MIG-3

In 1939 Soviet aircraft manufacturers, research scientists, and air force officers were taught a lesson by the poor performance of their planes in the Spanish civil war and against Japanese fighters in the Khalkin-Gol area of Mongolia.
That lesson led to the acknowledgment of a severe failure.
It was just about time to update the fleet of the Soviet air force (VVS).
Most of its planes were old or obsolete.
The Soviet government knew that Germany was preparing for war.
Discreet reconnaissance flights conducted at extremely high altitude by Junkers Ju-86P-2s from the Luftwaffe's Aufklarungsgruppe, a special unit commanded by Lt. Col. Theodor Rowehl, had not passed unnoticed.
These flights were terminated after the signing of the Soviet-German "Friendship Pact" on 23 August 1939.
It was in this context that the VVS asked its suppliers to develop a single-seat interceptor offering its best performance at altitudes above 6,000 m.
A preliminary design, the Kh, was prepared by the Polikarpov OKB.
Then in October 1939 the establishment of OKO-1, an experimental research unit outside the Polikarpov OKB, brought together M.I. Guryevich, V. A. Romodin, and A.I. Mikoyan.
The new team took up the preliminary design of the Kh project and added a new and promising engine then being tested, the Mikulin AM-37, which was expected to generate 1.400 hp of power above 5,000 m .
Unfortunately, the development of this engine proved to be much trickier than expected, so the design team had to make do with the only available supercharged in-line engine that offered the necessary power, the AM-35A.

All of the team's efforts were concentrated on the new design, which was designated the I-200.
The program was of such urgency that only one hundred days elapsed between the first set of production drawings and the maiden flight of the first prototype on 5 April 1940.

The I-200 was built with the materials that were at hand: pine and birch plywood, fabric, and as little metal as possible, because Soviet production of special steel alloys and duralumin had fallen well short of demand.
A detailed look at this machine is warranted because it is representative of Soviet technology and materials used at that time.
The wing had a single spar and a Clark YH-type airfoil section with a thickness ratio of 14 percent at the wing root and 8 percent at the wing tip.
The all-metal structure of the wing center section consisted of an I-shaped spar with flanges in 20-KhGSA heat-treated steel and a web made of two 2-mm-thick stiffened light-alloy sheets; thirteen dural-pressed ribs, two of which were reinforced at the wing roots; two auxiliary spars, one on each side of the main spar; and five formers under the flush-riveted skin of the upper surface.
The two 70-lt wing fuel tanks were located between the main spar and the rear auxiliary spar. The 110-lt fuselage tank was situated between the engine and the cockpit.
Fuel gauges were mechanically controlled.
The wing center section was attached to the fuselage by 6-mm bolts placed 60 millimeters apart.
The skin panels underneath the fuel tanks were removable.

The two single-spar wooden outer wing panels attached to the center section had a 5-degree dihedral.
The spar was of the box type with a web made of seven 4-mm-thick plywood sheets (five sheets at the wing tips).
The 14 to 15-mm-wide spar flange was made of delta-drevyesina, a densified wood.
The spar box tapered from 115 millimeters wide to 75 millimeters at the wing tips.
Front and rear auxiliary spars were made of pine plywood, and all ribs were made of duralumin, a light, strong alloy of aluminum, copper, manganese, and magnesium.
The skin consisted of five 4 to 2.5-mm-thick sheets of Bakelite plywood applied diagonally (except in the leading edge area) and homogenized with casein glue.
Both ailerons were metal-framed and fabric-covered.
The all-metal, two-segment split flaps were pneumatically positioned at two settings, 18 degrees and 50 degrees.
The wing aspect ratio was 5.97.
The fuselage structure was also of the mixed type.
The front section, which extended from the nose to behind the cockpit, was made of welded 30-KhGSA steel tubes with twelve duralumin skin panels held by Dzus-type fasteners.
The rear section (including the fin) featured a monocoque wooden structure made of four pine longerons, gusset plates in Bakelite plywood under the attachment points, eight hollow frames with a Bakelite plywood web, and pine stringers.

