The Origins of My Name On Here

Many have you have noticed the name I use on this blog, Mikoyan. Many of you have probably also wondered what the origin of the name is. If you haven't figured out by now, I'm a huge aviation fan. In my early days on the internet, I was looking for an aviation related nickname to use on discussion boards and chat rooms. Unfortunately, many of the names I wanted to use were taken, so I decided on an obscure (for some) name.

Arterm Mikoyan was a Soviet Aircraft designer of Armenian descent. In 1939, he was named the head of a new Soviet Design Burean with another person named Mikhail Gurevich. Their initials formed the name of the Bureau - MiG.

In 1940, the MiG-1 was born. It was kind of a dog but was used in the design of the MiG-3 which is pictured here. It was a fairly capable high level interceptor but wasn't used by the Soviets properly.

The aircraft had a top speed of 398 mph which made it faster than its enemy - the German Messerschmitt Bf-109. It had a lower speed near sea level which is where it spent most of its life. It was fairly well armed and had a decent record during the war.

The planes that followed the MiG-3 were mostly prototypes and didn't see alot of service. In 1946, the MiG-9 (Fargo) became the first operational Soviet Jet Fighter. It was not a very good plane and had many stability issues. But oftentimes, first of something is not very good.

The next planes to follow were the MiG-15, MiG-17 and MiG-19. I don't have models of those, so I wont go into much detail. They were mostly Korean War era planes, although the MiG-19 saw service much longer than that.

The next plane in my collection is the MiG-21 (Fishbed). It was one of the early Soviet Fighters that could go Supersonic and it was also one of the first equipped with afterburners. It would become the most produced combat fighter after the Korean War and would see service in many countries.

The main nemesis of the Fishbed was the F-4 Phantom during the Vietnam War. Some of the Vietnamese Pilots racked up a pretty impressive record against the F-4 (although alot of that was more political) and it is rumored that a couple of them were actually Soviet pilots.

My next plane is the MiG-23 Flogger. It is a swing wing design which gives it some flexibility in flight characteristics.

The MiG-23 was the first Soviet Aircraft to be equipped with look down/shoot down radar and Beyond Visual Range Missiles.

It also saw use in many countries.

The next plane in my collection is the MiG-25 (Foxbat). It was designed to counter the B-70 Bomber and was capable of going over Mach 3 although not for very long. For a while, it was going head to head against the SR-71 setting speed records but couldn't keep up.



The Soviets kept it around despite the cancellation of the B-70.

This is the MiG-27 and is a ground attack version of the MiG-23.



I believe it was the first Soviet fighter equipped with a laser designator.

This is the MiG-29 and it was developed in the 80's. In the hands of a capable pilot, it probably could go head to head against some of the American fighters of the era. I kind of wish I could have seen this one in action when it was making rounds around the United States.



This is the MiG-31 Foxhound and it is a variant of the MiG-25.



This is a shot of my whole collection.

So there you have it.