3D model
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A procedural model built in Blender from published dimensions, drawings and photographs, painted as ‘1120’, the RAF Museum’s Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15bis, a WSK Mielec Lim-2 (c/n 1B01120) built under licence in Poland in the mid-1950s and flown by the Polish Air Force, now on its wheels in the National Cold War Exhibition at RAF Museum Midlands, Cosford, with its Klimov VK-1 centrifugal-flow turbojet (built in Poland as the Lis-2), shown as it is displayed today: natural metal overall with red-brown caps on the fin and rudder tips, a red Polish-style ‘1120’ on both sides of the nose, red and white Polish checkerboards on the rear fuselage and on the fin below the tailplane, under-wing drop tanks with red nose caps, the canopy closed and the rear-fuselage airbrakes part open. Drag to orbit, scroll or pinch to zoom · download .glb (825 KB)
Data plate
Specification
- First flight30 December 1947
- Built~18,000
- Top speed668 mph
- EngineKlimov VK-1 centrifugal-flow turbojet, 5,950 lbf (built in Poland as the Lis-2)
- Crew1
- Wingspan10.08 m
- Length10.11 m
- Height3.7 m
- In service1949–2000s
- RoleSwept-wing jet fighter
- MakerMikoyan-Gurevich (WSK Mielec in Poland), Soviet Union
- UK collections4
First flight, number built and top speed are for the whole family (); engine, crew and dimensions are for the MiG-15bis (Lim-2) modelled here.
History
The MiG-15bis
The MiG-15 was built around a British engine. In 1946 the Labour government allowed Rolls-Royce to sell the Soviet Union a batch of Nene centrifugal-flow turbojets, then the most powerful jet engines in service, and the Klimov bureau copied them as the RD-45. Artem Mikoyan and Mikhail Gurevich drew a short, barrel-shaped fighter around it, with a round nose intake, a wing swept back 35 degrees, a tall swept fin with the tailplane set high up it and fences across the wing to keep the airflow from drifting outboard. The prototype, the I-310, first flew on 30 December 1947.
The MiG-15 entered service in 1949 and the improved MiG-15bis, with the more powerful VK-1, a developed Nene, followed in 1950. It was light, climbed fast and carried a heavy punch for shooting down bombers: one 37 mm and two 23 mm cannon in a pack that winched down from under the nose. When MiG-15s flown by Soviet pilots in Chinese and North Korean markings appeared over Korea in November 1950 they outclassed every Allied fighter there, and American B-29s were driven from daylight raids over the north. The F-86 Sabre was rushed out to meet them, and the two fought over the Yalu river in what the pilots called MiG Alley.
More than 13,000 were built in the Soviet Union, and Poland and Czechoslovakia built it under licence, which together with the two-seat trainers made it one of the most numerous jet aircraft ever. WSK Mielec in Poland built the MiG-15 as the Lim-1 and the MiG-15bis as the Lim-2 in the mid-1950s. MiG-15s served with the air forces of some forty countries, and China and North Korea kept them flying for decades. Four UK museums in the gazetteer hold a MiG-15, among them the RAF Museum at Cosford and the Norfolk & Suffolk Aviation Museum.
This airframe
Lim-2 (MiG-15bis) “1120”
“1120” is a Lim-2, the MiG-15bis built under licence by WSK Mielec in Poland, with the construction number 1B01120; registry records date it to 1955. It flew with the Polish Air Force, whose numbers were taken from the last digits of the construction number, and the RAF Museum catalogued it in 1994. It stands on its wheels in the National Cold War Exhibition at Cosford. The model shows it as displayed there: natural metal overall with red-brown caps on the fin and rudder tips, a red “1120” in the Polish style on both sides of the nose, red and white Polish checkerboards on the rear fuselage and on the fin below the tailplane, under-wing drop tanks with red nose caps, the canopy closed and the airbrakes on the rear fuselage part open.
Where to see one
In the gazetteer
The gazetteer records the MiG-15bis in 4 UK collections. The airframe modelled here is marked.