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191-547: The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 ( Russian : Микоян и Гуревич МиГ-21 ; NATO reporting name : Fishbed ) is a supersonic jet fighter and interceptor aircraft , designed by the Mikoyan-Gurevich Design Bureau in the Soviet Union . Its nicknames include: " Balalaika ", because its planform resembles the stringed musical instrument of the same name; " Ołówek ", Polish for "pencil", due to
382-745: A Captain Kalinikov shot down a ROCAF P-38 , in the first aerial victory for a MiG-15 pilot. Another followed on 11 May, when Captain Ilya Ivanovich Schinkarenko downed a B-24 Liberator flown by Li Chao Hua, commander of the 8th Air Group, ROCAF. For many years, the Soviet Union actively denied that its pilots flew in Korea during the Korean War; only China and North Korea took responsibility for Korean War operations. After
573-550: A Sukhoi design and used an illustration of the Su-9 'Fishpot' . The MiG-21 was the first successful Soviet aircraft combining fighter and interceptor characteristics in a single aircraft. It was a lightweight fighter, achieving Mach 2 with a relatively low-powered afterburning turbojet , and is thus comparable to the American Lockheed F-104 Starfighter and Northrop F-5 Freedom Fighter and
764-674: A constitutional referendum on whether to adopt Russian as a second official language. According to the Central Election Commission, 74.8% voted against, 24.9% voted for and the voter turnout was 71.1%. Starting in 2019, instruction in Russian will be gradually discontinued in private colleges and universities in Latvia, and in general instruction in Latvian public high schools. On 29 September 2022, Saeima passed in
955-651: A lingua franca in Ukraine , Moldova , the Caucasus , Central Asia , and to a lesser extent in the Baltic states and Israel . Russian has over 258 million total speakers worldwide. It is the most spoken native language in Europe , the most spoken Slavic language , as well as the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia . It is the world's seventh-most spoken language by number of native speakers , and
1146-519: A new education law which requires all schools to teach at least partially in Ukrainian, with provisions while allow indigenous languages and languages of national minorities to be used alongside the national language. The law faced criticism from officials in Russia and Hungary. The 2019 Law of Ukraine "On protecting the functioning of the Ukrainian language as the state language" gives priority to
1337-579: A B-29A beyond repair, forcing it to make an emergency landing at Kimpo Air Base . A few minutes later, Major Anatoly Karelin added two more Superfortresses to his tally. Studilin and Karelin's wingmen, Major L. A. Boykovets and 1st Lieutenant Zhahmany Ihsangalyev, also damaged one B-29 each. Anatoly Karelin eventually became an ace with six kills (all B-29s at night). In the aftermath of these battles, B-29 night sorties were cancelled for two months. Originally conceived to shoot down rather than escort bombers, both of America's state-of-the-art jet night fighters –
1528-643: A MiG-15 entering a spin in combat, resulting in at least 25 crashes and ten ejections. The large-scale introduction of the MiG-15 occurred during the last phases of the Chinese Civil War . During the first months of 1950, aircraft of the Nationalist ROCAF , operating from bases in Taiwan , attacked mainland China , including Shanghai . Mao Zedong requested assistance with air defense from
1719-800: A MiG-17 unit. Because the VPAF's 923rd FR was newer and less experienced, they continued to operate MiG-17s, while the arrival of the MiG-19s ( J-6 versions) from China in 1969 led to North Vietnam's only MiG-19 unit, the 925th FR. On 3 February 1972, North Vietnam commissioned its fourth and last fighter regiment created during the war with South Vietnam, the MiG-21PFM (Type 94)-equipped 927th FR. Former MiG-17 pilot Nguyen Nhat Chieu and his wingman Tran Ngoc Siu intercepted USAF F-105Ds while on CAP duty over Phuc Yen Airbase (a.k.a. Noi Bai Airbase) on 7 July 1966, shooting down one piloted by Capt. Tomes with
1910-402: A MiG-21, a VPAF MiG-21MF (number 5121) from the 921st Fighter Regiment, flown by Major Phạm Tuân over Hanoi, claimed the first aerial combat kill of a B-52. The B-52 had been above Hanoi at over 30,000 feet (9,100 m) when Major Tuân launched two Atoll missiles from 2 kilometres away and claimed to have destroyed one of the bombers flying in the three-plane formation. Other sources argue that
2101-591: A Superfortress on each of 22, 23 and 24 October. Samoylov added two F-86As to his tally on 24 October 1951, and on 27 October shot down two more aircraft: a B-29A and an F-84E. These losses among the heavy bombers forced the Far East Air Forces High Command to cancel the precision daylight attacks of the B-29s and only undertake radar-directed night raids. From November 1951 to January 1952, both sides tried to achieve air superiority over
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#17327879705322292-506: A beach during the summer of 2001 just miles from the Kunsan base. Captain James B. Brown is still missing in action. In a Royal Navy Sea Fury flying from a light fleet carrier FAA pilot Lieutenant Peter "Hoagy" Carmichael downed a MiG-15 on 8 August 1952, in air-to-air combat. The Sea Fury would be one of the few piston-engined fighter aircraft following World War II's end to shoot down
2483-686: A captured US B-29, as well as the later Soviet B-29 copy, the Tupolev Tu-4 . To ensure the destruction of such large bombers, the MiG-15 carried autocannons : two 23 mm (0.91 in) with 80 rounds per gun and a single 37 mm (1.46 in) with 40 rounds. These weapons provided tremendous punch in the interceptor role, but their limited rate of fire and relatively low velocity made it more difficult to score hits against small and manoeuvrable enemy jet fighters in air-to-air combat. The 23 mm and 37 mm also had radically different ballistics , and some United Nations (UN) pilots in Korea had
2674-601: A challenging adversary in the hands of experienced pilots, especially when used in high-speed hit-and-run attacks under GCI control. MiG-21 intercepts of Republic F-105 Thunderchief strike groups were effective in downing US aircraft or forcing them to jettison their bomb loads. The VPAF flew their interceptors with guidance from ground controllers, who positioned the MiGs in ambush battle stations to make "one pass, then haul ass" attacks. The MiGs made fast and often accurate attacks against US formations from several directions (usually
2865-491: A close-quarters dogfight. The use of WEP thrust was limited to 2 minutes to reduce stress on the engines' 750 (250+250+250) flight hours lifetime since every second of super-afterburner counted as several minutes of regular power run due to extreme thermal stress. With WEP on, the MiG-21bis's R-25 engine produced a huge 10–12 meter long blowtorch exhaust, with six or seven brightly glowing rhomboid "shock diamonds" visible inside
3056-460: A decisive performance advantage over straight-winged jet fighters when it was introduced into combat over Korea. The design that emerged had a mid-mounted 35° swept wing with a slight anhedral and a tailplane mounted up on the swept tail. Western analysts noted that it strongly resembled Kurt Tank 's Focke-Wulf Ta 183 , a later design than the Me 262 that never progressed beyond the design stage. While
3247-486: A factor in this phenomenon. When in afterburner , the engine operates very close to its surge line and the ingestion of even a small bird can lead to an engine surge/seizure and flame out. In view of the several incidents that have occurred after the 1999 Kargil War , the modernized MiG-21 Bison seems to have at present the role of an interceptor and possibly a limited role of a fighter aircraft. On 11 December 2013, India's second-generation supersonic jet fighter, MiG-21FL
3438-582: A formidable air-to-air adversary; its airframe has relatively few vulnerable areas, and shooting one down using the relatively fast-firing but less potent M2 Browning machine guns common in American aircraft almost invariably required multiple hits. An improved variant, the MiG-15 bis ("second"), entered service in early 1950 with a Klimov VK-1 engine, another version of the Nene with improved metallurgy over
3629-423: A formula with V standing for the nucleus (vowel) and C for each consonant, the maximal structure can be described as follows: (C)(C)(C)(C)V(C)(C)(C)(C) Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 ( Russian : Микоян-Гуревич МиГ-15 ; USAF/DoD designation : Type 14 ; NATO reporting name : Fagot ) is a jet fighter aircraft developed by Mikoyan-Gurevich for the Soviet Union . The MiG-15
3820-558: A hard or soft counterpart, and the distinction is a prominent feature of the language, which is usually shown in writing not by a change of the consonant but rather by changing the following vowel. Another important aspect is the reduction of unstressed vowels . Stress , which is often unpredictable, is not normally indicated orthographically , though an optional acute accent may be used to mark stress – such as to distinguish between homographic words (e.g. замо́к [ zamók , 'lock'] and за́мок [ zámok , 'castle']), or to indicate
4011-868: A jet fighter. On 10 September 1952, Captain Jesse G. Folmar shot down a MiG-15 with an F4U Corsair but was himself downed by another MiG. The figures given by the Soviet sources indicate that the MiG-15s of the 64th IAK (the fighter corps that included all the divisions that rotated through the conflict) made 60,450 daylight combat sorties and 2,779 night ones and engaged the enemy in 1,683 daylight aerial battles and 107 at night, claiming to have shot down 1,097 UN aircraft over Korea, including 647 F-86s, 185 F-84s, 118 F-80s, 28 F-51s, 11 F-94s, 65 B-29s, 26 Gloster Meteors and 17 aircraft of different types. According to US, 57 B-29s and reconnaissance variants were lost in combat during
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#17327879705324202-484: A language that "belongs to the European cultural space". The financing of Russian-language content by the state will cease, which the concept says create a "unified information space". However, one inevitable consequence would be the closure of public media broadcasts in Russian on LTV and Latvian Radio, as well as the closure of LSM's Russian-language service. In Lithuania , Russian has no official or legal status, but
4393-573: A leader and a wingman: After the MiG-15 entered the war, it was shown to be clearly superior to the best straight-wing jets operated by other countries, including the Gloster Meteor , Lockheed F-80 , Republic F-84 and Grumman F9F . In most measures of performance, the North American F-86 Sabre – which was also a swept-wing design – was the only close contemporary that could match the MiG-15. The USAF has claimed that
