From a comment to the blog from Steiner:
"Steiner said...
Soviet combat aviation suffered from its reliance upon captured designs after WW2, espionage thereafter and outright imitation throughout. But it was one thing to imitate an airframe, another to figure out Western avionics and engine design."
In particular, it has often been alleged that the design of the MiG-15 was more or less a copy [or a reasonable facsimile thereof] of the German WW2 Focke-Wulf jet design Ta-183.
That Ta-183 never more than even a prototype, only a warplane existing almost exclusively on paper, never proceeding beyond: "a 1:10 scale free-flight model of the Ta 183" and "a wind tunnel model".
THE SOVIET HOWEVER CLAIMING THE MiG-15 MORE OR LESS AN INSTANCE OF INDIGENOUS AND PARALLEL DEVELOPMENT. MiG-15 NOT MERELY A CLONE OF THE Ta-183!
"A detailed design history of the MiG-15 was published by Russian aviation historian Yefim Gordon refuting any connection between the Ta 183 and the MiG-15. According to the designers, the MiG-15 was an indigenous design,"
Airframe as noted by Steiner not the total package. Engine and avionics must also be taken into account when evaluating a warplane.
In addition, at least to me that wind tunnel model of the Ta-183 does appear to be of a superior design. Keep in mind I know next to nothing about aircraft design. I go with what intuition tells me. That is all I have.
coolbert.
The Mig-9, not the -15, was a copy of the Ta-183. The Mig-9 never showed up in combat against the West, so it has been forgotten. Both the -9 and the Yak-15, the other early Soviet effort at a jet airframe, used reverse engineered jet engines from BMW and Junkers respectively.
ReplyDeleteThe Soviets were forced to copy then-current aerospace combat technology as well as emerging designs as indicated by the pathetic Tupolev-4 saga.