Mikoyan's Piston-Engined Fighters

Red Star Volume 13
By Yefim Gordon and Keith Dexter
Midland Publishing, 2003
ISBN 1-85780-160-1
128 Pages, Softbound
Available from Specialty Press for $29.95

Reviewed by Chris Banyai-Riepl

The latest in the Red Star line is this title on Mikoyan piston-engined fighters. While the MiG-3 is probably the most well-known of these types, there are quite a few other designs that warrant inspection. This book covers all the Mikoyan types, including the MiG-3, with the usual form of photos, text, and drawings. Only the MiG-3 out of all presented here reached operational service, and the section detailing this whets the appetite. The meat of the book, though, deals with Mikoyan's project aircraft, and there are some rather interesting types presented here.

While many of the aircraft included in this book were project aircraft, that does not mean that they were not built. All of the aircraft presented had some sort of prototype, and several had more than one. The first Mikoyan twin-engined aircraft is included here, although it failed to reach series production. Also presented is the I-250 (N), a mixed-power fighter that combined a 'pseudo-turbojet' in the tail with a regular piston engine in the nose. A bizarre shape, to be sure.

For those who are wanting an in-depth analysis of the performance of the MiG-3 in combat, this book will not help you much. But for those who want a book that details the origins of a long line of famous jet fighters, this book provides that in spades.

My thanks to Specialty Press for the review sample. Check out their website for other titles in the Red Star series.