The skin was made of five 0.5-mm-thick plywood sheets coated on the inside with strips of calico impregnated with a nitrocellulosic varnish and on the outside by glued calico.
The cockpit was made of molded Plexiglas panels but was not bulletproof.
Its hinges opened to the right.
Both legs of the main landing gear retracted inward into the center part ofthe wing, and there was an electromechanical position indicator on the instrument panel.
Shock struts were made of 30-KhGSA steel (130-150 kgf/mm2).
The hydraulic fluid was a dialcohol (70 percent glycerin and 30 percent alcohol).
The shock absorber stroke was 270-250 mm with an operating pressure of 573 psi.
Main gear wheels were fitted with 600 x 180 tires.
Wheel wells were closed by doors attached to the gear legs, two of them hinged to take into account the shock absorber stroke.
The door covering the lower half-wheel was open 90 degrees when the gear was down and locked.
The tail wheel (170 x 90 tire) retracted in a well closed by two small doors.
The cockpit panel was quite soberly equipped with only thirteen instruments.
Noteworthy equipment and accessories included a GS-350 generator for the electrical system, a 12A-5 battery, and a KP A-3bis oxygen system.
No radio was installed.

Rod-operated mechanisms handled roll and pitch control (stick), while cable-operated ones provided yaw control (rudder bar).
Trim control was maintained by means of a Bowden cable.
Through a reduction gearbox, the AM-35A engine drove a VISh-22Ye variable-pitch, three-bladed propeller 3 meters in diameter and fitted with a spinner made of elektron, a magnesium alloy.
It rested on welded 30-KhGSA steel mounts.
This engine delivered 1,350 hp at takeoff but was particularly heavy at 830 kg
By comparison, the Klimov VK-105 weighed 600 kg , the Daimler-Benz DB-601 575 kg , and the Rolls-Royce Merlin 605 kg.
In fact, the AM-35A was meant to power not a fighter but rather the TB-7 heavy bomber.
For the same reason, it was fitted with a single-stage, single-speed supercharger that permitted a maximum continuous rating of 1,200 hp at 6,000 m.
The honeycomb radiator contained 40 lt of glycol.
It was located in a ventral bath with a frontal area of 23 dm2 (2.5 square feet) and an airflow control flap at its rear end.
There was only one oil cooler on the prototype, on the left side of the engine.
Supercharger air intakes were located in wing roots, and the aircraft's pneumatic system fed the air starter.
The six exhaust pipes-one for every two cylinders-were made of EYa1-TL-1 heat-resistant steel.
The first unarmed I-200 prototype was moved from the factory to the Khodinka airfield on 30 March 1940.
After taxiing tests, in which the aircraft briefly rose a few feet into the air, MiG chief pilot A. N. Yekatov made the first flight on 5 April 1940.

Later he would be assisted by other test pilots such as M. N. Yakushin, A. I. Zhukov, M. K. Martselyuk, and M. N. Yakushin.
The program's chief engineer was A. G. Brunov, assisted by A. T. Karyev.
On 1 May 1940 Yekatov was at the controls of I-200 no. 1 during the yearly air parade above the Red Square in Moscow.
Two more prototypes were hastily assembled.
The second made its first flight on 9 May 1940, and on 6 June 1940 I-200 no. 3 had its turn.
In an exception to the normal practice dictated in large part by the urgency of the program, factory tests and state acceptance trials proceeded concurrently on the three prototypes.
Test pilots and military engineers worked in close collaboration with the factory engineers. Some who deserve mention are S. P. Suprun, squadron leader; A. G. Kubishkin, flying officer; A. I. Filin, deputy chief of staff and manager of the air force test center; A. I. Kabanov, colonel; P. M. Stefanovskiy, squadron leader; A. G. Proshakov, captain; and A. G. Kochetkov, colonel and engineer.
The chief engineer in charge of the state acceptance trials was V. I.
Nikitenko, first-class military engineer.
They were carried out over a very short period of time.

