MiG summary

MiG, officially ANPK imeni A.I. Mikoyana formerly OKB-155, Russian design bureau that is the country’s major producer of jet fighters. The company originated in 1939 within another Soviet design bureau as a department under Artem Mikoyan and his deputy, Mikhail Gurevich. Three years later it became the independent bureau OKB-155. Its first design, a single-engine interceptor (first flown 1940), eventually bore the name MiG-1 (“MiG” being an acronym based on “Mikoyan” and “Gurevich”). After World War II it produced the first Soviet jet fighter, the MiG-9 (1946), and followed on with some of the U.S.S.R.’s most notable high-speed aircraft (see MiG [fighter aircraft]). The last major fighters designed under Mikoyan (died 1970) were the variable-wing MiG-23 (entered service 1972), and the MiG-25 (introduced 1970; capable of about Mach 3). The organization later produced several new designs, including the MiG-29 and MiG-31 (both first flown in the 1970s). In the late 1980s its formal name became ANPK imeni A.I. Mikoyana. In the 1990s, after the breakup of the Soviet Union, MiG was consolidated with several other major firms into the giant state-owned aerospace complex VPK MAPO. MiG diversified modestly into the civilian passenger plane market and continued to develop advanced fighter concepts, including the 1.42 (1.44I) multifunctional fifth-generation fighter (first flown 2000).