4584-588: A lesser extent the languages to the south and the east: Uralic , Turkic , Persian , Arabic , and Hebrew . According to the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California , Russian is classified as a level III language in terms of learning difficulty for native English speakers, requiring approximately 1,100 hours of immersion instruction to achieve intermediate fluency. Feudal divisions and conflicts created obstacles between
4775-441: A lower service ceiling and slower time to altitude. The delta wing, while excellent for a fast-climbing interceptor, meant any form of turning combat led to a rapid loss of speed. However, the light loading of the aircraft could mean that a climb rate of 235 m/s (46,250 ft/min) was possible with a combat-loaded MiG-21bis, not far short of the performance of the later F-16A . MiG-21's Tumansky R-25 jet engine's specialty
4966-622: A minority language under the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities . 30% of the population was fluent in Russian in 2006, and 2% used it as the main language with family, friends, or at work. In Azerbaijan , Russian has no official status, but is a lingua franca of the country. 26% of the population was fluent in Russian in 2006, and 5% used it as the main language with family, friends, or at work. In Georgia , Russian has no official status, but it
5157-526: A qualitatively new entity can be said to emerge—the general language of the working class... capitalism has the tendency of creating the general urban language of a given society. In 2010, there were 259.8 million speakers of Russian in the world: in Russia – 137.5 million, in the CIS and Baltic countries – 93.7 million, in Eastern Europe – 12.9 million, Western Europe – 7.3 million, Asia – 2.7 million, in
5348-460: A rise in exhaust temperature. The limit of operation is 2 minutes for both practice and actual wartime use, as further use causes the engine to overheat. The fuel consumption increased by 50% over the rate in full afterburner. Use of this temporary power gave the MiG-21bis slightly better than 1:1 thrust-to-weight ratio and a climbing rate of 254 meters/second, equalling the F-16's nominal capabilities in
5539-597: A salvo from Tran's UB-16-57 / S-5M unguided rocket-equipped MiG-21, while flight leader Nguyen was unable to establish a lock on another, wildly-evading F-105 with his R-3S AAM; this was the first instance of a VPAF MiG-21 shooting down a piloted enemy aircraft in the Vietnam War. Although 13 of North Vietnam's flying aces attained their status while flying the MiG-21 (cf. three in the MiG-17), many VPAF pilots preferred
5730-471: A sweep angle of 57°, an area of 3.94 m and a span of 2.6 m. The MiG-21 uses a tricycle type undercarriage. On most variants, the main landing gear uses tires that are 800 mm in diameter and 200 mm in width. Only the MiG-21F variants use tires with the size 660×200 mm. The wheels of the main landing gear retract into the fuselage after rotating 87° and the shock absorbers retract into
5921-539: Is Belarusian, among ethnic Belarusians this share is 28.5%; the highest share of those who speak Belarusian at home is among ethnic Poles — 46.0%. In Estonia , Russian is spoken by 29.6% of the population, according to a 2011 estimate from the World Factbook, and is officially considered a foreign language. School education in the Russian language is a very contentious point in Estonian politics, and in 2022,
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6112-481: Is a co-official language per article 5 of the Constitution of Kyrgyzstan . The 2009 census states that 482,200 people speak Russian as a native language, or 8.99% of the population. Additionally, 1,854,700 residents of Kyrgyzstan aged 15 and above fluently speak Russian as a second language, or 49.6% of the population in the age group. In Tajikistan , Russian is the language of inter-ethnic communication under
6303-401: Is a high degree of mutual intelligibility between Russian, Belarusian and Ukrainian , and a moderate degree of it in all modern Slavic languages, at least at the conversational level. Russian is written using a Cyrillic alphabet. The Russian alphabet consists of 33 letters. The following table gives their forms, along with IPA values for each letter's typical sound: Older letters of
6494-610: Is a post-posed definite article -to , -ta , -te similar to that existing in Bulgarian and Macedonian. In the Southern Russian dialects , instances of unstressed /e/ and /a/ following palatalized consonants and preceding a stressed syllable are not reduced to [ɪ] (as occurs in the Moscow dialect), being instead pronounced [a] in such positions (e.g. несл и is pronounced [nʲaˈslʲi] , not [nʲɪsˈlʲi] ) – this
6685-488: Is being used less frequently by Russian-speaking typists in favor of the extension of Unicode character encoding , which fully incorporates the Russian alphabet. Free programs are available offering this Unicode extension, which allow users to type Russian characters, even on Western 'QWERTY' keyboards. The Russian language was first introduced to computing after the M-1 , and MESM models were produced in 1951. According to
6876-624: Is called yakanye ( яканье ). Consonants include a fricative /ɣ/ , a semivowel /w⁓u̯/ and /x⁓xv⁓xw/ , whereas the Standard and Northern dialects have the consonants /ɡ/ , /v/ , and final /l/ and /f/ , respectively. The morphology features a palatalized final /tʲ/ in 3rd person forms of verbs (this is unpalatalized in the Standard and Northern dialects). During the Proto-Slavic (Common Slavic) times all Slavs spoke one mutually intelligible language or group of dialects. There
7067-573: Is more spoken than English. Sizable Russian-speaking communities also exist in North America, especially in large urban centers of the US and Canada, such as New York City , Philadelphia , Boston , Los Angeles , Nashville , San Francisco , Seattle , Spokane , Toronto , Calgary , Baltimore , Miami , Portland , Chicago , Denver , and Cleveland . In a number of locations they issue their own newspapers, and live in ethnic enclaves (especially
7258-564: Is odd") – чу́дно ( chúdno – "this is marvellous"), молоде́ц ( molodéts – "well done!") – мо́лодец ( mólodets – "fine young man"), узна́ю ( uznáyu – "I shall learn it") – узнаю́ ( uznayú – "I recognize it"), отреза́ть ( otrezát – "to be cutting") – отре́зать ( otrézat – "to have cut"); to indicate the proper pronunciation of uncommon words, especially personal and family names, like афе́ра ( aféra , "scandal, affair"), гу́ру ( gúru , "guru"), Гарси́я ( García ), Оле́ша ( Olésha ), Фе́рми ( Fermi ), and to show which
7449-402: Is recognized as a minority language under the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities . Russian is the language of 9% of the population according to the World Factbook. Ethnologue cites Russian as the country's de facto working language. In China , Russian has no official status, but it is spoken by the small Russian communities in the northeastern Heilongjiang and
7640-538: Is said to have perished in the explosion of a B-52 hit by his own missiles, having approached the target too closely. In this case, the Vietnamese version appears to be erroneous: while one MiG-21 kill was claimed by Phantoms that night (this may have been Thieu's MiG), no B-52s were lost for any reason on the date of the claimed kill. On 3 January 1968, a single MiG-21 pilot, Ha Van Chuc, entered battle with 36 American planes and claimed one F-105 Thunderchief. During
7831-569: Is sometimes considered to have played a significant role in the formation of modern Russian. Also, Russian has notable lexical similarities with Bulgarian due to a common Church Slavonic influence on both languages, but because of later interaction in the 19th and 20th centuries, Bulgarian grammar differs markedly from Russian. Over the course of centuries, the vocabulary and literary style of Russian have also been influenced by Western and Central European languages such as Greek, Latin , Polish , Dutch , German, French, Italian, and English, and to
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8022-585: Is spoken by 14.2% of the population according to an undated estimate from the World Factbook. In 2005, Russian was the most widely taught foreign language in Mongolia, and was compulsory in Year 7 onward as a second foreign language in 2006. Around 1.5 million Israelis spoke Russian as of 2017. The Israeli press and websites regularly publish material in Russian and there are Russian newspapers, television stations, schools, and social media outlets based in
8213-518: Is the stressed word in a sentence, for example Ты́ съел печенье? ( Tý syel pechenye? – "Was it you who ate the cookie?") – Ты съе́л печенье? ( Ty syél pechenye? – "Did you eat the cookie?) – Ты съел пече́нье? ( Ty syel pechénye? "Was it the cookie you ate?"). Stress marks are mandatory in lexical dictionaries and books for children or Russian learners. The Russian syllable structure can be quite complex, with both initial and final consonant clusters of up to four consecutive sounds. Using
8404-470: The 2011 Lithuanian census , Russian was the native language for 7.2% of the population. In Moldova , Russian was considered to be the language of interethnic communication under a Soviet-era law. On 21 January 2021, the Constitutional Court of Moldova declared the law unconstitutional and deprived Russian of the status of the language of interethnic communication. 50% of the population
8595-1000: The Apollo–Soyuz mission, which first flew in 1975. In March 2013, Russian was found to be the second-most used language on websites after English. Russian was the language of 5.9% of all websites, slightly ahead of German and far behind English (54.7%). Russian was used not only on 89.8% of .ru sites, but also on 88.7% of sites with the former Soviet Union domain .su . Websites in former Soviet Union member states also used high levels of Russian: 79.0% in Ukraine, 86.9% in Belarus, 84.0% in Kazakhstan, 79.6% in Uzbekistan, 75.9% in Kyrgyzstan and 81.8% in Tajikistan. However, Russian
8786-657: The Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European language family . It is one of the four extant East Slavic languages, and is the native language of the Russians . It was the de facto and de jure official language of the former Soviet Union . Russian has remained an official language of the Russian Federation , Belarus , Kazakhstan , Kyrgyzstan , and Tajikistan , and is still commonly used as
8977-413: The Constitution of Tajikistan and is permitted in official documentation. 28% of the population was fluent in Russian in 2006, and 7% used it as the main language with family, friends or at work. The World Factbook notes that Russian is widely used in government and business. In Turkmenistan , Russian lost its status as the official lingua franca in 1996. Among 12% of the population who grew up in
9168-726: The F-94 Starfire and the F3D Skyknight – were committed to protecting the Superfortresses against MiGs. The MiG-15 was less effective in getting past the Marine Corps ground-based two-seat F3D Skyknight night fighters assigned to escort B-29s after the F-94 Starfires proved ineffective. What the squat aircraft lacked in sheer performance, it made up for with the advantage of a search radar that enabled