On 22 May 1940 Yekatov attained a speed of 648.5 km/h (349.9 kt) in level flight at 6,900 m. Suprun took the second prototype past that benchmark, hitting 651 km/h (351 kt) at 7,000 m.
Factory tests ended on 25 August 1940 after 109 flights lasting a total of forty hours and forty-nine minutes.
State acceptance trials were resumed on 29 August and ended on 12 September 1940.
Here, with all the starkness of its style, is an extract from the certification document signed by Lt. Gen. P. V. Richagov of the VVS: “The I-200 fighter, powered by a AM-35A engine and built by Mikoyan and Guryevich at the NKAF factory no. 1, has a top speed of 628 km/h [339 kt], a better figure than those reached by other aircraft tested in our country, and is second to none when compared with foreign fighters in the same category when flown above 5,000 m .
The aircraft has passed its acceptance trials successfully."
Though it was certified, the I-200 was not an aircraft for inexperienced pilots.
The flight tests had revealed poor longitudinal stability, heavy controls, and a tendency to stall at the slightest provocation and go into a spin, from which it was nearly impossible to recover. Moreover, due to the rearward position of the cockpit forward visibility when taxiing was very poor.
Yet the need was urgent, and despite all these flaws the government authorized an initial production run of one hundred aircraft.
They received the service designation MiG-1.

Specifications
Span, 10.2 m (33 ft 5.6 in);
length, 8.155 m (26 ft 9.1 in);
wheel track, 2.78 m (9 ft 1.4 in);
wing area, 17.44 m2 (187.72 sq ft);
empty weight, 2,475 kg (5,456lb);
takeoff weight, 2,968 kg (6,543lb);
fuel, 190 kg (418 lb);
oil, 28 kg (62lb);
wing loading, 170.2 kg/m2 (34.9lb/sq ft).

The inadequacies of the I-200 (as recorded in various factory and military test reports) led to an intensive research program, including full-scale tests in the new T-101 and T-104 TsAGI large wind tunnels.
The modifications introduced as a result of this effort did not remedy all the aircraft's faults-and could not have, given its time constraints.
But they certainly counted as improvements in several areas:
- the dihedral of the outer wing panels was increased from 5 to 6 degrees to improve stability
- the engine was moved 100 millimeters forward to offset a tail-heavy trimming
- a new 250-lt fuel tank was introduced beneath the pilot's seat to increase the aircraft's range
- the fuel system was protected from fire by transferring inert gases
(cooled exhaust gases) in the fuel tanks
- a second oil tank was added
- the engine cooling system was improved
- a new VISh-61Sh propeller was installed, enhancing efficiency by increasing the pitch range to 35 degrees
-larger main gear wheels were used (650 x 200 tires), enabing the MiG-3 to operate from grass strips; the gear doors were consequently modified
- the wheel brakes were improved
- an 8-mm-thick armor plate (later made 9-mm thick) was added to the back of the pilot's seat
- the fuselage decking behind the cockpit was modified and glazed to improve aft vision
-the PBP-1 gunsight was replaced by the more advanced PBP-1A model
- an RSI-3 single-channel receiver was installed (later replaced by an RSI-4)
- the external weapon load was increased: four store stations under the wings thus enabled the MiG-3 to carry mixed loads of 8- to 100kg bombs up to a maximum of 220 kg , two VAP-6M/ZAP-6 chemical/incendiary spray containers, or eight unguided RS-82 rockets
The built-in armament was similar to that of the MiG-1 but was sometimes complemented by two 12.7-mm BK machine guns in slipper pods beneath the wing.
With five weapons, firepower more than doubled, the weight of a salvo per second increasing from 1.38 to 3 kg.
But those supplementary weapons pushed the takeoff weight of the MiG-3 up to 3,510 kg, increasing the wing loading to 201.3 kg/m2 .
A few MiG-3s were equipped with two 12.7-mm UBS machine guns.
Tests were also conducted with two 20-mm ShVAK cannons, but this weapon was not retained. Other MiG-3s flew unarmed as photo-reconnaissance aircraft above the front line.

The first MiG-3s rolled out of Aviakhim factory no. 1 in December 1940.
At the end of that month eleven aircraft had been built.
The production rate rose quickly: no fewer than 140 aircraft left the assembly line in January 1941.
In June, on the eve of Operation Barbarossa, the factory operated around the clock and produced twenty-five aircraft per day.
The first MiG-3s and MiG-1s reached the lAPs (fighter aviation regiments) in April 1941.
On 4 December 1940 ten MiG-3s were set aside for combat training ,emissions.
These flights took place partly in Katcha, Crimea, where there are more sunny days than in the Moscow area.
On 13 March 1941 ,during one of these missions test pilot Yekato lost his life.
An investigaition revealed that the supercharger compressor wheel had come loose, going right through the fire wall and the front fuel tank before fatally wounding the pilot.
Because of the volatile situation in Europe in early 1941, the first series of modern Soviet fighters (Yak-I, LaGG-3, MiG-1, and MiG-3) were sent first and foremost to the border zones of the western USSR, especially to the air bases of Kaunas, Lvov, Byelstok, Kishinev, Byeltsy (Moldavia), and Eupatoria.

