T he I-300 was the first jet fighter of the design bureau, and one of two first Soviet
series jets to fly (another was Yak-15)
It was an unorthodox design with a nose intake and two engines in the fuselage. All jet powered multi-engine aircraft
(except German flying wings) built before carried engines on the wing (or on the nose and other inappropriate locations - see
this), degrading aerodynamic of the flying machine.
Designers successfully overcame problems of access to and safety of two closely placed engines. Of course use of one
powerful engine could be more reasonable, but nothing was available at the time for Soviet designers. First prototype
I-300's were powered with German built BMW-003 engines, on production machines soviet-built copy of this engine was used.
The first prototype (F-1) carried single N-57 cannon, later versions were armed with one NS-37 (40 rounds) and two
NS-23 (80 rpg).
First I-300 (F-1) was flown on April 24, 1946 - same day with
Yak-15, but 3 hours ahead. Refinement continued until 20th flight, when (July 11,
1946) pilot A.N.Grinchik was killed in crash... during demonstration
flights in front of M.V.Khrunichev and other high military officers and officials.
Second prototype (F-3) was flown on August 9, 1946 and third (F-2) on
August 11 by pilots M.L.Gallay and G.M.Shijanov. Those two aircraft performed on Air Parade in Tushino one week later. In
December 1946 experimental F-2 and F-3 were transferred to
NII VVS.
MiG-9 designation appeared after production of the I-300 started (I-301).
Modification:
More Links :
MiG-9 Fargo at
Military Aircraft Archive;
MiG-9 'Fargo' at
The Jet Genesis
I-300, Mikoyan-Gurevich
MiG-9, Mikoyan-Gurevich 'Fargo' at
Emmanuel Gustin Index
MiG-9 (mirror of old edition this page!) at
Collection of pages and pictures from all over the WEB
| Technical data |
|---|