9359-574: The Indian Air Force (IAF) opted to purchase the MiG-21 over several other Western competitors. As part of the deal, the Soviet Union offered India full transfer of technology and rights for local assembly. In 1964, the MiG-21 became the first supersonic fighter jet to enter service with the IAF. Due to limited induction numbers and lack of pilot training, the IAF MiG-21 played a limited role in
9550-568: The Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 . However, the IAF gained valuable experience while operating the MiG-21 for defensive sorties during the war. The positive feedback from IAF pilots during the 1965 war prompted India to place more orders for the fighter jet and also invest heavily in building the MiG-21's maintenance infrastructure and pilot training programs. Since 1963, India has introduced more than 1,200 MiG fighters into its air force. As of 2024, 40 MiG-21s are known to be in operation in
9741-603: The Klimov RD-45 to be incorporated into the MiG-15. To take advantage of the new engine, the Council of Ministers ordered the Mikoyan-Gurevich OKB to build two prototypes for an advanced high-altitude daytime interceptor to defend against bombers. It was to have a top speed of 1,000 kilometres per hour (620 mph) and a range of 1,200 kilometres (750 mi). Designers at MiG's OKB-155 started with
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#17327879705329932-503: The MiG-15 , MiG-17 and MiG-19 . The short endurance and low fuel capacity of the MiG-21F, PF, PFM, S/SM and M/MF variants—though each had a somewhat greater fuel capacity than its predecessor—led to the development of the MT and SMT variants. These had an increased range of 250 km (155 mi) compared to the MiG-21SM, but at the cost of worsening all other performance figures, such as
10123-672: The MiG-29 would the Soviet Union ultimately replace the MiG-21 as a maneuvering dogfighter to counter new American air superiority types. The MiG-21 was exported widely and remains in use. The aircraft's simple controls, engine, weapons, and avionics were typical of Soviet-era military designs. The use of a tail with the delta wing aids stability and control at the extremes of the flight envelope , enhancing safety for lower-skilled pilots; this, in turn, enhanced its marketability in exports to developing countries with limited training programs and restricted pilot pools. While technologically inferior to
10314-549: The NATO reporting name "Fagot". Early production examples had a tendency to roll to the left or to the right due to manufacturing variances, so aerodynamic trimmers called nozhi (knives) were fitted to correct the problem, the knives being adjusted by ground crews until the aircraft flew correctly. The MiG-15 was originally intended to intercept American bombers like the B-29 . It was even evaluated in mock air-to-air combat trials with
10505-631: The Pakistan Air Force shot down an Indian MiG-21 and captured its pilot . The MiG-21's debris had fallen in Pakistani-administered Kashmir. The pilot was later returned to India. The Indonesian Air Force purchased 22 MiG-21s. In 1962, 20 MiG-21F-13s and MiG-21Us were received during Operation Trikora in the Western New Guinea conflict. Indonesian MiG-21s never fought in any dogfights. Right after
10696-476: The Ukrainian language in more than 30 spheres of public life: in particular in public administration , media, education, science, culture, advertising, services . The law does not regulate private communication. A poll conducted in March 2022 by RATING in the territory controlled by Ukraine found that 83% of the respondents believe that Ukrainian should be the only state language of Ukraine. This opinion dominates in all macro-regions, age and language groups. On
10887-507: The United States Census , in 2007 Russian was the primary language spoken in the homes of over 850,000 individuals living in the United States. Russian is one of the official languages (or has similar status and interpretation must be provided into Russian) of the following: The Russian language is also one of two official languages aboard the International Space Station – NASA astronauts who serve alongside Russian cosmonauts usually take Russian language courses. This practice goes back to
11078-411: The shock cone and front air intake did not see widespread use outside the USSR and ultimately proved to have limited development potential, mainly due to the small available space for the radar. Like many aircraft designed as interceptors, the MiG-21 had a short range. This was exacerbated by the poor placement of the internal fuel tanks ahead of the centre of gravity. As the internal fuel was consumed,
11269-399: The "bait", brought four F-4s to 2 MiG-21s circling at low altitude. The MiGs quickly stormed the Phantoms and 3 missiles shot down two F-4s. On 13 May, a MiG-21 unit intercepted a group of F-4s and a second pair of MiGs made a missile attack before being hit by two F-4s. On 18 May, VPAF aircraft made 26 sorties, eight of which resulted in combat, downing four F-4s without any VPAF losses. Over
11460-410: The 133rd and 216th IADs, arrived in Korea. They would replace the 97th and 190th by July 1952, and if they could not take aerial superiority away from the now well-prepared Americans, then they certainly neutralized it between September 1952 and July 1953. In September 1952, the 32nd IAD also started combat operations. Again, the figures of victories and losses in the air are still debated by historians of
11651-493: The 151st and 28th IADs plus the veteran 50th IAD were reorganized into the 64th Fighter Aviation Corps (64 IAK). Initially, the Soviet fighters operated close to their bases, limited by the range of their aircraft, and were guided to the air battlefield by good ground control, which directed them to the most advantageous positions. For political, security and logistical reasons, they were not allowed to cross an imaginary line drawn from Wonsan to Pyongyang , and never to fly over
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#173278797053211842-405: The 20th century, Russian was a mandatory language taught in the schools of the members of the old Warsaw Pact and in other countries that used to be satellites of the USSR. According to the Eurobarometer 2005 survey, fluency in Russian remains fairly high (20–40%) in some countries, in particular former Warsaw Pact countries. In Armenia , Russian has no official status, but it is recognized as
12033-446: The 50th IAD joined the war with its MiG-15s – their noses painted red and in North Korean markings. That day, eight MiG-15s intercepted about 15 USAF F-51D Mustangs, and First Lieutenant Fyodor V. Chizh shot down Aaron Abercombrie, killing the American pilot. The first-ever jet-versus-jet combat occurred that same day when three MiG-15s from the 50th IAD intercepted ten F-80 Shooting Stars. The F-80C piloted by 1st Lt Frank Van Sickle USAF
12224-420: The Atoll missiles failed to hit their mark, but as it was disengaging, a B-52 from a three-bomber cell in front of his target took a hit from a surface-to-air missile (SAM), exploding in mid-air: this may have caused Tuân to think his missiles destroyed the target he had been aiming for. The Vietnamese claimed another kill on 28 December 1972 by a MiG-21 from the 921st FR, this time flown by Vu Xuan Thieu. Thieu
12415-455: The B-52. The first aerial victory was scored on 18 December 1972 by tail gunner Staff Sgt Samuel Turner, who was awarded the Silver Star . The second took place on 24 December 1972, when A1C Albert E. Moore downed a MiG-21 over the Thai Nguyen railroad yards. Both actions occurred during Operation Linebacker II , also known as the Christmas Bombings . These air-to-air kills were not confirmed by VPAF. The biggest threat to North Vietnam during
12606-412: The Belarusian society the Russian language prevails, so according to the 2019 census 6,718,557 people (71.4% of the total population) stated that they speak Russian at home, for ethnic Belarusians this share is 61.4%, for Russians — 97.2%, for Ukrainians — 89.0%, for Poles — 52.4%, and for Jews — 96.6%; 2,447,764 people (26.0% of the total population) stated that the language they usually speak at home
12797-651: The F-86 had the advantage in combat kills over Korea between 1950 and 1953. It has been acknowledged that many individual Soviet pilots had larger individual tallies than their UN counterparts, due to a number of factors, although the aggregated claims made by Soviet pilots were probably overstated. According to Soviet/Russian sources, 335 Soviet-piloted MiG-15s were lost in Korea to all causes, including accidents, AA fire and ground attacks. Chinese sources claim that 224 Chinese-piloted MiG-15s were lost over Korea. North Korean losses are not known, but according to North Korean defectors, their air force lost around 100 MiG-15s during
12988-399: The French Dassault Mirage III . Its basic layout was used for numerous other Soviet designs; delta-winged aircraft included the Su-9 interceptor and fast E-150 prototype from the MiG bureau, while the successful mass-produced frontline fighter Su-7 and Mikoyan's I-75 experimental interceptor combined a similar fuselage shape with swept-back wings. However, the characteristic layout with
13179-409: The Great and developed from the Moscow ( Middle or Central Russian ) dialect substratum under the influence of some of the previous century's Russian chancery language. Prior to the Bolshevik Revolution , the spoken form of the Russian language was that of the nobility and the urban bourgeoisie. Russian peasants, the great majority of the population, continued to speak in their own dialects. However,
13370-574: The IAF. At its peak, IAF operated 400 MiG-21s in 19 squadrons. In 2023, the IAF announced that it would replace its MiG-21 Bisons with indigenously built Tejas fighter jet. The plane has been plagued by safety problems. Since 1970 more than 170 Indian pilots and 40 civilians have been killed in MiG-21 accidents, thus the unofficial nickname "flying coffin". Over half of the 840 aircraft built between 1966 and 1984 were lost to crashes. At least 14 MiG-21s crashed between 2010 and 2013. Poor maintenance and quality of replacement parts has been considered to be
13561-468: The Institute of Russian Language of the Russian Academy of Sciences, an optional acute accent ( знак ударения ) may, and sometimes should, be used to mark stress . For example, it is used to distinguish between otherwise identical words, especially when context does not make it obvious: замо́к ( zamók – "lock") – за́мок ( zámok – "castle"), сто́ящий ( stóyashchy – "worthwhile") – стоя́щий ( stoyáshchy – "standing"), чудно́ ( chudnó – "this
13752-449: The Korean War, claimed 1,106 aircraft shot down by MiG-15s. The records of USAF units confirm 139 US aircraft were shot down by MiGs, with another 68 lost due to unknown causes, 237 aircraft listed as missing due to unknown causes, and 472 aircraft classified as "other losses". Data-matching with Soviet records suggests that US pilots routinely attributed their own combat losses to "landing accidents" and "other losses". On 1 November 1950,
