The detective story is, unfortunately, an integral part of the aircraft industry of the pre-war (and post-war) time. What our designers sometimes got up to is worthy of a separate study, because I’m not lying if I say that we have never had such undercover games as in the aviation industry anywhere else.
But we will return to this topic in a separate historical study, and now let's talk about, probably, the most controversial aircraft of the USSR of the pre-war period - the MiG-3. Yakovlev's plane, feeling that our audience does not hold Yakovlev in high esteem, I will leave it for dessert.
Early life detective
The life of any aircraft begins with design. I-200, for now we will call it that, because if the situation were different, the plane would clearly have had a completely different name.
So, the preliminary design of the I-200 began within the walls of the Polikarpov Design Bureau. And as many people and documents testify, well before the official date. Polikarpov could generally work "on the table", leading several projects in parallel.
We will speak especially about the fate of Polikarpov, but here I will say that there was no second person who was so undeservedly offended in our aviation industry. Repression, investigation, imprisonment, execution sentence …
Yes, the adventure of Baidukov and Chkalov with the I-180 hit Polikarpov very hard.
In the meantime, it is 1939, in the Polikarpov Design Bureau, although it is gloomy, after the death of Chkalov, work is underway on the I-200.
The plane (I will emphasize in bold) was planned as a high-speed fighter. There was no question of any high-altitude speech, since the designers were tasked with creating an aircraft as opposed to the Me-109. Front-line fighter.
By December 8, the draft design of the I-200 fighter was ready, and with a memo signed by V. A. Romodin, it was sent to the People's Commissar of the Aviation Industry, the chiefs of the UVVS, the Air Force Research Institute and the 11th Main Directorate of the NKAP.
Why was it only Polikarpov's second deputy, Romodin, and not Polikarpov himself, who signed the documents?
It's simple. Polikarpov's first deputy, Dmitry Tomashevich, was under investigation in the case of Chkalov's death. He was arrested immediately after the disaster. And Polikarpov himself was … in Germany, where he was sent to study German technology. So all the processes took place without Polikarpov.
On December 25, 1939, a mock-up of the aircraft was reviewed and approved, and the very next day the development and production of working drawings began. In the opinion of TsAGI on the preliminary design of the I-200 aircraft, approved on January 2, 1940, it was noted that "the project of the I-200 AM-37 aircraft from the point of view of aerodynamics is undoubtedly full-fledged."
The joint work of specialists from plant No. 1 with the OKO design team to produce prototypes of the I-200 aircraft with simultaneous preparation for serial production was approved on February 25, 1940.
In fact, at the same time, the defeat of the Polikarpov Design Bureau began.
Taking advantage of the absence of Polikarpov, Director of the State Aviation Plant No. 1 Pavel Voronin and Chief Engineer Pyotr Dementyev (future Minister of the Aviation Industry) separated from the Polikarpov Design Bureau some of the divisions and the best designers (including the leading designer of the I-200 Mikhail Gurevich) and organized a new Experimental Design Bureau. department, and in fact - a new design bureau, under the leadership of Artem Mikoyan.
Was Anastas Mikoyan, Artyom's older brother and the People's Commissar of Foreign Trade, the first deputy chairman of the Council of People's Commissars Molotov, "in business" … Of course, that is still a question.
Anastas Mikoyan, Joseph Stalin and Grigory Ordzhonikidze, 1924
Mikoyan also received the approved project of the new I-200 fighter as a bonus.
Polikarpov received a consolation award for designing the I-200 fighter and remained at large. They could, of course, for cooperation with the Germans and re-sentenced to something.
But in the end, Polikarpov was left without experienced design personnel, without his own premises and, even more so, without a production base.
At first, he was sheltered by the TsAGI test hangar. Then, under Polikarpov, in an old hangar on the outskirts of Khodynka, a new state plant No. 51 was created, which did not have any production base of its own and even a building to accommodate a design bureau. On the territory of this plant, there is currently an OKB and an experimental plant named after V. I. P. Sukhoi.
Such was the Soviet gratitude for the creation of the wings of the Red Army Air Force. But, again, it could be worse.
Here, by the way, lies the answer to a very interesting question: why did neither Polikarpov, nor Mikoyan and Gurevich create anything before the end of the war?
M. Gurevich and A. Mikoyan
I do not pretend to be historically objective, but my opinion is this: Polikarpov did not bring to mind any of his developments precisely because everything was taken away from him. And Mikoyan did not have Polikarpov.
The beginning of the MiG
After Polikarpov was thrown to the sidelines of life with vague prospects for the fourth time in 4 years to build a design bureau and a plant for himself, the winners began to build an airplane.
The first flight copy of the I-200 was transferred for factory tests on March 31, 1940. Tests continued throughout the summer and on September 13, 1940, at a meeting of the technical council at the Air Force Research Institute, the leading test pilot Stepan Suprun noted that the I-200 "is the most advanced aircraft when it entered the state tests, which the prototype aircraft went well."
