DONE +++ The MiG-SK, the first Soviet, carrier-capable CTOL aircraft

Dizzyfugu · July 01, 2016, 10:25:00 AM

A part of the mostly unknown truth behind the Soviet aicraft carrier program in the late Sixties... The MiG-SK test aircraft.

1:72 MiG-SK, '14 Yellow' of the 100th Shipborne Fighter Aviation Regiment, Soviet Naval Aviation (Авиация военно-морского флота; Aviacija vojenno-morskogo flota), Kaspiysk AB (Dagestan region), 1970 (Whif/Kitbashing) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

Some background:
After the success of the Soviet Union's first carrier ship, the Moskva Class (Projekt 1123, also called ,,Кондор"/,,Kondor") cruisers in the mid 1960s, the country became more ambitious. This resulted in Project 1153 Orel (Russian: Орёл, Eagle), a planned 1970s-era Soviet program to give the Soviet Navy a true blue water aviation capability. Project Orel would have resulted in a program very similar to the aircraft carriers available to the U.S. Navy. The ship would have been about 75-80,000 tons displacement, with a nuclear power plant and carried about 70 aircraft launched via steam catapults – the first Soviet aircraft carrier that would be able to deploy fixed-wing aircraft.
Beyond this core capability, the Orel carrier was designed with a large offensive capability with the ship mounts including 24 vertical launch tubes for anti-ship cruise missiles. In the USSR it was actually classified as the "large cruiser with aircraft armament".

1:72 MiG-SK, '14 Yellow' of the 100th Shipborne Fighter Aviation Regiment, Soviet Naval Aviation (Авиация военно-морского флота; Aviacija vojenno-morskogo flota), Kaspiysk AB (Dagestan region), 1970 (Whif/Kitbashing) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

1:72 MiG-SK, '14 Yellow' of the 100th Shipborne Fighter Aviation Regiment, Soviet Naval Aviation (Авиация военно-морского флота; Aviacija vojenno-morskogo flota), Kaspiysk AB (Dagestan region), 1970 (Whif/Kitbashing) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

1:72 MiG-SK, '14 Yellow' of the 100th Shipborne Fighter Aviation Regiment, Soviet Naval Aviation (Авиация военно-морского флота; Aviacija vojenno-morskogo flota), Kaspiysk AB (Dagestan region), 1970 (Whif/Kitbashing) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

Anyway, the carrier needed appropriate aircraft, and in order to develop a the aircraft major design bureaus were asked to submit ideas and proposals in 1959. OKB Yakovlev and MiG responded. While Yakovlev concentrated on the Yak-36 VTOL design that could also be deployed aboard of smaller ships without catapult and arrester equipment, Mikoyan-Gurevich looked at navalized variants of existing or projected aircraft.

While land-based fighters went through a remarkable performance improvement during the 60ies, OKB MiG considered a robust aircraft with proven systems and – foremost – two engines to be the best start for the Soviet Union's first naval fighter. "Learning by doing", the gathered experience would then be used in a dedicated new design that would be ready in the mid 70ies when Project 1153 was ready for service, too.

Internally designated "I-SK" or "SK-01" (Samolyot Korabelniy = carrier-borne aircraft), the naval fighter was based on the MiG-19 (NATO: Farmer), which had been in production in the USSR since 1954.
Faster and more modern types like the MiG-21 were rejected for a naval conversion because of their poor take-off performance, uncertain aerodynamics in the naval environment and lack of ruggedness. The MiG-19 also offered the benefit of relatively compact dimensions, as well as a structure that would carry the desired two engines.

Several innovations had to be addresses:
- A new wing for improved low speed handling
- Improvement of the landing gear and internal structures for carrier operations
- Development of a wing folding mechanism
- Integration of arrester hook and catapult launch devices into the structure
- Protection of structure, engine and equipment from the aggressive naval environment
- Improvement of the pilot's field of view for carrier landings
- Improved avionics, esp. for navigation

1:72 MiG-SK, '14 Yellow' of the 100th Shipborne Fighter Aviation Regiment, Soviet Naval Aviation (Авиация военно-морского флота; Aviacija vojenno-morskogo flota), Kaspiysk AB (Dagestan region), 1970 (Whif/Kitbashing) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

