MiG-19
The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-19 (NATO reporting name Farmer) is a third-generation Soviet, single-seater jet engined fighter aircraft. It was the first Soviet production aircraft capable of supersonic speeds in level flight.
It was an interceptor, 12.6 m long, 9.2 m in span and 3.65 m high. The wings were mid-mounted, tapering and highly swept back. Power was provided by two Tumansky turbojets, each producing a maximum of 32 kN of thrust in afterburner mode, propelling the aircraft to a maximum speed of 1455 km/h. Maximum operating height was 17500 m and ordinary operating range was 685 km (although this could be stretched to over 2000 km). The aircraft was initially armed with three 30 mm cannons and either bombs or rockets. This variant was known as the MiG-19S and it was manufactured in Czech-Slovakia mainly. The later MiG-19PM models were equipped with a radar and carried four beam-guided AA missiles, but the PM lacked a cannon. All MiG-19 versions suffered from the extreme sensitivity of their early generation jet engines, which often refused to start on the ground, unless the aircraft was rotated to face into the wind. Once in the air, the MiG-19 performed much better and the twin-engined, large wing area fighter jet was inherently safer to fly than the early delta winged aircraft.
The aircraft was designed by the Mikoyan Gurevich design bureau. The first flight was made in September 1953 and the aircraft entered production in 1955. Around 8,500 models were made, mainly in the USSR but also in the People's Republic of China (as the J-6) and Eastern Europe. The aircraft saw service with a number of other national airforces including those of Cuba, North Vietnam, Egypt, Pakistan and North Korea. The aircraft saw combat during the Vietnam War and the Bangladesh War.
In the USSR it was superseded by the MiG-21. In the PRC, the airframe was modified to include side-mounted air intakes and a radar-carrying solid nose cone, thus producing the A-5 "Fantan" low altitude tactical attack fighterplane. The A-5 is equipped with more modern western turbojet engines. Despite their age, the MiG-19 and its descendants exhibit good handling characteristics at low altitude and a suprisingly high rate of climb of 120 meters per second, so they are ideal for low-cost tactical attack purposes. These characteristics inspired the soviet designers to produce the Sukhoi-7/17/20/22 family of dedicated ground attack fighterbomber planes, which are quite similar to the MiG-19 in their outlines.