I already mentioned in the material about LaGG that of our triad, only the I-200 fully and the first time passed state tests. Both Yakovlevsky I-26 and I-301 Lavochkina and Gorbunova passed the maturity exam several times.
It is also worth noting that during the factory and state tests, not a single aircraft and not a single pilot was lost. We can assume that the I-200 has more than paid off for the losses incurred in the creation of the I-180.
Let's just say that the MiG-1 received a residence permit in the Air Force. Military tests of the new aircraft took place at the Kachin Military Pilot School in the period from December 1940 to February 1941. The same Stepan Suprun was in charge of the tests.
A total of 100 MiG-1 fighters were built in 1940. The planes even began to enter the units, but then there was a change. The KB team worked out the errors and shortcomings revealed during the tests, and the MiG-3 was born, which replaced the MiG-1 in production at the end of 1940.
Fighter. High-rise or front-line?
And in general, where did it suddenly come from that the MiG is a high-altitude fighter? After all, no one ordered it, they ordered the usual front-line.
The whole paradox, which many know about, was that at the height of the MiG it felt simply luxurious. Aerodynamics (and it was planned as a high-speed fighter) was at a height, and the engine …
And the motor was not as usual. The motor was. The smartest man Polikarpov initially began to design the plane not for the mythical Klimov engines based on the Hispano-Suiza, but took another, albeit less convenient Mikulin engine.
Aviation engine AM-35
Mikulinsky AM-35 was not a masterpiece. But although it was not modern (it began to be developed already in 1928), but it was the tried and tested AM-34 engine, which began its march of modernization.
Water-cooled motor AM-34, 12-cylinder, V-shaped, low-rise, with a rated power of 760 hp. It was put into production in 1934. It was on this engine that the TB-3 and R-5 flew. It was this engine that made it possible for the crews of Chkalov and Gromov to fly to America across the North Pole.
We are also interested in the modernization of the AM-35A. In general, I honestly admit that until recently it was a mystery to me why the indicators of the MiG-3 in terms of height and speed turned out to be so strange. I had to seek advice from a former VASO specialist, and now a videoconferencing officer, Nikolai Zubkov, for which special thanks to him.
AM-35 also did not differ in altitude. Meanwhile, there was another candidate for it - Pe-8 / TB-7. But a long-range bomber must have an appropriate altitude for the normal performance of its tasks! A long-range bomber crawling at an altitude of 5-6 thousand meters is not very smart.
This is how the AM-35A appeared, equipped with a centrifugal supercharger. Hence the answer to the question why the MiG-3 at an altitude of 7-8 thousand felt just fine. Because the supercharger with a high supercharge (1040 mm Hg) quite calmly provided the aircraft with the characteristics that it had.
An experienced (licked and varnished) copy of the I-200 reached a flight speed of 656 km / h at an altitude of 7000 m. But the serial MiG-3 at this altitude easily gave out 610-620 km / h.
But the speed came at a price. As you can see from the photo, it was unrealistic to place a gun in the collapse of the cylinders. However, Polikarpov foresaw this too. Only he managed to overlay the entire engine with the firing one. So, by the way, it was on the I-185.
It is difficult to say how the mechanics had to service the engines, since with such a set, wherever you open the hood, there is either a machine gun or cartridges.
The armament consisted of three synchronous machine guns: two ShKAS machine guns of 7, 62-mm caliber (ammunition of 1,500 rounds) and one BS machine gun of 12, 7-mm caliber (300 rounds of ammunition).
ShKAS were installed on / above the cylinder blocks on carriages, and BS were attached to the fuselage truss.
Fire control of all machine guns - pneumatic from two triggers (one for ShKAS, the other for BS), in case of failure of the pneumatic system there was an emergency - mechanical.
4 bomb racks were installed on the wings. They could hang 4 bombs of 50 kg each or two pouring devices VAP-6M with a capacity of 50 liters each. In addition, under each wing it was possible to place 4 guides for launching ROS-822 rockets.
The armor was standard for Soviet fighters of the time, that is, the 8mm armored back. The aircraft's equipment was also standard, that is, the RSI-3 radio station (that is, there is no radio station) and the KPA-3bis oxygen device.
How and why the MiG-3 appeared
I have already mentioned the sudden order of Shakhurin and Smushkevich regarding the flight range of the fighters. Although the chief designer of the new design bureau was Mikoyan, apparently, it did not save. Moreover, the range of 1000 km had to be ensured exclusively through internal tanks, no suspended ones!
And the plane had to be redone, adding another 250 liter fuel tank. It was necessary to urgently lengthen the already long nose of the aircraft, lengthen the engine mount and shift the engine to compensate for the weight of the fuel by 100 mm forward.
In addition, it was necessary to transfer the lower flaps covering the landing gear to the center section, put larger wheels, and strengthen the landing gear struts. At the same time, all fuel tanks were protected.
As a result of all these improvements, the flight weight of the aircraft increased from 3100 kg to 3355 kg with all the ensuing consequences. True, as in the case of the LaGG, the MiG did not lose speed at altitude, it still remained at the level of 630-640 km / h. True, quite expectedly, the rate of climb sagged and it became somewhat more difficult to maneuver.