1:72 MiG-SK, '14 Yellow' of the 100th Shipborne Fighter Aviation Regiment, Soviet Naval Aviation (Авиация военно-морского флота; Aviacija vojenno-morskogo flota), Kaspiysk AB (Dagestan region), 1970 (Whif/Kitbashing) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

Work on the SK-01 started in 1960, and by 1962 a heavily redesigned MiG-19 was ready as a mock-up for inspection and further approval. The "new" aircraft shared the outlines with the land-based MiG-19, but the nose section was completely new and shared a certain similarity to the experimental "Aircraft SN", a MiG-17 derivative with side air intakes and a solid nose that carried a. Unlike the latter, the cockpit had been moved forward, which offered, together with an enlarged canopy and a short nose, an excellent field of view for the pilot.
On the SK-01 the air intakes with short splitter plates were re-located to the fuselage flanks underneath the cockpit. In order to avoid gun smoke ingestion problems (and the lack of space in the nose for any equipment except for a small SRD-3 Grad gun ranging radar, coupled with an ASP-5N computing gun-sight), the SK-01's internal armament, a pair of NR-30 cannon, was placed in the wing roots.

The wing itself was another major modification, it featured a reduced sweep of only 33° at ¼ chord angle (compared to the MiG-19's original 55°). Four wing hardpoints, outside of the landing gear wells, could carry a modest ordnance payload, including rocket and gun pods, unguided missiles, iron bombs and up to four Vympel K-13 AAMs.
Outside of these pylons, the wings featured a folding mechanism that allowed the wing span to be reduced from 10 m to 6.5 m for stowage. The fin remained unchanged, but the stabilizers had a reduced sweep, too.

1:72 MiG-SK, '14 Yellow' of the 100th Shipborne Fighter Aviation Regiment, Soviet Naval Aviation (Авиация военно-морского флота; Aviacija vojenno-morskogo flota), Kaspiysk AB (Dagestan region), 1970 (Whif/Kitbashing) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

1:72 MiG-SK, '14 Yellow' of the 100th Shipborne Fighter Aviation Regiment, Soviet Naval Aviation (Авиация военно-морского флота; Aviacija vojenno-morskogo flota), Kaspiysk AB (Dagestan region), 1970 (Whif/Kitbashing) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

1:72 MiG-SK, '14 Yellow' of the 100th Shipborne Fighter Aviation Regiment, Soviet Naval Aviation (Авиация военно-морского флота; Aviacija vojenno-morskogo flota), Kaspiysk AB (Dagestan region), 1970 (Whif/Kitbashing) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

The single ventral fin of the MiG-19 gave way to a fairing for a massive, semi-retractable arrester hook, flanked by a pair of smaller fins. The landing gear was beefed up, too, with a stronger suspension. Catapult launch from deck was to be realized through expandable cables that were attached onto massive hooks under the fuselage.

The SK-01 received a "thumbs up" in March 1962 and three prototypes, powered by special Sorokin R3M-28 engines, derivatives of the MiG-19's RB-9 that were adapted to the naval environment, were created and tested until 1965, when the type – now designated MiG-SK – went through State Acceptance Trials, including simulated landing tests on an "unsinkalble carrier" dummy, a modified part of the runway at Air Base at the Western coast of the Caspian Sea. Not only flight tests were conducted at Kaspiysk, but also different layouts for landing cables were tested and optimized as well. Furthermore, on a special platform at the coast, an experimental steam catapult went through trials, even though no aircraft starts were made from it – but weights hauled out into the sea.

Anyway, the flight tests and the landing performance on the simulated carrier deck were successful, and while the MiG-SK (the machine differed from the MiG-19 so much that it was not recognized as an official MiG-19 variant) was not an outstanding combat aircraft, rather a technology carrier with field use capabilities.
The MiG-SK's performance was good enough to earn OKB MiG an initial production run of 20 aircraft, primarily intended for training and development units, since the whole infrastructure and procedures for naval aviation from a carrier had to be developed from scratch. These machines were built at slow pace until 1968 and trials were carried out in the vicinity of the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea.

The MiG-SK successfully remained hidden from the public, since the Soviet Navy did not want to give away its plans for a CTOL carrier. Spy flights of balloons and aircraft recognized the MiG-SK, but the type was mistaken as MiG-17 fighters. Consequently, no NATO codename was ever allocated.

