Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15
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| Type | subsonic jet fighter |
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| Author(s) |
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| FDM | JSBSim |
| --aircraft= | MiG-15bis |
| Status | Production |
| FDM |
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| Systems |
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| Cockpit |
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| Model |
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The real MiG-15bis is the most produced aircraft of its type, and it made a great impact in its time. It must have been the most known Russian fighter in the West.
Aim of MiG-15bis FG project is to reproduce the real aircraft restrictions, habits, and features, exactly in that sequence.
Firstly, this mid-50's fighter doesn't have many switches, but without switching them correctly you cannot take off. If forgotten, gears will stick or be sheared off at high speeds (which this aircraft is capable of reaching).Much like the real craft, the engines can be overheated, and can be turned off by bringing the throttle all the way down.
Secondly, it is a jet, but not a modern supersonic fighter with reheated engine. At subsonic speeds it starts to act oddly in reality as well as in simulation.
Thirdly, if you can deploy the landing gear of the real MiG by an emergency procedure which includes lever, handles, and valve. The same goes for this jet. Again, there aren't as many switches as in a modern airliner. But every switch behaves as it does in reality.
The rest of what you need to know to fly this FG model is in included in its documentation. Read it carefully before takeoff.
I hope that this will make you want to learn more about the real MiG-15.
I wish you a good flight!
Victor Slavutinsky, vitosnet@mail.ru.
Airplane of the Week/Month
The MiG-15bis was reviewed as 'Airplane of the Week/Month' on June 9, 2011 as follows:
Model
In my opinion, the MiG-15bis has one of the best 3d cockpits of all Flightgear aircraft. Not only are all gauges specially designed with cyrillic letters for this plane, but also details like the low throttle safer are done in full 3d beauty. In addition to the main panel, there are also two fully functional side panels in the cockpit.
The exterior model is not done quite with the same impressive level of detail, visible from the interior e.g. in the somewhat rough lines of the canopy, but also shows a lot of detail, e.g. surface bumps, nice animations for canopy, gear, flaps and brakes, or the glow and smoke of the running engine.
The MiG-15bis is one of the planes where reading the (very detailed) manual is necessary even to start the engine - the startup procedure is fairly complicated. But it doesn't stop here - there are also procedures simulated for engine restart in mid-air, for emergency gear and for emergency flaps extraction.
In addition, the plane comes with a full set of functioning weapons and a photo-camera, so both 'real' and mock dogfighting is quite possible, and the two droptanks can be used for bombing practice if so desired.
Flight characteristics
The JSBSim FDM of the MiG-15bis is quite smooth, and all in all the plane is not difficult to fly. It is very agile and has a mild stall characteristics (I couldn't get it to do anything ugly with me). In high-g turns, it loses energy rapidly, illustrating nicely that the MiG-15bis is not really a match for more modern jet fighters such as the F-16, but its climb rate and velocity also demonstrate well why jet fighters quickly won the Korean skies.
What is perhaps most interesting about the MiG-15bis is that the model simulates quite a lot of restrictions - flaps and gear break when the airspeed is too high, the plane itself breaks for too high g-loads and the engine can overheat and shut off. The latter point actually spoils the fun taking off after having finally mastered the engine startup - if you climb out full throttle, you may need to look up on the mid-air engine restart procedure more quickly than you thought...
Also the gear load limits are fairly restrictive - it requires some work to bring the plane down in one piece, one can't simply smash it onto the runway. In difficult winds, that can be a real problem, but since the plane handles usually well, it's worth practicing.
My personal wishlist
A bit more tolerant gear would be nice... and some texture details on the canopy itself.
Things to experience
There's lots of details to experience. The MiG has an arrestor lever for the throttle to prevent it from moving on its own at high-g. That's not just for fun - the throttle does move on its own when the lever isn't used! Also, try flying into the transonic regime and experience how the flight dynamics changes.
Changelog summary
Version 2.0 by Victor Slavutinsky
Version 3.x by Ludovic Brenta and Andreas Zenner
- Livery support: Soviet Air Force (original) and Czech aerobatic team
- Bombable support: take those B-17s down with a single shell of your 37 mm cannon but beware of their M2 machine guns! Also suitable for dogfighting with other Bombable-enabled aircraft over multiplayer
- The FDM is now even more realistic
- Improved, seamless exterior model
- Explain failures with on-screen messages so you can learn from your mistakes
- Show the vertical speed of each wheel on touch down
- Option to disable realistic failures, for beginners
- True airspeed indicator
- Assorted bug fixes: replay support, fgrun preview, cannon shell ballistics, etc.
External links
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