The Mikoyan-Gurevich I-211 was a prototype high-altitude

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

fighter aircraft Fighter aircraft are fixed-wing military aircraft designed primarily for air-to-air combat. In military conflict, the role of fighter aircraft is to establish air superiority of the battlespace. Domination of the airspace above a battlefield ...

built during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. It was a version of the Mikoyan-Gurevich I-210, itself a variant of the

Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-3 The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-3 (russian: Микоян и Гуревич МиГ-3) was a Soviet Union, Soviet interceptor aircraft, fighter-interceptor used during World War II. It was a development of the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-1, MiG-1 by the OKO (op ...

, fitted with a

Shvetsov ASh-82 The Shvetsov ASh-82 (M-82) is a Soviet 14-cylinder, two-row, air-cooled radial aircraft engine developed from the Shvetsov M-62. The M-62 was the result of development of the M-25, which was a licensed version of the Wright R-1820 Cyclone. Desi ...

F radial engine. Its development was quite prolonged, although successful, but by the time it finished its manufacturer's trials in early 1944 there was no need for a high-altitude fighter and it was not worth reducing the production of existing fighters to convert a factory over to the I-211.

Development

The I-211 was a direct descendant of the Mikoyan-Gurevich I-210 high-altitude fighter prototype, also known as the MiG-3-82 or MiG-9. Late in 1941, a decision was made to phase out production of the

Mikulin AM-35 The Mikulin AM-35 was a 1930s Soviet piston aircraft engine. Derived from the AM-34FRN, the AM-35 entered production in 1940 and was used on the MiG-1 and MiG-3 World War II fighters as well as the Petlyakov Pe-8 heavy bomber. Description T ...

A engine used by the

MiG-1 The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-1 (russian: Микоян-Гуревич МиГ-1) was a Soviet fighter aircraft of World War II that was designed to meet a requirement for a high-altitude fighter issued in 1939. To minimize demand on strategic materia ...

and MiG-3 in favor of the

Mikulin AM-38 The Mikulin AM-38 was a 1940s Soviet aircraft piston engine. It was a further development of the Mikulin AM-35 design. The AM-38 was used on the Il-2 Shturmovik and Il-10 ground attack aircraft. The AM-38 was installed experimentally in a MiG ...

engine used in the

Ilyushin Il-2 The Ilyushin Il-2 (Russian: Илью́шин Ил-2) is a ground-attack plane that was produced by the Soviet Union in large numbers during the Second World War. The word ''shturmovík'' (Cyrillic: штурмовик), the generic Russian term ...

. The MiG design team had already created a version of the MiG-3 called the I-210, using a

radial engine instead of the inline, liquid-cooled engine. A number of changes were made in order to accommodate the larger circumference of the radial engine, but the redesign of the engine

cowling A cowling is the removable covering of a vehicle's engine, most often found on automobiles, motorcycles, airplanes, and on outboard boat motors. On airplanes, cowlings are used to reduce drag and to cool the engine. On boats, cowlings are a cove ...

was a failure and the I-210 proved to be slower than the

Yak-1 The Yakovlev Yak-1 (russian: Яковлев Як-1) was a Soviet fighter aircraft of World War II. The Yak-1 was a single-seat monoplane with a composite structure and wooden wings; production began in early 1940.Angelucci and Matricardi 1978, ...

or the

LaGG-3 The Lavochkin-Gorbunov-Gudkov LaGG-3 (Лавочкин-Горбунов-Гудков ЛаГГ-3) was a Soviet fighter aircraft of World War II. It was a refinement of the earlier LaGG-1 and was one of the most modern aircraft available to the Sov ...

when it first flew on 23 July 1941.

Artem Mikoyan Artem (Artyom) Ivanovich Mikoyan (russian: Артём Ива́нович Микоя́н; hy, Արտյոմ (Անուշավան) Հովհաննեսի Միկոյան, translit=''Artyom (Anushavan) Hovhannesi Mikoyan''; – 9 December 1970) was a ...

and Mikhail Gurevich continued development and another prototype was built, the MiG I-211, or the MiG-9Ye, using the improved ASh-82F engine. Improvements from the I-210 included aerodynamic refinements of the engine cowling, the cockpit was moved aft , the oil cooler inlets were moved to the

wing root The wing root is the part of the wing on a fixed-wing aircraft or winged-spaceship that is closest to the fuselage,Peppler, I.L.: ''From The Ground Up'', page 9. Aviation Publishers Co. Limited, Ottawa Ontario, Twenty Seventh Revised Edition, 1996 ...

s, the oil cooler was moved entirely inside fuselage and a larger tail was fitted. It was armed with two

ShVAK cannon The ShVAK ( ru , ШВАК: Шпитальный-Владимиров Авиационный Крупнокалиберный, Shpitalnyi-Vladimirov Aviatsionnyi Krupnokalibernyi, "Shpitalny-Vladimirov Aviation Large-calibre") was a 20 mm autocann ...

. It weighed some less than the I-210, possibly due to an all-metal structure, but this cannot be confirmed. These refinements took most of 1942 to design and assembly of the I-211 did not begin until December 1942. Its first flight was on 24 February 1943. The reduction in drag and in weight greatly improved performance over the I-211, with a top speed of at a height of and it took only 4.0 minutes to reach an altitude of . The

OKB OKB is a transliteration of the Russian initials of "" – , meaning 'experiment and design bureau'. During the Soviet era, OKBs were closed institutions working on design and prototyping of advanced technology, usually for military applications. ...

had originally planned to build ten in the first quarter of 1943, but the manufacturer's trials took an unexpectedly long time to complete and were not finished until the first quarter of 1944. By this time there was little demand for a high-altitude fighter and the project was canceled with only a single aircraft built.

Nomenclature

In a number of older books, the MiG I-211 is called the MiG-5. It is now established that the MiG-5 designation was reserved for the production version of the MiG DIS, a twin-engine fighter that did not enter production. The acronym DIS comes from ''Dalnij Istrebitel Soprovozhdenya'' or long-range escort fighter. Similarly, the MiG-9 designation was intended for the production version of the MiG-3 with the ASh-82 radial engine. This name was reused shortly afterwards for the first Mikoyan-Gurevich

jet fighter Fighter aircraft are fixed-wing aircraft, fixed-wing military aircraft designed primarily for air-to-air combat. In military conflict, the role of fighter aircraft is to establish air supremacy, air superiority of the battlespace. Domination o ...

Operators

; *

Soviet Air Force The Soviet Air Forces ( rus, Военно-воздушные силы, r=Voyenno-vozdushnyye sily, VVS; literally "Military Air Forces") were one of the air forces of the Soviet Union. The other was the Soviet Air Defence Forces. The Air Forces ...

Development

Nomenclature

Operators

Specifications (I-211)

References

Further reading