Further improvements began again. It is clear that at the start of the war, 1 large-caliber BS and two ShKAS dragonflies are about nothing.
From February 20, 1941, GAZ # 1 produced aircraft with five firing points. At the root of the wing, outside the plane swept by the propeller, 2 machine guns BK (Berezin-wing) were installed. Ammunition for each machine gun was 145 rounds. But there were two problems here.
The first is another plus more than a hundred kilograms of weight, which negatively affected flight characteristics.
Second, the factories did not keep pace with the release of machine guns. Therefore, GAZ # 1 produced 821 aircraft, and later on, the BC machine guns were removed from all fighters.
You can read about this at Pokryshkin, he flew on such an airplane. And, by the way, he began to be indignant only when the BC was removed. Prior to that, the MiG-3 Alexander Ivanovich suited everyone.
Moreover, there were cases when, in order to improve speed and maneuverability, technicians, at the request of the pilots, removed wing and underwing BSs. And almost immediately they put them back.
Armament Engineer 15th Garden, Major Baghdasaryan, assessed the weapons of the MiGs. The major engineer paid attention to defects, but the most interesting is the following conclusion of Baghdasaryan:
“The five-point variant of the MiG-3 armament is preferable. On it, pilots are more confident and bold in fighting, considering large-caliber machine guns as the main weapon, and ShKASs as secondary … You need a good optical sight, and if you don't have one, you must have at least an additional ring sight."
This is not to say that Mikoyan and the company did not work on improving weapons. No, they worked all the time and tirelessly. I will give a list of MiG-3 armament options at the end. We even managed to fit two synchronous ShVAK cannons into the hood. But alas, it was all in vain.
Who killed the MiG-3?
The MiG-3 was killed by circumstances. Fast at altitude, but rather clumsy near the ground, and besides with the weakest armament at the time of 1942, the MiG-3 simply became unnecessary.
But the reason for the withdrawal from production of the aircraft was not the successes of the Yak-1 and LaGG-2, but the need for the Il-2 attack aircraft. It seems that we had fighters, plus help from the allies finally began, but there was nothing to replace the IL-2 with.
In addition, the AM-38 engine, which was installed on the IL-2, is just the next step in the development of the AM-35A, with which there were still problems. Moreover, both AM-35A and AM-38 were produced by the same plant.
Stalin decided that the Il-2 was more important, and after Stalin's historic telegram of December 23, 1941, the production of the MiG-3 was discontinued. GAZ plant # 1 switched to production of IL-2.
Already in evacuation, at the plant number 30, by the forces of the plant workers, from the ready-made vehicle kits, they managed to release 22 MiG-3 aircraft, moreover, already armed with two synchronous ShVAK cannons.
Having returned from evacuation to Moscow, at the experimental plant №155 (OKB-155), which was headed by AI Mikoyan, they assembled another 30 MiG-3 aircraft, also armed with ShVAK cannons.
In total, in 1940-1942. 3172 MiG-3 fighters were built by the forces of the GAZ plant №1 and the experimental plant №155.
The aircraft turned out to be tenacious, strong and maintainable. MiGs served for a long time, until the end of the war being in air defense units, where, in principle, the MiG was the place. And our technicians, according to the memoirs, could easily assemble from several seemingly completely unusable aircraft one, quite suitable not just for flying, but for battle.
It is not surprising that the last MiG-3s were decommissioned due to wear and tear at the very end of the war.
Armament modifications for MiG-3 fighters produced in 1940-1942.
1. Two ShKAS machine guns (7, 62 mm), one BS machine gun (12, 7 mm) - 1976 pcs.
2. Two ShKAS machine guns (7.62 mm), one BS machine gun (12.7 mm), two BK machine guns (12.7 mm) - 821 pcs.
3. Two BS machine guns (12.7 mm), one ShKAS machine gun (7.62 mm) - 3 pcs.
4. Two BS machine guns (12.7 mm) - 100 pcs.
5. Two BS machine guns (12.7 mm), two ZROB-82 batteries for firing RS-82 - 215 pcs.
6. Two ShKAS machine guns (7, 62 mm), one BS machine gun (12, 7 mm), two ZROB-82 batteries - 2 pcs.
7. Two ShVAK cannons (20 mm) - 52 pcs.
For combat use … Probably easier to send to Pokryshkin. Yes, he could. In short, and in summary, everything was squeezed out of the plane. Probably, the MiG-3 with two ShVAKs could become a completely normal fighter of the air defense system, but the situation with the engines was unsolvable in another way.
Incredibly, the most promising and seemingly well-thought-out plane, which calmly passed state tests, was the first to leave the race. Completely.
And here, by the way, you cannot explain it by undercover games and sabotage. Mystic? Perhaps. Design Bureau Mikoyan and Gurevich until the end of the war no longer put a single aircraft into series.
Regret? To be honest, not the same as according to LaGG, but he still had a second life. The MiG-3 put a lot of good pilots on the wing, so, of course, thanks to him for his service.
And it's a pity that this happened to Polikarpov.
