This Aircraft Took the USSR to Mach 1 - Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-19

Video from the channel Mundo de Aviación about Mikoyan, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 10:28. Language: Spanish. Video type: Documentary.

The story of the MiG-19, the Mikoyan bureau's first twin-engine supersonic fighter, from its prototype to its production in China and its use in combat.

Work began in 1951, in the midst of the Korean War, based on a development of the MiG-17 that led to the I-340 prototype, with two engines mounted side by side. The first MiG-19 prototype flew on 18 September 1953. A third one, almost identical to the production version, flew on 5 February 1954, and it entered service in 1955. The rush caused early problems: poor insulation between the engines and the fuel tanks, solved with a heat shield, and elevators that were ineffective at supersonic speed. 2,172 units were built in the Soviet Union.

It weighed 8,832 kg at takeoff, reached 1,452 km/h and had a range of 1,390 km on internal fuel. The MiG-19S carried three 30 mm cannons. The MiG-19P was an all-weather interceptor with RP-1 radar, and the MiG-19PM, in service from 1957, carried air-to-air missiles. China built it from 1958 as the J-6, with around 4,000 units, and exported it as the F-6, mainly to Pakistan, which used it against India and retired it in 2002. North Vietnam received it in 1969 and its first combat was on 8 May 1972, claiming two F-4 Phantom IIs. Cuba received twelve, the first in 1961.