As of 1 June 1941, three weeks before the German invasion, thirteen fighter regiments were equipped entirely with MiG-3s, and another six regiments had received partial complements. On 22 June 1941, the first day of Operation Barbarossa, MiG-1s and MiG-3s represented only 37 percent of the total number of operational fighters; the other 63 percent were I-15s, I-5bis, I-153s, and even a handful of obsolete I-5s still used in training centers.
But 89.9 percent of the new fighters were MiG-3s distributed in fighter regiments of the VVS (air force), the PVO (air defense units), and the VMF (navy).
In October 1941 the German breakthrough threatened the OKB and factory no. 1.
They were hastily moved to Kuybyshev, a major port on the Volga River.
Two months later, the fate of the MiG-3 was sealed.
Its AM-35A engine was built in the same factory as the AM-38, which powered the Ilyushin Il-2 Shturmovik ground attack aircraft.
This model now received priority so that the production rate of this aircraft could be accelerated.
Without an engine, the MiG-3 was dead.

Stalin had intervened personally.
In a cable that became famous in the Soviet aircraft industry but was unknown in the West (until now), Stalin sternly accused two factory managers of slowing down production.
On 23 December 1941 the MiG-3 program was terminated; however, all aircraft then on the assembly line were to be completed, the last one rolling out of the factory at the beginning of 1942.
A total of 3.120 MiG-3s had been delivered in just over one year.
After the OKB and factory no. 1 returned to Khodinka in March 1942, fifty MiG-3s were assembled from components that had been hidden away at the time of the evacuation.
These aircraft were allotted to the Moscow PVO.

Early in the war MiG-3s often operated in a less than optimal flight envelope.
This high-altitude interceptor was used first as a "frontal fighter" for low- and medium-altitude interception and even for close-support missions below 5,000 m, flight levels where German fighters were superior in terms of performance.

But at that time the Soviets had to make the most of what they had: the German attacks on their airfields at daybreak on 22 June 1941 had had a devastating impact.
But once mastered by its pilot the MiG-3 regained the upper hand when operating above 5,000 thanks to its outstanding speed and ceiling-but there the German fighters would not dare to cross swords with it.
So MiG-3s were usually assigned to PVO units for high-altitude interception of bombers and reconnaissance aircraft.
They even flew as night fighters.
It was in a MiG-3 that A. I. Pokryshkin, future air marshal, gained the first of his fifty-nine kills when he shot down a Messerschmitt Bf 109E.
It was also in a MiG-3 that A. N. Katrisht, future general-colonel, distinguished himself during night missions.

To conclude, we ought to mention the surprising proposal made just after the German invasion by S. P. Suprun, the test pilot responsible for the I-200 state acceptance trials during the summer of 1940.
Since Soviet fighter regiments had already sustained heavy losses on the ground (mostly) and in the air, Suprun suggested that two fighter regiments equipped with MiG-1s and MiG-3s be staffed mostly by factory test pilots, GosNII VVS (state scientific research institute of the air force) test pilots, and military pilots in charge of acceptance flights.
Two regiments were formed as a result-Suprun's 401 IAP, assigned to the western front near Smolensk, and the 402 IAP under the command of P. M. Stefanovskii, a test pilot of great skill, on the northwestern front.

Specifications
Span, 10.2 m;
length, 8.25 m ;
height, 3.3 m;
wheel track, 2.78 m ;
wing area, 17.44 m2;
empty weight, 2.699 kg ;
takeoff weight, 3.350 kg
fuel, 385 kg ;
oil, 55 kg;
wing loading, 92 kg/m2

Performance
Max speed, 640 km/h at 7,800 m ;
max speed at sea level, 505 km/h ;
climb to 8,000 m in 10.28 min;
service ceiling, 12,000 m;
range at 550 km/h with 70% W and 10% fuel reserve, 820 km ;
takeoff roll, rated power, no flaps, 305 m ; rated power, 150 flaps, 268 m ; full power, no flaps, 234 m ; landing roll, 400 m