13943-663: The Korean war, almost all by MiG-15s. The Soviet VVS and PVO were the primary users of the MiG-15 during the war; it was also used by the PLAAF and KPAF (unified under an organizational structure called 1st United Air Army ). Despite complaints from the Soviet Union, which repeatedly requested that the Chinese accelerate the introduction of MiG-15, by 1951 there were only two regiments flying MiG-15bis as night fighters. Being not completely trained and equipped, both units were used only for
14134-467: The Mach 2.4-capable USAF Convair F-106 Delta Dart , to mimick the MiG-21. The culmination of the air struggle over Vietnam in early 1972 was 10 May, when VPAF aircraft completed 64 sorties, resulting in 15 air battles. The VPAF claimed 7 F-4s were shot down (the U.S. confirmed five F-4s were lost.) The F-4s, in turn, managed to destroy two MiG-21s, three MiG-17s and one MiG-19. On 11 May, two MiG-21s, playing
14325-651: The MiG design bureau's own 1945–46 attempt at a Soviet-built version of the Messerschmitt Me 263 rocket fighter in the appearance of its fuselage. The new MiG retained the previous straight-winged MiG-9's wing and tailplane placement while the F-86 employed a more conventional low-winged design. To prevent confusion during the height of combat the US painted their aircraft with bright stripes to distinguish them. The resulting prototypes were designated I-310 . The I-310
14516-475: The MiG-15 forced the Sabre to fight in the vertical plane or in the horizontal one above 10,000 m (33,000 ft), it gained a significant advantage. Furthermore, a MiG-15 could easily escape from a Sabre by climbing to its ceiling, knowing that the F-86 could not follow. Below 8,000 m (26,000 ft), however, the Sabre had a slight advantage over the MiG in most aspects excluding climb rate, especially if
14707-752: The MiG-15 gained aerial superiority over northwestern Korea. US strategic bombers returned in the week of 22–27 October to neutralize the North Korean aerodromes of Namsi, Taechon and Saamchan, taking further losses to the MiG-15. On 23 October 1951, 56 MiG-15bis intercepted nine B-29s escorted by 34 F-86s and 55 F-84Es . In spite of their numerical inferiority, the Soviet airmen shot down or damaged beyond repair eight B-29As and two F-84Es, losing only one MiG in return and leading Americans to call that day "Black Tuesday". The most successful Soviet pilots that day were Lieutenant Colonel Aleksandr P. Smorchkov and 1st Lieutenant Dmitriy A. Samoylov. The former shot down
14898-760: The MiG-15 was not to dogfight the F-86 but to counter the USAF Boeing B-29 Superfortress bombers. This mission was assigned to the elite of the Soviet Air Force (VVS), in April 1951 to the 324th IAD of Colonel Ivan Kozhedub, and later to the 303rd IAD of General Georgiy A. Lobov, who arrived in Korea in June of the same year. On 12 April 1951, 44 MiG-15s took on a USAF formation of 48 B-29 Superfortresses escorted by 18 F-86 Sabres, 54 F-84 Thunderjets and 24 F-80 Shooting Stars heading towards
15089-704: The MiG-15, three squadrons of the F-86 Sabre, America's only operational jet with swept wings, were quickly rushed to Korea in December. On 17 December, Lt Col. Bruce H. Hinton forced Maj. Yakov Nikanorovich Yefromeyenko to eject from his burning MiG. Five days later, Capt. Nikolay Yefremovich Vorobyov shot down the F-86A of Captain Lawrence V. Bach in his MiG-15bis. Both sides exaggerated their claims of aerial victories that month. Sabre fliers claimed eight MiGs, and
15280-602: The MiG-15, was already based near Shanghai, as it had taken part in the Chinese Civil War (see previous section). A detachment from the 50 IAD was moved to Antung, next to the border with North Korea in August 1950. They formed the 29th Guards Fighter Regiment (29 GvIAP). When China entered the war in support of North Korea, the Soviets agreed to provide 16 operational air regiments of MiG-15s, including combat pilots. In
15471-561: The MiG-15. The Soviets trained alongside Chinese and Korean pilots. Both regiments of the 324th IAD redeployed to the forward airbase in Antung and entered combat in early April 1951. The 303rd IAD of General Georgiy A. Lobov arrived in Korea in June of that same year and commenced combat operations in August. Soviet MiG pilots were trained to attack enemy formations in coordinated attacks from different directions, using both height and high speed to their advantage. The first encounters established
15662-644: The MiG-17 because the high wing loading of the MiG-21 made it relatively less maneuverable and the lighter framed canopy of the MiG-17 gave better visibility. However, this is not the impression British author Roger Boniface got when he interviewed Pham Ngoc Lan and ace Nguyễn Nhật Chiêu (who scored victories flying both the MiG-17 and MiG-21). Pham Ngoc Lan told Boniface that "The MiG-21 was much faster, and it had two Atoll missiles which were very accurate and reliable when fired between 1,000 and 1,200 yards." And Chiêu asserted that "... for me personally, I preferred
15853-615: The MiG-17s performed head-on attacks and the MiG-21s attacked from the rear). After shooting down a few American planes and forcing some of the F-105s to drop their bombs prematurely, the MiGs did not wait for retaliation but disengaged rapidly. These "guerrilla warfare in the air" tactics generally proved successful during the war. In December 1966, the MiG-21 pilots of the 921st FR downed 14 F-105 Thunderchiefs without any losses. The USAF and
16044-501: The MiG-21 because it was superior in all specifications in climb, speed and armament. The Atoll missile was very accurate and I scored four kills with the Atoll. ... In general combat conditions, I was always confident of a kill over an F-4 Phantom when flying a MiG-21." Although the MiG-21 lacked the long-range radar, missiles, and heavy bomb load of its contemporary multi-mission U.S. fighters, its RP-21 Sapfir radar helped make it
16235-470: The MiG-21 began in the early 1950s when Mikoyan OKB finished a preliminary design study for a prototype designated Ye-1 in 1954. This project was very quickly reworked when it was determined that the planned engine was underpowered; the redesign led to the second prototype, the Ye-2. Both these and other early prototypes featured swept wings. The first prototype with the delta wings found on production variants
16426-526: The Middle East and North Africa – 1.3 million, Sub-Saharan Africa – 0.1 million, Latin America – 0.2 million, U.S., Canada , Australia, and New Zealand – 4.1 million speakers. Therefore, the Russian language is the seventh-largest in the world by the number of speakers , after English, Mandarin, Hindi -Urdu, Spanish, French, Arabic, and Portuguese. Russian is one of the six official languages of
16617-1051: The PLAAF did not see action until 25 September 1951, when 16 MiG-15s engaged Sabres, with pilot Li Yongtai claiming a victory, but losing a MiG and its pilot. The North Korean unit equipped with the MiG-15 got into action a year later, in September 1952. From then until the end of the war, units in the 1st United Air Army claimed to have shot down 211 F-86s, 72 F-84s and F-80s, and 47 other aircraft of various types, losing 116 Chinese airmen and 231 aircraft: 224 MiG-15s, three La-11s and four Tupolev Tu-2s . Several pilots were credited with five or more enemy aircraft, such as Zhao Baotong with seven victories, Wang Hai with nine kills, and both Kan Yon Duk and Kim Di San with five. Based on Soviet archival data, 335 Soviet MiG-15s are known to have been admitted as lost over Korea. Chinese claims of their losses amount to 224 MiG-15s over Korea. North Korean losses are not known, but according to North Korean defectors their air force lost around 100 MiG-15s during
16808-630: The RD-45, plus minor improvements and upgrades. Visible differences were a headlight in the air intake separator and horizontal upper edge airbrakes. The 23 mm cannon were placed more closely together in their undercarriage. Some "bis" aircraft also adopted under-wing hardpoints for unguided rocket launchers or 50–250 kg (110–550 lb) bombs. Fighter-bomber modifications were dubbed "IB", "SD-21", and "SD-5". About 150 aircraft were upgraded to SD-21 specification during 1953–1954. The MiG-15 arguably had sufficient power to dive at supersonic speeds, but
16999-807: The Russian alphabet include ⟨ ѣ ⟩ , which merged to ⟨ е ⟩ ( /je/ or /ʲe/ ); ⟨ і ⟩ and ⟨ ѵ ⟩ , which both merged to ⟨ и ⟩ ( /i/ ); ⟨ ѳ ⟩ , which merged to ⟨ ф ⟩ ( /f/ ); ⟨ ѫ ⟩ , which merged to ⟨ у ⟩ ( /u/ ); ⟨ ѭ ⟩ , which merged to ⟨ ю ⟩ ( /ju/ or /ʲu/ ); and ⟨ ѧ ⟩ and ⟨ ѩ ⟩ , which later were graphically reshaped into ⟨ я ⟩ and merged phonetically to /ja/ or /ʲa/ . While these older letters have been abandoned at one time or another, they may be used in this and related articles. The yers ⟨ ъ ⟩ and ⟨ ь ⟩ originally indicated
17190-458: The Russian principalities before and especially during Mongol rule. This strengthened dialectal differences, and for a while, prevented the emergence of a standardized national language. The formation of the unified and centralized Russian state in the 15th and 16th centuries, and the gradual re-emergence of a common political, economic, and cultural space created the need for a common standard language. The initial impulse for standardization came from
17381-643: The Skyknight to see its targets clearly, while the MiG-15's directions to find bomber formations were of little use in seeing escorting fighters. On the night of 2–3 November 1952, a Skyknight with pilot Major William Stratton and radar operator Hans Hoagland damaged the MiG-15 of Captain V. D. Vishnyak. Five days later, Oliver R. Davis and radar operator D.F. "Ding" Fessler downed a MiG-15bis; the pilot, Lieutenant Ivan P. Kovalyov, ejected safely. Skyknights claimed five MiG kills for no losses of their own, and no B-29s escorted by them were lost to enemy fighters. However,
17572-405: The Soviet era can speak Russian, other generations of citizens that do not have any knowledge of Russian. Primary and secondary education by Russian is almost non-existent. In Uzbekistan , Russian is the language of inter-ethnic communication. It has some official roles, being permitted in official documentation and is the lingua franca of the country and the language of the elite. Russian
17763-942: The Soviet forces. Moscow constructed single-seaters for export, and Tbilisi manufactured two-seaters both for export and the USSR, though there were exceptions. The MiG-21R and MiG-21bis for export and for the USSR were built in Gorky, 17 single-seaters were built in Tbilisi (MiG-21 and MiG-21F), the MiG-21MF was first constructed in Moscow and then Gorky, and the MiG-21U was built in Moscow as well as in Tbilisi. A total of 194 MiG-21F-13s were built under licence in Czechoslovakia , and Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. of India built 657 MiG-21FL, MiG-21M and MiG-21bis (of which 225 were bis) Due to
17954-561: The Soviet pilot made the mistake of fighting in the horizontal. The MiG also had more powerful weaponry – one 37 mm N-37 cannon and two 23 mm NR-23 cannons, versus the six 12.7 mm (.50 in) machine guns of the Sabre. However, the Soviet World War II-era ASP-1N gyroscopic gunsight was less sophisticated than the accurate A-1CM and A4 radar ranging sights of the F-86E and -F. The main mission of
