Mikoyan - Gurevich MiG - 9 The Mikoyan - Gurevich MiG - 9 ( , USAF / DOD designation Type 1 , NATO reporting name : Fargo ) was the first turbojet fighter developed by Mikoyan - Gurevich in the years immediately after World War II . It used reverse - engineered German BMW 003 engines . Categorized as a first generation jet fighter , it was moderately successful , but suffered from persistent problems with engine flameout s when firing its guns at high altitudes due to gun gas ingestion . A number of different armament configurations were tested , but nothing solved the problem . Several different engines were evaluated , but none were flown as the prototype of the MiG - 15 promised superior performance . A total of 610 aircraft were built , including prototypes , and they entered service in 1948 with the Soviet Air Forces . At least 372 were transferred to the People ' s Liberation Army Air Force in 1950 to defend Chinese cities against air raids by the Nationalist Chinese and train the Chinese pilots in jet operations . The MiG - 9 was quickly replaced by the MiG - 15 and only three are known to survive . Development . Origins . In February 1945 , the Council of People ' s Commissars ordered the Mikoyan - Gurevich ( MiG ) OKB to develop a single - seat jet fighter to be equipped with two German BMW 003 engines . Intended as to destroy bombers , the aircraft was to be equipped with a single or gun , plus two guns . A more detailed directive was issued on 9 April setting out requirements that the aircraft should have a maximum speed of at sea level and a speed of at an altitude of . It should be able to climb to that altitude in four minutes or less and it should have a maximum range of . Three prototypes were ordered to be ready for flight tests by 15 March 1946 . The OKB chose a " pod - and - boom " layout for their new fighter , the I - 300 ( also called the " izdeliye " F ( model or product F ) by the OKB ) because it offered the advantages of improved landing performance and better visibility from the cockpit when landing , but it had some drawbacks like the unfamiliar tricycle arrangement of the landing gear , protecting the rear fuselage from the jet exhaust , and where to place the aircraft ' s armament . The all - metal aircraft had unswept , mid - mounted wings with two prominent air intakes in the nose . Its two - spar wings were fitted with slotted flaps and Frise ailerons . Its powerplant comprised two RD - 20 turbojets , which were Soviet - manufactured versions of the BMW 003 . The two engines were located behind the cockpit in the lower fuselage , with the exhaust exiting under the tail unit . A steel laminate heatshield was installed on the bottom of the rear fuselage for protection from the exhaust gasses . There were four bag - type fuel tanks in the fuselage and three in each wing , providing a total internal fuel capacity of 1 , 625 liters ( 429 US gallons ) . The cockpit was not pressurized and the planned armament consisted of a 57 mm NL - 57 cannon mounted in the centerline engine intake bulkhead and two 23 mm Nudelman - Suranov NS - 23 autocannon mounted on the lower lip of the air intakes . The N - 57 gun was provided with 28 rounds and the two NS - 23 cannon had 80 rounds each . Construction of the three prototypes began in late 1945 and the first prototype began manufacturer ' s testing on 30 December . The ground testing revealed that the engine exhaust caused a low - pressure area under the rear fuselage which caused the fighter to tilt tail - down during engine tests . The rigidly mounted heatshield caused the underside of the rear fuselage to deform because the steel and the duralumin skin of the fuselage had different expansion ratios when heated . The rear fuselage and the heatshield were both redesigned to eliminate these problems . On 23 March the prototype was trucked to the Flight Research Institute ( LII ) ' s airfield at Ramenskoye to begin preparations for flight testing . According to aviation historian Bill Gunston , representatives from Mikoyan - Gurevich and the Yakovlev OKB tossed a coin on 24 April 1946 to determine which aircraft would be the first Soviet jet to fly . MiG won and the I - 300 ' s first flight lasted six minutes . These early flights revealed problems with the stability of the aircraft and vibration problems with the new articulated heatshield . It was stiffened before the twelfth flight , but that only partially cured the problem . The first aircraft crashed , killing the pilot , during a demonstration in front of high - ranking officials on 11 July when the attachment lugs of the wing leading edge fairings failed and they hit the horizontal stabilizer s . The remaining two prototypes began flight testing the following month , but preparations for the 7 November parade commemorating the October Revolution delayed the start of the State acceptance trials until 17 December . Meanwhile , the horizontal stabilizer of the second prototype disintegrated during flight , but the pilot was able to land the aircraft safely . Another such incident happened to the third prototype in February 1947 and forced the tail to be reinforced . The aircraft was given the service designation of MiG - 9 ( internal OKB designations of I - 301 and " izdeliye " FS ) and a small batch of ten aircraft , equipped with original German engines , was ordered during 1946 from Factory No . 