mikoyan-Arakelian MIG ARA-107

Naming Conventions

MiGs follow the convention of using odd numbers for fighter aircraft. Although the MiG-8 and MiG-110 exist, they are not fighters. The MiG-105 "Spiral" was designed as an orbital interceptor, contemporaneous with the U.S. Air Force's cancelled X-20 Dyna-Soar.

The NATO reporting name convention uses nicknames starting with the letter "F" for fighters, one-syllable for piston engines, two for jets.

Fictional

MiGs were the best-known Soviet fighters during the Cold War, and as a result there are a number of fictional MiGs in Western popular culture.

• The film Top Gun features re-badged Northrop F-5 fighters as MiG-28s. As Mikoyan uses odd numbers for Fighter numbering, this is clearly intended to be fictional and to prevent confusion.
• The MiG-31 'Firefox' was the subject of two novels (Firefox and Firefox Down) and a 1982 movie.
• The MiG-37 'Ferret-E' is a plastic model kit created by Italeri (also sold by Testors).
• The MiG-242 was featured in the Gerry Anderson production of Joe 90.

See also: List of military aircraft of the Soviet Union and the CIS

Miscellaneous

• The MiG-28 Agressor was a code name for the US Navy Fighter Weapons School Agressor Squadron F-5 Freedom Fighter during mock engagements.