18145-493: The Soviets 12 F-86s; the actual losses were three MiGs and at least four Sabres. The British Chief of the Air Staff , Air Chief Marshal Sir John Slessor , commented: "not only is it faster than anything we are building today, but it is already being produced in very large numbers [...] The Russians, therefore, have achieved a four year lead over British development in respect of the vitally important interceptor fighter". At
18336-451: The U.S.-backed anti-communist forces took over the government, 13 Indonesian MiG-21s were delivered to the U.S. in exchange for T-33, UH-34D, and later, F-5 and OV-10 aircraft. All remaining MiG-21s were grounded and retired due to a lack of spare parts and the withdrawal of Soviet maintenance support. The MiGs were added to the 4477th Test and Evaluation Squadron ("Red Eagles"), a USAF aggressor squadron at Tonopah Test Range. The MiG-21
18527-643: The US Navy had high expectations of the F-4 Phantom, assuming that their massive firepower, best available on-board radar, highest speed and acceleration properties, coupled with new tactics, would provide an advantage over the MiGs. But in confrontations with the lighter MiG-21, F-4s began to suffer losses. From May to December 1966, the USAF lost 47 aircraft, destroying only 12 VPAF fighters in return. From April 1965 to November 1968, over 268 air battles occurred over
18718-470: The US and the former Soviet Union, but on at least three occasions, Soviet MiG-15 aces gained the upper hand against Sabre aces: The MiG-15 threat forced the Far East Air Forces to cancel B-29 daylight raids in favor of night radar-guided missions from November 1951 onward. Initially, this presented a threat to Communist defenses, as their only specialized night-fighting unit was equipped with
18909-542: The USAF lost 250 F-86 fighters in Korea: 184 were lost in combat (78 in air-combat, 19 by Anti-aircraft gun, 26 were "unknown causes" and 61 were "other losses") and 66 in accidents. More recent research by Dorr, Lake and Thompson has claimed the actual ratio is closer to 2 to 1. The Soviets claimed to have downed over 600 Sabres, together with the Chinese claims. A recent RAND report made reference to "recent scholarship" of F-86 v MiG-15 combat over Korea and concluded that
19100-516: The USSR buy the reliable, fully developed, Rolls-Royce Nene (having been alerted to the fact that the UK Labour government wanted to improve post-war UK-Russia foreign relations) for the purpose of copying them in a minimum of time. Stalin is said to have replied, "What fool will sell us his secrets?" However, he gave his consent to the proposal and Mikoyan, engine designer Vladimir Yakovlevich Klimov [ ru ] , and others travelled to
19291-669: The USSR. In February 1950, the 50th Fighter Aviation Division ( 50 IAD ) of the Soviet Air Defence Forces , equipped with the MiG-15bis, was deployed to southern China, to support the People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) and begin training Chinese pilots in the MiG-15. In April 1950, MiG-15s flown by Soviet pilots began operating over Shanghai, thwarting the Nationalist bombing campaign. On 28 April 1950,
19482-625: The United Kingdom to request the engines. To Stalin's amazement, the British Labour government and its Minister of Trade, Sir Stafford Cripps , were perfectly willing to provide technical information and a license to manufacture the Rolls-Royce Nene. Sample engines were purchased and delivered with blueprints. Following evaluation and adaptation to Russian conditions, the windfall technology was tooled for mass-production as
19673-467: The United Nations. Education in Russian is still a popular choice for both Russian as a second language (RSL) and native speakers in Russia, and in many former Soviet republics. Russian is still seen as an important language for children to learn in most of the former Soviet republics. In Belarus , Russian is a second state language alongside Belarusian per the Constitution of Belarus . 77% of
19864-824: The Yalu, or at least tried to deny it to the enemy, and in consequence, the intensity of the aerial combat reached peaks not seen before between MiG-15 and F-86 pilots. During the period from November 1950 to January 1952, no fewer than 40 Soviet MiG-15 pilots were credited as aces , with five or more victories. Soviet combat records show that the first pilot to claim his fifth aerial victory was Captain Stepan Ivanovich Naumenko on 24 December 1950. The honor falls to Captain Sergei Kramarenko , when on 29 July 1951, he scored his actual fifth victory. Approximately 16 out of those 40 pilots actually became aces,
20055-486: The actual kill:loss ratio for the F-86 was 1.8 to 1 overall, and likely closer to 1.3 to 1 against MiGs flown by Soviet pilots. However, this ratio did not count the number of aircraft of other types (B-29, A-26, F-80, F-82, F-84...) that were shot down by MiG-15s. In April 1951, a crashed MiG-15 was spotted near the Chongchon River . On 17 April 1951, a USAF Sikorsky H-19 staging through Baengnyeongdo carried
20246-420: The ailerons there are small wing fences . The fuselage is semi-monocoque with an elliptical profile and a maximum width of 1.24 m (4 ft 1 in). The air flow to the engine is regulated by an inlet cone in the air intake. On early model MiG-21s, the cone has three positions. For speeds up to Mach 1.5, the cone is fully retracted to the maximum aft position. For speeds between Mach 1.5 and Mach 1.9
20437-684: The air forces that would come under United Nations Command (UNC) – such as the North American P-51 Mustang , Vought F4U Corsair and Hawker Sea Fury . Initially, the numerical and technical superiority of UNC fighter units gave them air supremacy, and laid North Korean targets bare to the destructive power of United States Air Force (USAF) Boeing B-29 heavy bombers. During 1950, the Kremlin agreed to supply China and North Korea with MiG-15s, as well as train their pilots. The 50th Fighter Aviation Division (50 IAD), equipped with
20628-417: The aircraft would buffet heavily above Mach 0.92 and would pitch up at Mach 0.95. During a high-altitude, full-power dive to determine if the MiG-15 could exceed Mach 1, Chuck Yeager reached Mach 0.98, but the MiG would go no faster, and he lost roll control and did not begin to regain it until flying into denser air at 12,000 ft (3,700 m) of altitude; he had descended to 3,000 ft (910 m) by
20819-486: The battle was started. They could decide to fight or stay out as they wished. The advantage of radar control from the ground also allowed the MiGs, if desired, to pass through the gaps in the F-86 patrol pattern. At the end of January 1952, the 303rd IAD was replaced by the 97th (16th and 148th IAP) and in February the 324th IAD was replaced by the 190th IAD (256th, 494th and 821st IAP). These new units were poorly trained,
21010-734: The bridge linking North Korea and Red China over the Yalu River in Uiju . The experienced Soviet fliers shot down or damaged beyond repair 10 B-29As, one F-86A and three F-80Cs for the loss of only one MiG. The Soviet air units claimed to have shot down 29 American aircraft through the rest of the month: 11 F-80s, seven B-29s and nine F-51s. 23 out of these 29 claims match acknowledged losses, but US sources assert that most of them were either operational or due to flak, admitting only four B-29s (a downed B-29, plus two B-29s and an RB-29 that crash-landed or were damaged beyond repair). US historians agree that
21201-403: The broader sense of expanding the use of Russian alongside or in favour of other languages. The current standard form of Russian is generally regarded as the modern Russian literary language ( современный русский литературный язык – "sovremenny russky literaturny yazyk"). It arose at the beginning of the 18th century with the modernization reforms of the Russian state under the rule of Peter
21392-627: The bulk of the pilots having only 50–60 hours flying the MiG. Consequently, those units suffered great losses from the now better-prepared American Sabre pilots. At least two Soviet fliers became aces during that period: Majors Arkadiy S. Boytsov and Vladimir N. Zabelin, with six and nine victories respectively. During the six months of February to July 1952, they lost 81 MiGs, and 34 pilots were killed by F-86s, and in return, they only shot down 68 UN aircraft (including 36 F-86s). The greatest losses came on 4 July 1952, when 11 MiGs were downed by Sabres, with one pilot killed in action. Contributing to all this
21583-497: The canopy and below the pilot's eyeline. The cabin is pressurized and air-conditioned. On variants prior to the MiG-21PFM, the cabin canopy is hinged at the front. When ejecting, the SK-1 ejection seat connects with the canopy to provide a windbreak from the high-speed airflow encountered during high-speed ejections. After ejection, the canopy opens to allow the pilot to parachute to the ground. However, ejecting at low altitudes can cause
21774-432: The canopy to take too long to separate, sometimes resulting in pilot death. The minimum height for ejection in level flight was 110 m. Starting with the MiG-21PFM, a new ejection seat proved to be very reliable and did not need the canopy to protect the pilot which had never been fully satisfactory. The canopy is hinged on the right side of the cockpit. On the underside of the aircraft, there are three air brakes, two at
21965-419: The center of gravity would shift rearward beyond acceptable parameters. This had the effect of making the plane statically unstable to the point of being difficult to control, resulting in an endurance of only 45 minutes in clean condition. This can be somewhat countered by carrying fuel in external tanks closer to the center of gravity. The Chinese variants somewhat improved the internal fuel tank layout (as did
22156-464: The cone moves to the middle position. For speeds higher than Mach 1.9 the cone moves to the maximum forward position. On the later model MiG-21PF, the intake cone moves to a position based on the actual speed. The cone position for a given speed is calculated by the UVD-2M system using air pressures from in front and behind the compressor of the engine. On both sides of the nose, there are gills to supply
22347-572: The country. There is an Israeli TV channel mainly broadcasting in Russian with Israel Plus . See also Russian language in Israel . Russian is also spoken as a second language by a small number of people in Afghanistan . In Vietnam , Russian has been added in the elementary curriculum along with Chinese and Japanese and were named as "first foreign languages" for Vietnamese students to learn, on equal footing with English. The Russian language
22538-482: The course of the air war, between 3 April 1965 and 8 January 1973, each side would ultimately claim favorable kill ratios. In 1972, the number of air battles between American and Vietnamese planes stood at 201. The VPAF lost 54 MiGs (including 36 MiG-21s and one MiG-21US) and claimed 90 U.S. aircraft shot down, including 74 F-4 fighters and two RF-4C reconnaissance jets (MiG-21s shot down 67 enemy aircraft while MiG-17s shot down 11 and MiG-19s downed another 12). One MiG-21