1 in Kazan before flight testing was completed . They were intended to be used in the parade , but bad weather forced the cancellation of their flypast . Two of them were assigned to participate in the state acceptance trials while others were used as testbeds for various programs . The trials were concluded in June and the MiG - 9 generally met the performance goals set by the Council of People ' s Commissars . The test pilots found the fighter easy and simple to fly . Defects noted during testing were that the engines flamed out when firing the cannon at high altitudes due to gun gas ingestion , no ejection seat was fitted , nor were air brakes or a fire suppression system . The fuel tanks were not self - sealing and no armor was provided for the pilot . Despite these drawbacks , the MiG - 9 was ordered into production at Factory No . 1 before the acceptance tests were completed as the Soviet leadership believed that its shortcomings could be rectified during production . A batch of 50 aircraft , 40 single - seat fighters and 10 two - seat trainers , was ordered in late 1946 to participate in the 1947 May Day parade . In recognition of their accomplishment Artem Mikoyan and Mikhail Gurevich were awarded the Stalin Prize in 1947 . The two - seat trainer had the internal OKB designations of I - 301T and " izdeliye " FT and the first prototype was converted from one of the " parade " aircraft during 1946 . Its fuel capacity had to be reduced by one third to make room for the second tandem cockpit . Dual controls were fitted as was an intercom to allow the instructor and student to communicate in the air . Each man had an ejection seat designed after that used by the Germans in their Heinkel He 162 fighter . This aircraft was delivered on 17 January 1947 , although flight testing was not completed until 5 April . The ejection seats were not tested in the air , but they required extensive testing on the ground to ensure the proper operation of the seat . State acceptance trials were not completed until 2 June and the aircraft was rejected because of the poor visibility from the rear cockpit . A second aircraft was completed on 15 July and the visibility from the rear cockpit was improved by replacing the original bulletproof windscreen with a larger glass plate , reshaping the canopy ' s side panels , and removing a partition between the cockpits . This aircraft was fitted with air brakes in the wings and two drop tanks hung under its wingtips . It passed its state acceptance trials later in 1947 and was recommended for production with the service designation of UTI MiG - 9 . The ejection seats were extensively tested during 1948 and approved for use , but by this time the aircraft was deemed obsolete and there was no point in building a training version . The order for 50 aircraft placed in 1946 was modified to 48 single seaters and one aircraft for the OKB itself , all lacking armament . They were manufactured in March – April 1947 with the standard armament of one 37 mm Nudelman N - 37 autocannon , with 40 rounds , and two 23 mm Nudelman - Suranov NS - 23 guns , but the production line shut down afterward to incorporate some of the desired changes . These included reinforcement and enlargement of the vertical tail to improve lateral stability ; air brakes were added on the wings and the fuel system was improved . The underside of the rear fuselage was recontoured to smooth the air flow of the engine exhaust and air suction inside the fuselage was eliminated . Production restarted and a total of 243 single seaters were completed during the remainder of the year . 250 fighters and 60 trainers were scheduled to be built in 1948 , but production was disrupted by preparations to begin manufacture of the vastly superior MiG - 15 later that year . Only 302 fighters were delivered that year before production ceased . The fourth and fifth aircraft of the parade batch were used in flight tests to eliminate the engine flameout problem from late 1947 through early 1948 . They were fitted with a prominent rectangular hollow vane on the barrel of the N - 37 cannon that was nicknamed the " butterfly " ( bahbochka ) . This allowed all three cannon to be fired simultaneously at altitudes up to , but the fin disintegrated after only 813 shots , which could be very dangerous if the debris from the fin was ingested by the engines . An additional problem was that the fin hampered the directional stability of the aircraft and caused it to yaw after 3 – 5 shots . Another attempt to fix the problem was made in the I - 302 ( " izdeliye " FP ) , a modification of a production aircraft , that moved the N - 37 to the port side of the aircraft , but this was apparently not successful either . Other attempts to ameliorate the problem included fitting a muzzle brake on the N - 37 as well as extending its barrel , but nothing worked . Alternative engines . The I - 305 ( " izdeliye " FT ) was a MiG - 9 airframe with a single Lyulka TR - 1 turbojet of that replaced the pair of RD - 20 turbojets . The armament was rearranged with the 23 mm cannon moved to each side of the fuselage , even with the N - 37 gun in the centerline bulkhead ; the latter ' s ammunition supply was increased to 45 rounds . The aircraft was intended to have a pressurized cockpit and its overall weight was