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MiG-17 | |
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A restored MiG-17 | |
Role | Fighter aircraft |
National origin | Soviet Union |
Manufacturer | Mikoyan-Gurevich |
First flight | 14 January 1950 |
Introduction | October 1952 |
Status | In limited service |
Primary users | Soviet Air Forces (historical) People's Liberation Army Air Force (historical) Polish Air Force (historical) Vietnam People's Air Force (historical) |
Number built | 10,649 including Polish, Czech and Chinese variants |
Developed from | Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 |
Variants | PZL-Mielec Lim-6 Shenyang J-5 |
Developed into | Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-19 |
The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-17 (Russian: Микоян и Гуревич МиГ-17; NATO reporting name: Fresco)[1] is a high-subsonic fighter aircraft produced in the Soviet Union from 1952 and was operated by air forces internationally. The MiG-17 was license-built in China as the Shenyang J-5 and Poland as the PZL-Mielec Lim-6. The MiG-17 is still being used by the North Korean air force in the present day and has seen combat in the Middle East and Asia.
The MiG-17 was an advanced modification of the MiG-15 aircraft produced by the Soviet Union during the Korean War. Production of the MiG-17 was too late for use in that conflict and was first used in the Second Taiwan Strait Crisis in 1958. While the MiG-17 was designed to shoot down slower American bombers, it showed surprising success when used by North Vietnamese pilots to combat American fighters and fighter-bombers during the Vietnam War, nearly a decade after its initial design. This was due to the MiG-17 being more agile and maneuverable than the American F-4 Phantom and F-105 Thunderchief, which were focused on speed and long range combat, as well as the fact that MiG-17 was armed with guns, which initial models of the F-4 Phantom lacked.