22729-457: The defence of China, but they became involved in the interception of USAF reconnaissance aircraft, some of which went very deep over China. By September 1951, with enough MiG-15s in the Yalu area, Soviet and Chinese leaders were confident enough to begin planning the deployment of Chinese and new North Korean MiG-15 regiments outside Chinese sanctuaries. Excluding a brief episode in January 1951,
22920-537: The duel was not one-sided: on the night of 16 January 1953, an F3D almost did fall to a MiG, when the Skyknight of Captain George Cross and Master Sergeant J. A. Piekutowski suffered serious damage in an attack by a Soviet MiG-15bis; with difficulty, the Skyknight returned to Kunsan Air Base. Three and a half months later, on the night of 29 May 1953, Chinese MiG-15 pilot Hou Shujun of the PLAAF shot down an F3D-2 over Anju; Sgt. James V. Harrell's remains were found on
23111-512: The earlier MiG-9 jet fighter. The new fighter used Klimov's British-derived engines, swept wings , and a tailpipe going all the way back to a swept tail. The German Me 262 was the first fighter fitted with an 18.5° wing sweep, but it was introduced merely to adjust the center of gravity of its heavy Junkers Jumo 004 pioneering axial-compressor turbojet engines. Further experience and research during World War II later established that swept wings would give better performance at transonic speeds. At
23302-553: The early part of the war eventually led the US Navy to create their Navy Fighter Weapons School , also known as " TOPGUN ", at Naval Air Station Miramar , California , on 3 March 1969. The USAF quickly followed with its own version, called the Dissimilar Air Combat Training (sometimes referred to as Red Flag ) program at Nellis Air Force Base , Nevada . These two programs employed the subsonic Douglas A-4 Skyhawk and supersonic F-5 Tiger II , as well as
23493-550: The end of 1950, the Soviet Union assigned a new unit to support China, the 324th IAD (made up of two regiments: the 176th GIAP and 196th IAP). At that time, a MiG-15 interceptor regiment had 35 to 40 aircraft, and a division was usually composed of three regiments. When the new unit arrived at air bases along the Yalu River in March 1951, it had undergone preliminary training at Soviet bases in the neighboring Maritime Military Districts and started an intense period of air-to-air training in
23684-450: The end of World War II, the Soviets seized many of the assets of Germany's aircraft industry. The MiG team studied these plans, prototypes and documents, particularly swept-wing research and designs, even going so far as to produce a flying testbed in 1945 to investigate swept-wing design concepts as the piston-engined "pusher" -layout, MiG-8 Utka (Russian for "duck", from its tail-first canard design). The swept wing later proved to have
23875-516: The end of the Cold War , Soviet pilots who participated in the conflict began to reveal their roles. Books by Chinese, Russian and ex-Soviet authors, such as Zhang Xiaoming, Leonid Krylov, Yuriy Tepsurkaev and Igor Seydov revealed details of the actual pilots and operations. From the beginning, Soviet pilots were ordered to avoid flying over areas in which they might be captured. Soviet aircraft were adorned with North Korean or Chinese markings and even
24066-656: The end of the war. According to one Western military analyst, the MiG-21FLs had clearly "won" the much anticipated air combat between the MiG-21FL and the F-104A Starfighter. Because of the performance of India's MiG-21s, several nations, including Iraq , approached India for MiG-21 pilot training. By the early 1970s, more than 120 Iraqi pilots were being trained by the Indian Air Force. One MiG-21
24257-463: The engine with more air while on the ground and during takeoff . In the first variant of the MiG-21, the pitot tube is attached to the bottom of the nose. After the MiG-21P variant, this tube is attached to the top of the air intake. Later versions shifted the pitot tube attachment point 15 degrees to the right, as seen from the cockpit, and had an emergency pitot head on the right side, just ahead of
24448-479: The exhaust. The Russians gave the emergency power setting its "diamond regime" name, never used in India. Given a skilled pilot and capable missiles, it could give a good account of itself against contemporary fighters. Its G-limits were increased from +7Gs in initial variants to +8.5Gs in the latest variants. It was replaced by the newer variable-geometry MiG-23 and MiG-27 for ground support duties. However, not until
24639-413: The factory and the industrial plant their local peasant dialects with their phonetics, grammar, and vocabulary, and the very process of recruiting workers from peasants and the mobility of the worker population generate another process: the liquidation of peasant inheritance by way of leveling the particulars of local dialects. On the ruins of peasant multilingual, in the context of developing heavy industry,
24830-456: The final reading amendments that state that all schools and kindergartens in the country are to transition to education in Latvian . From 2025, all children will be taught in Latvian only. On 28 September 2023, Latvian deputies approved The National Security Concept, according to which from 1 January 2026, all content created by Latvian public media (including LSM ) should be only in Latvian or
25021-472: The front and one at the rear. The front air brakes have an area of 0.76 m, and a deflection angle of 35°. The rear air brake has an area of 0.47 m and a deflection angle of 40°. The rear air brake is blocked if the airplane carries an external fuel tank. Behind the air brakes are the bays for the main landing gear . On the underside of the airplane, just behind the trailing edge of the wing are attachment points for two JATO rockets. The front section of
25212-423: The fuselage ends at former #28. The rear section of the fuselage starts at former #28a and is removable for engine maintenance. The empennage of the MiG-21 consists of a vertical stabilizer , a stabilator and a small fin on the bottom of the tail to improve yaw control. The vertical stabilizer has a sweep angle of 60° and an area of 5.32 m (on earlier version 3.8 m) and a rudder . The stabilator has
25403-631: The generation of immigrants who started arriving in the early 1960s). Only about 25% of them are ethnic Russians, however. Before the dissolution of the Soviet Union , the overwhelming majority of Russophones in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn in New York City were Russian-speaking Jews. Afterward, the influx from the countries of the former Soviet Union changed the statistics somewhat, with ethnic Russians and Ukrainians immigrating along with some more Russian Jews and Central Asians. According to
25594-480: The government bureaucracy for the lack of a reliable tool of communication in administrative, legal, and judicial affairs became an obvious practical problem. The earliest attempts at standardizing Russian were made based on the so-called Moscow official or chancery language, during the 15th to 17th centuries. Since then, the trend of language policy in Russia has been standardization in both the restricted sense of reducing dialectical barriers between ethnic Russians, and
25785-402: The lack of an "all-flying" tail greatly diminished the pilot's ability to control the aircraft as it approached Mach 1. As a result, pilots had to take care not to exceed Mach 0.92, where the flight surfaces became ineffective. The instrument panel had a red warning light that would illuminate when this speed was reached, and during post-Korean War flight tests, American test pilots found that
25976-496: The longest production run of any combat aircraft. The MiG-21 jet fighter was a continuation of Soviet jet fighters, starting with the subsonic MiG-15 and MiG-17 , and the supersonic MiG-19 . A number of experimental Mach 2 Soviet designs were based on nose intakes with either swept-back wings , such as the Sukhoi Su-7 , or tailed deltas , of which the MiG-21 would be the most successful. Development of what would become
26167-522: The main features of the aerial battles of the next two and a half years. The MiG-15 and MiG-15bis had a higher ceiling than all versions of the Sabre – 15,500 m (50,900 ft) versus 15,000 m (49,000 ft) of the F-86F – and accelerated faster than F-86A/E/Fs due to their better thrust-to-weight ratio – 1,005 km/h (624 mph) versus 972 km/h (604 mph) of the F-86F. The MiG-15's 2,800 m (9,200 ft) per minute climbing rate
26358-523: The majority of Focke-Wulf engineers (in particular, Hans Multhopp , who led the Ta 183 development team) were captured by Western armies, the Soviets did capture plans and wind-tunnel models for the Ta 183. The MiG-15 does bear a resemblance in layout, sharing the high tailplane and nose-mounted intake, although the aircraft are different in structure, details, and proportions. The MiG-15's design understandably shared features and some appearance commonalities with
26549-543: The mass production, the aircraft was very cheap: the MiG-21MF, for example, was cheaper than the BMP-1 The F-4 Phantom 's cost was several times higher than MiG-21. The MiG-21 has a delta wing . The sweep angle on the leading edge is 57° with a TsAGI S-12 airfoil . The angle of incidence is 0° while the dihedral angle is −2°. On the trailing edge there are ailerons with an area of 1.18 m, and flaps with an area of 1.87 m. In front of
26740-438: The meantime, more MiG-15 pilots were recruited; the squadrons earmarked for Korea were drawn from elite units. The pilots had to be younger than 27, and priority was given to World War II veterans. The first large Soviet aviation unit sent to Korea, the 324th IAD, was an air defense interceptor division commanded by Colonel Ivan Kozhedub , who, with 62 victories, was the top Allied (and Soviet) ace of World War II. In November 1950,
26931-771: The more advanced MiG-17 , the basic design would again surprise the West when it proved effective against supersonic fighters such as the Republic F-105 Thunderchief and McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II in the Vietnam War of the 1960s. The MiG-15 is believed to have been one of the most produced jet aircraft with more than 13,000 manufactured. The MiG-15 remains in service with the Korean People's Army Air Force as an advanced trainer. The first turbojet fighter developed by Mikoyan-Gurevich OKB
27122-740: The more advanced fighters it often faced, low production and maintenance costs made it a favorite of nations buying Eastern Bloc military hardware. Several Russian, Israeli and Romanian firms have begun to offer upgrade packages to MiG-21 operators, designed to bring the aircraft up to a modern standard, with greatly upgraded avionics and armaments. A total of 10,645 aircraft were built in the USSR. They were produced in three factories: AZ 30 (3,203 aircraft) in Moscow (also known as MMZ Znamya Truda ), GAZ 21 (5,765 aircraft) in Gorky , and TAZ 31 (1,678 aircraft) in Tbilisi . Generally, Gorky built single-seaters for