reduced to . The engine , however , was not ready for testing and the aircraft ' s development was cancelled after the prototype MiG - 15 began flight testing in early 1948 . In mid - 1946 , the Council of Ministers ordered the development of a MiG - 9 with afterburning versions of the RD - 20 , based on the BMW 003S engine . These engines had a maximum power of and were intended to increase the aircraft ' s speed to at sea level and at . The OKB was directed to build two prototypes , with a gun replacing the N - 37 , that would begin flight tests in April 1947 . The OKB added armor plates fore and aft to protect the pilot and he was provided with a bulletproof windscreen , but no other changes were made to the aircraft . The I - 307 ( " izdeliye " FF ) was ready for flight testing a month late and had to use German engines because the Soviet - built versions had not yet been tested . Manufacturer ' s flight tests were completed on 21 June and the fighter began its state acceptance trials on 2 August , after its engines were replaced , but crashed on 19 August . The second prototype was converted from the fifth aircraft of the parade batch and retained the butterfly used during its earlier gun trials . It was given the same cockpit armor and windscreen as the first prototype , but it used Soviet - built RD - 20F ( later RD - 21 ) engines . It began its flight trials in December and it demonstrated a top speed of at an altitude of and at , but no further development work was done . Some late - production aircraft received this engine . Another prototype equipped with RD - 21 engines and a pressurized cockpit was completed in June 1947 . It was known internally as the I - 307 ( " izdeliye " FR ) and was given the service designation of MiG - 9M . The armament was rearranged in another attempt to ameliorate the gun gas ingestion problem with the N - 37 being mounted on the starboard side of the fuselage and the two NS - 23s on the port side , well aft so that the gun barrels did not protrude beyond the air intake . This caused the cockpit to be moved forward slightly which gave the pilot a better view when landing . The number of fuel tanks was reduced to five , but the aircraft ' s total capacity remained the same . It made its first flight in July , but the factory flight tests were not completed until early 1948 . Despite a top speed of at , it failed its state acceptance tests . The reasons given were that the engines continued to flame out if they were run at low rpm at altitudes above , the mounts for the cannon were not fully developed and the workmanship of the pressurized cockpit was low . The real reason was that the aircraft was inferior to the MiG - 15 already in flight testing . Another re - engined version of the MiG - 9 was the I - 320 ( " izdeliye " FN ) . It had an imported Rolls - Royce Nene I centrifugal - flow turbojet rated at and the armament was rearranged yet again in another attempt to eliminate the gas ingestion problem . The N - 37 cannon was moved to the underside of the fuselage and the NS - 23 guns were moved to each side of the fuselage as in the I - 305 , although none of the gun barrels protruded past the lips of the air intakes . Construction began in late 1947 , but it was never completed as the MiG - 15 prototype used the same engine and had a higher performance . One MiG - 9 ( " izdeliye " FK ) was modified in 1949 to serve as a testbed for the Raduga KS - 1 Komet air - launched anti - shipping cruise missile . A second unpressurized cockpit was built in line with the trailing edge of the wing for the guidance system operator . The aircraft was fitted with two radar s , a K - 1M target illumination radar in a prominent bullet - shaped fairing above the air intakes and an aft - looking radar mounted in a cigar - shaped fairing at the top of the vertical stabilizer . This latter system was intended to test the mid - course guidance system of the launching aircraft and the guidance systems of the missile . Signals from the K - 1M radar were received in small bullet - shaped fairings on the leading edges of the wings . The aircraft served in this role for four years , until the missile passed its state acceptance trials in 1952 – 53 . Service . The MiG - 9 was flown in Soviet service by fighter regiments in the 1st , 7th , 14th , 15th , and 16th Air Armies . These last two were based near Kaliningrad and in East Germany respectively . In addition , the 177th Fighter Regiment of the 303rd Air Division near Yaroslavl flew the aircraft in 1949 . Six divisions of MiG - 9s , each with two regiments of 31 aircraft , were transferred to China in November – December 1950 for air defense and training duties . The 17th Guards Fighter Division ( GIAD ) defended Shenyang , the 20th Fighter Division ( IAD ) guarded Tangshan , and the 65th IAD protected Guangzhou . The 144th IAD defended Shanghai , the 309th guarded Gongzhuling and the 328th IAD protected Peking . These units later handed their aircraft over to the 6th , 7th , 12th , 14th , 16th , and 17th Fighter Divisions of the People ' s Liberation Army Air Force when their training was complete . The Chinese considered sending their MiG - 9s to Korea in 1951 under Soviet pressure , but reconsidered when the PLAAF commanders reported that they believed that it would be better to retrain MiG - 9 pilots on MiG - 15s .