27313-424: The most successful being Major Nikolay Sutyagin , credited with 22 victories, 13 of which were confirmed by the US; Colonel Yevgeny Pepelyaev with 19 claims, 15 confirmed; and Major Lev Shchukin with 17 credited, 11 verified. The MiG leaders, enjoying the advantage from the ground and the tactical advantage of an aircraft with superior altitude performance were able to dictate the tactical situation at least until
27504-524: The northwestern Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region . Russian was also the main foreign language taught in school in China between 1949 and 1964. In Kazakhstan , Russian is not a state language, but according to article 7 of the Constitution of Kazakhstan its usage enjoys equal status to that of the Kazakh language in state and local administration. The 2009 census reported that 10,309,500 people, or 84.8% of
27695-515: The other hand, before the war, almost a quarter of Ukrainians were in favour of granting Russian the status of the state language, while after the beginning of Russia's invasion the support for the idea dropped to just 7%. In peacetime, the idea of raising the status of Russian was traditionally supported by residents of the south and east . But even in these regions, only a third of the respondents were in favour, and after Russia's full-scale invasion , their number dropped by almost half. According to
27886-461: The other three languages in the East Slavic branch. In many places in eastern and southern Ukraine and throughout Belarus, these languages are spoken interchangeably, and in certain areas traditional bilingualism resulted in language mixtures such as Surzhyk in eastern Ukraine and Trasianka in Belarus. An East Slavic Old Novgorod dialect , although it vanished during the 15th or 16th century,
28077-446: The parliament approved a bill to close up all Russian language schools and kindergartens by the school year. The transition to only Estonian language schools and kindergartens will start in the 2024-2025 school year. In Latvia , Russian is officially considered a foreign language. 55% of the population was fluent in Russian in 2006, and 26% used it as the main language with family, friends, or at work. On 18 February 2012, Latvia held
28268-677: The participation of Soviet aircrews, and intercepted radio traffic appeared to include combat pilots speaking Russian. In addition, USAF pilots claimed to have recognized techniques and tactics used by Soviet pilots, whom they referred to as " honchos ". When the Korean War broke out on 25 June 1950, the North Korean People's Air Force (KPAF) was equipped with World War II-vintage Soviet propeller-driven fighters, including 93 Il-10s and 79 Yak-9Ps , and "40–50 assorted transport/liaison/trainer aircraft". Propeller-driven, single-engine fighters were also numerically dominant amongst
28459-453: The peasants' speech was never systematically studied, as it was generally regarded by philologists as simply a source of folklore and an object of curiosity. This was acknowledged by the noted Russian dialectologist Nikolai Karinsky , who toward the end of his life wrote: "Scholars of Russian dialects mostly studied phonetics and morphology. Some scholars and collectors compiled local dictionaries. We have almost no studies of lexical material or
28650-488: The pilots inside the aircraft wore either North Korean uniforms or civilian clothes to disguise their nationality. For radio communication, they were given cards with common Korean words for various flying terms spelled out phonetically in Cyrillic letters. These subterfuges did not long survive the stresses of air-to-air combat, however. Pilots often inadvertently reverted to their native language. UN forces widely suspected
28841-459: The population aged 15 and above, could read and write well in Russian, and understand the spoken language. In October 2023, Kazakhstan drafted a media law aimed at increasing the use of the Kazakh language over Russian, the law stipulates that the share of the state language on television and radio should increase from 50% to 70%, at a rate of 5% per year, starting in 2025. In Kyrgyzstan , Russian
29032-418: The population was fluent in Russian in 2006, and 67% used it as the main language with family, friends, or at work. According to the 2019 Belarusian census , out of 9,413,446 inhabitants of the country, 5,094,928 (54.1% of the total population) named Belarusian as their native language, with 61.2% of ethnic Belarusians and 54.5% of ethnic Poles declaring Belarusian as their native language. In everyday life in
29223-479: The pronunciation of ultra-short or reduced /ŭ/ , /ĭ/ . Because of many technical restrictions in computing and also because of the unavailability of Cyrillic keyboards abroad, Russian is often transliterated using the Latin alphabet. For example, мороз ('frost') is transliterated moroz , and мышь ('mouse'), mysh or myš' . Once commonly used by the majority of those living outside Russia, transliteration
29414-503: The prop-driven Lavochkin La-11 , inadequate for the task of intercepting the B-29. Part of the regiment was re-equipped with the MiG-15bis, and another night-fighting unit joined the fray, causing American heavy bombers to suffer losses again. Between 21:50 and 22:30 on 10 June 1952, four MiG-15bis attacked B-29s over Sonchon and Kwaksan . Lieutenant Colonel Mikhail Ivanovich Studilin damaged
29605-414: The proper pronunciation of uncommon words or names. Russian is an East Slavic language of the wider Indo-European family . It is a descendant of Old East Slavic , a language used in Kievan Rus' , which was a loose conglomerate of East Slavic tribes from the late 9th to the mid-13th centuries. From the point of view of spoken language , its closest relatives are Ukrainian , Belarusian , and Rusyn ,
29796-491: The respondents), while according to the 2002 census – 142.6 million people (99.2% of the respondents). In Ukraine , Russian is a significant minority language. According to estimates from Demoskop Weekly, in 2004 there were 14,400,000 native speakers of Russian in the country, and 29 million active speakers. 65% of the population was fluent in Russian in 2006, and 38% used it as the main language with family, friends, or at work. On 5 September 2017, Ukraine's Parliament passed
29987-401: The sea. The MiG-15s always operated in pairs, with an attacking leader covered by a wingman. The northwestern portion of North Korea where the Yalu River empties into the Yellow Sea was dubbed " MiG Alley " and became the site of numerous dogfights . MiG-15 pilots also proved very effective in the specific role for which the type was originally designed: intercepting formations of B-29s. At
30178-423: The second generation of Soviet variants), and also carried significantly larger external fuel tanks to counter this issue. Additionally, when more than half the fuel was used up, violent maneuvers prevented fuel from flowing into the engine, thereby causing it to shut down in flight. This increased the risk of tank implosions (MiG-21 had tanks pressurized with air from the engine's compressor), a problem inherited from
30369-409: The shape of its fuselage , and " Én Bạc ", meaning "silver swallow ", in Vietnamese . Approximately 60 countries across four continents have flown the MiG-21, and it still serves many nations seven decades after its maiden flight. It set aviation records, becoming the most-produced supersonic jet aircraft in aviation history , the most-produced combat aircraft since the Korean War and, previously,
30560-432: The skies of North Vietnam. North Vietnam claimed 244 downed U.S. aircraft while admitting to the loss of 85 MiGs. Of 46 air battles between F-4s and MiG-21s, losses amounted to 27 F-4 Phantoms and 20 MiG-21s. After a million sorties and nearly 1,000 US aircraft losses, Operation Rolling Thunder came to an end on 1 November 1968. A poor air-to-air combat loss-exchange ratio against the smaller, more agile enemy MiGs during
30751-626: The survey carried out by RATING in August 2023 in the territory controlled by Ukraine and among the refugees, almost 60% of the polled usually speak Ukrainian at home, about 30% – Ukrainian and Russian, only 9% – Russian. Since March 2022, the use of Russian in everyday life has been noticeably decreasing. For 82% of respondents, Ukrainian is their mother tongue, and for 16%, Russian is their mother tongue. IDPs and refugees living abroad are more likely to use both languages for communication or speak Russian. Nevertheless, more than 70% of IDPs and refugees consider Ukrainian to be their native language. In
30942-459: The syntax of Russian dialects." After 1917, Marxist linguists had no interest in the multiplicity of peasant dialects and regarded their language as a relic of the rapidly disappearing past that was not worthy of scholarly attention. Nakhimovsky quotes the Soviet academicians A.M Ivanov and L.P Yakubinsky, writing in 1930: The language of peasants has a motley diversity inherited from feudalism. On its way to becoming proletariat peasantry brings to
31133-407: The tactical level, large formations of MiGs would wait on the Chinese side of the border. When UN aircraft entered MiG Alley, the MiGs would swoop down from high altitude to attack. If they ran into trouble, they would try to escape back over the border into China. Soviet MiG-15 squadrons operated in big groups, but the basic formation was a six-aircraft group, divided into three pairs, each composed of
31324-460: The time he fully regained control and recovered from the dive. Additionally, the MiG-15 tended to spin after it stalled , and often the pilot could not recover. According to American test pilots, this behavior was exacerbated by the lack of a noticeable stall warning. The MiG's proclivity towards sudden spins was deduced by UN pilots before the US was able to test one; during the Korean War, there were 56 recorded instances of UN pilots witnessing
31515-615: The two. Others divide the language into three groupings, Northern , Central (or Middle), and Southern , with Moscow lying in the Central region. The Northern Russian dialects and those spoken along the Volga River typically pronounce unstressed /o/ clearly, a phenomenon called okanye ( оканье ). Besides the absence of vowel reduction, some dialects have high or diphthongal /e⁓i̯ɛ/ in place of Proto-Slavic * ě and /o⁓u̯ɔ/ in stressed closed syllables (as in Ukrainian) instead of Standard Russian /e/ and /o/ , respectively. Another Northern dialectal morphological feature
31706-480: The underpowered Lavochkin La-160 , which was otherwise more similar to the MiG-9. The Lavochkin La-168 , which reached production as the Lavochkin La-15 , used the same engine as the MiG but used a shoulder-mounted wing and t-tail; it was the main competitive design. Eventually, the MiG design was favoured for mass production. Designated MiG-15 , the first production example flew on 31 December 1948. It entered Soviet Air Force service in 1949 and subsequently received
31897-425: The unnerving experience of 23 mm shells passing over them while the 37 mm shells flew under. The cannon were fitted into a simple pack that could be winched out of the bottom of the nose for servicing and reloading, allowing pre-prepared packs to be rapidly swapped out. Despite the shortcomings of its armament, the MiG-15's simplicity, ruggedness, and particularly the absence of fuel tanks in its wings made it
32088-454: The use of the language has some presence in certain areas. A large part of the population, especially the older generations, can speak Russian as a foreign language. However, English has replaced Russian as lingua franca in Lithuania and around 80% of young people speak English as their first foreign language. In contrast to the other two Baltic states, Lithuania has a relatively small Russian-speaking minority (5.0% as of 2008). According to
32279-432: The war had always been the Strategic Air Command 's B-52 bombers. Hanoi 's MiG-17 and MiG-19 interceptors could not deal with the B-52s at their flying altitude. In the summer of 1972, the VPAF was directed to train 12 MiG-21 pilots for the specific mission of shooting the B-52 bombers, with two-thirds of the pilots specifically trained in night attacks. On 26 December 1972, just two days after tail gunner Albert Moore downed
32470-691: The war, the MiG-21s played a crucial role in giving the IAF air superiority over vital points and areas in the western theater of the conflict. The 1971 war witnessed the first supersonic air combat in the subcontinent when an Indian MiG-21FL claimed a PAF F-104A Starfighter with its GSh-23 twin-barrelled 23 mm cannon. By the time the hostilities came to an end, the IAF MiG-21FLs had claimed four PAF F-104As , two PAF Shenyang F-6s , one PAF North American F-86 Sabre and one PAF Lockheed C-130 Hercules . But only two kills were confirmed (both F-104As). Two more F-104s were critically damaged by MiG-21 fighters. Pakistan decommissioned all F-104s shortly after
32661-439: The war, the VPAF claimed 103 F-4 Phantoms were shot down by MiG-21s, and that they lost 60 MiG-21s in air combat (54 by Phantoms). According to Russian data, the VPAF MiG-21s claimed 165 air victories, with the loss of 65 aircraft (including a few by accident or friendly fire) and 16 pilots. The losses of MiG-21 pilots were the lowest of all airplanes. Russian language Russian is an East Slavic language belonging to
32852-622: The war. Thus a total of 659 MiG-15s are admitted as being lost by all causes, while USAF claims of their losses amount to 78 F-86 Sabres in air-to-air combat. Overall UN losses to MiG-15s are credited as 78 F-86 Sabres and 75 aircraft of other types. However, one modern source claims that the USAF has more recently cited 224 losses (circa 100 to air combat) out of 674 F-86s deployed to Korea. Conversely, data-matching with Soviet records shows that US pilots routinely attributed their own combat losses to "landing accidents" and "other causes". According to official US data ("USAF Statistical Digest FY1953"),
33043-428: The war. Thus, around 659 MiG-15s are admitted as being lost. While an overwhelming majority of the losses to UN fighters involved F-86 pilots, several MiG-15s were lost in, or immediately after, combat with each of several other UN fighters: F-80s, F-84s, F9Fs, Gloster Meteors and even propeller-driven F4Us and Sea Furies. The Soviet 64th Fighter Aviation Corps (64 IAK), which controlled all Soviet-piloted aircraft in
33234-429: The wing. The nose gear retracts forward into the fuselage under the radar. The nose wheel can be lowered manually by simply unlocking its hatch from inside the cockpit. Thus, landing with undercarriage locked in the up position due to an internal failure was not a major issue, with a number of such successful landings on the nosewheel and ventral fuel tank or the airbrake. India is the largest operator of MiG-21s. In 1961,
33425-533: The world's ninth-most spoken language by total number of speakers . Russian is one of two official languages aboard the International Space Station , one of the six official languages of the United Nations , as well as the fourth most widely used language on the Internet . Russian is written using the Russian alphabet of the Cyrillic script ; it distinguishes between consonant phonemes with palatal secondary articulation and those without—the so-called "soft" and "hard" sounds. Almost every consonant has
33616-592: Was a swept-wing fighter with 35° sweep in wings and tail, with two wing fences fitted to each wing to improve airflow over the wing. The design used a single Rolls-Royce Nene fed by a split-forward air intake. A duct carried intake air around the cockpit area and back together ahead of the engine. Its first flight was 30 December 1947, some two months after the American F-86 Sabre had first flown. It demonstrated exceptional performance, reaching 1,042 kilometres per hour (647 mph) at 3,000 metres (9,800 ft). The Soviet Union's first swept-wing jet fighter had been
33807-451: Was also greater than the 2,200 m (7,200 ft) per minute of the F-86A and -E (the F-86F matched the MiG-15). A better turn radius above 10,000 m (33,000 ft) further distinguished the MiG-15. The MiG was slower at low altitude – 935 km/h (581 mph) in the MiG-15bis configuration as opposed to the 1,107 km/h (688 mph) of the F-86F. All Sabres could also turn tighter below 8,000 m (26,000 ft). Thus, if
33998-415: Was decommissioned after being in service for 50 years. The Indian Air Force plans to decommission all MiG-21s by 2025. The expansion of the IAF MiG-21 fleet marked a developing India-Soviet Union military partnership, which enabled India to field a formidable air force to counter Chinese and Pakistani threats. The capabilities of the MiG-21 were put to the test during the Bangladesh Liberation War . During
34189-436: Was designed for very short ground-controlled interception (GCI) missions. It became renowned for this type of mission in the skies over North Vietnam . The first MiG-21s arrived directly from the Soviet Union by ship in April 1966. After being unloaded and assembled they were given to the Vietnam People's Air Force 's (VPAF) oldest fighter unit, the 921st Fighter Regiment (921st FR), which had been created on 3 February 1964 as
34380-455: Was far behind the West's. The Germans had been unable to develop airworthy turbojets with thrust over 1,130 kilograms-force (11,100 N; 2,500 lbf) capable of running for more than a few hours at the time of the surrender in May 1945, which limited the performance of immediate Soviet postwar jet aircraft designs. The Soviet aviation minister Mikhail Khrunichev and aircraft designer A. S. Yakovlev suggested to Premier Joseph Stalin that
34571-405: Was first introduced in North America when Russian explorers voyaged into Alaska and claimed it for Russia during the 18th century. Although most Russian colonists left after the United States bought the land in 1867, a handful stayed and preserved the Russian language in this region to this day, although only a few elderly speakers of this unique dialect are left. In Nikolaevsk, Alaska , Russian
34762-421: Was fluent in Russian in 2006, and 19% used it as the main language with family, friends, or at work. According to the 2014 Moldovan census , Russians accounted for 4.1% of Moldova's population, 9.4% of the population declared Russian as their native language, and 14.5% said they usually spoke Russian. According to the 2010 census in Russia , Russian language skills were indicated by 138 million people (99.4% of
34953-423: Was one of the first successful jet fighters to incorporate swept wings to achieve high transonic speeds. In aerial combat during the Korean War , it outclassed straight-winged jet day fighters , which were largely relegated to ground-attack roles. In response to the MiG-15's appearance and in order to counter it, the United States Air Force rushed the North American F-86 Sabre to Korea. When refined into
35144-436: Was shot down by 1st Lt Semyon Fyodorovich Khominich, and Van Sickle was killed. However, the USAF falsely attributed the loss to North Korean AA artillery. However, on 9 November, the Soviet MiG-15 pilots suffered their first loss when Lieutenant Commander William T. Amen off the aircraft carrier USS Philippine Sea shot down and killed Captain Mikhail F. Grachev while flying a Grumman F9F Panther . To counter
35335-406: Was shot down by a Pakistani soldier using a shoulder-fired MANPADS missile during the Kargil war. On 10 August 1999, two MiG-21FLs of the Indian Air Force intercepted and shot down a Pakistani Bréguet 1150 Atlantic maritime patrol aircraft with an R-60 missile after it allegedly entered Indian airspace for surveillance, killing all on board. During the 2019 Jammu and Kashmir airstrikes ,
35526-421: Was shot down on 21 February 1972 by a USAF F-4 Phantom based at Udorn RTAFB , Thailand and piloted by Major Lodge with 1st Lt Roger Locher as his weapon systems officer (WSO). This was claimed as the first-ever USAF MiG kill at night, and the first in four years at that time. Two MiG-21s were claimed shot down by USAF Boeing B-52 Stratofortress tail gunners ; the only confirmed air-to-air kills ever made by
35717-427: Was the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-9 , which appeared in the years immediately after World War II . It used a pair of reverse-engineered German BMW 003 engines. The MiG-9 was a troublesome design that suffered from weak, unreliable engines and control problems. Categorized as a first-generation jet fighter , it was designed with the straight-style wings common to piston-engined fighters. In 1946 Soviet engine technology
35908-413: Was the Ye-4. It made its maiden flight on 16 June 1955 and its first public appearance during the Soviet Aviation Day display at Moscow's Tushino airfield in July 1956. In the West, due to the lack of available information, early details of the MiG-21 often were confused with those of similar Soviet fighters of the era. In one instance, Jane's All the World's Aircraft 1960–1961 listed the "Fishbed" as
36099-401: Was the addition of a second fuel pump in the afterburning stage. Activating the ЧР (rus. "чрезвычайный режим" - emergency mode)(Emergency Power Rating, EPR in India) booster feature allows the engine to develop 97.4 kilonewtons (21,896 lbf) of thrust under 2,000 meters (6,600 ft) of altitude. The rpm of the engine would increase by 2.5% and the compression ratio would thus increase, with
36290-480: Was the secret "Maple Special" Operation, a plan by Colonel Francis Gabreski to cross the Yalu River into Manchuria (something officially forbidden) and catch the MiGs unaware during their takeoffs or landings, when they were at disadvantage: flying slow, at a low level, and sometimes short of ammunition and fuel. Even under these circumstances, MiG-15 pilots would score at least two important victories against US aces: In May 1952, new and better trained PVO divisions,
36481-402: Was the sixth-most used language on the top 1,000 sites, behind English, Chinese, French, German, and Japanese. Despite leveling after 1900, especially in matters of vocabulary and phonetics, a number of dialects still exist in Russia. Some linguists divide the dialects of Russian into two primary regional groupings, "Northern" and "Southern", with Moscow lying on the zone of transition between
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