1:72 MiG-SK, '14 Yellow' of the 100th Shipborne Fighter Aviation Regiment, Soviet Naval Aviation (Авиация военно-морского флота; Aviacija vojenno-morskogo flota), Kaspiysk AB (Dagestan region), 1970 (Whif/Kitbashing) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

1:72 MiG-SK, '14 Yellow' of the 100th Shipborne Fighter Aviation Regiment, Soviet Naval Aviation (Авиация военно-морского флота; Aviacija vojenno-morskogo flota), Kaspiysk AB (Dagestan region), 1970 (Whif/Kitbashing) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

Alas, the future of the Soviet, carrier-borne fixed wing aircraft was not bright: Laid down in in 1970, the Kiev-class aircraft carriers (also known as Project 1143 or as the Krechyet (Gyrfalcon) class) were the first class of fixed-wing aircraft carriers to be built in the Soviet Union, and they entered service, together with the Yak-38 (Forger) VTOL fighter, in 1973. This weapon system already offered a combat performance similar to the MiG-SK, and the VTOL concept rendered the need for catapult launch and deck landing capability obsolete.

OKB MiG still tried to lobby for a CTOL aircraft (in the meantime, the swing-wing MiG-23 was on the drawing board, as well as a projected, navalized multi-purpose derivative, the MiG-23K), but to no avail.
Furthermore, carrier Project 1153 was cancelled in October 1978 as being too expensive, and a program for a smaller ship called Project 11435, more V/STOL-aircraft-oriented, was developed instead; in its initial stage, a version of 65,000 tons and 52 aircraft was proposed, but eventually an even smaller ship was built in the form of the Kuznetsov-class aircraft carriers in 1985, outfitted with a 12-degree ski-jump bow flight deck instead of using complex aircraft catapults. This CTOL carrier was finally equipped with navalized Su-33, MiG-29 and Su-25 aircraft – and the MiG-SK paved the early way to these shipboard fighters, especially the MiG-29K.

General characteristics:
Crew: One
Length: 13.28 m (43 ft 6 in)
Wingspan: 10.39 m (34 ft)
Height: 3.9 m (12 ft 10 in)
Wing area: 22.6 m² (242.5 ft²)
Empty weight: 5.172 kg (11,392 lb)
Max. take-off weight: 7,560 kg (16,632 lb)

Powerplant:
2× Sorokin R3M-28 turbojets afterburning turbojets, rated at 33.8 kN (7,605 lbf) each

Performance:
Maximum speed: 1,145 km/h (618 knots, 711 mph) at 3,000 m (10,000 ft)
Range: 2,060 km (1,111 nmi, 1,280 mi) with drop tanks
Service ceiling: 17,500 m (57,400 ft)
Rate of climb: 180 m/s (35,425 ft/min)
Wing loading: 302.4 kg/m² (61.6 lb/ft²)
Thrust/weight: 0.86

Armament:
2x 30 mm NR-30 cannons in the wing roots with 75 RPG
4x underwing pylons, with a maximum load of 1.000 kg (2.205 lb)

The kit and its assembly:
This kitbash creation was spawned by thoughts concerning the Soviet Naval Aviation and its lack of CTOL aircraft carriers until the 1980ies and kicked-off by a CG rendition of a navalized MiG-17 from fellow member SPINNERS at whatifmodelers.com, posted a couple of months ago. I liked this idea, and at first I wanted to convert a MiG-17 with a solid nose as a dedicated carrier aircraft. But the more I thought about it and did historic research, the less probable this concept appeared to me: the MiG-17 was simply too old to match Soviet plans for a carrier ship, at least with the real world as reference.

A plausible alternative was the MiG-19, esp. with its twin-engine layout, even though the highly swept wings and the associated high start and landing speeds would be rather inappropriate for a shipborne fighter. Anyway, a MiG-21 was even less suitable, and I eventually took the Farmer as conversion basis, since it would also fit into the historic time frame between the late 60ies and the mid-70ies.

In this case, the basis is a Plastyk MiG-19 kit, one of the many Eastern European re-incarnations of the vintage KP kit. This cheap re-issue became a positive surprise, because any former raised panel and rivet details have disappeared and were replaced with sound, recessed engravings. The kit is still a bit clumsy, the walls are very thick (esp. the canopy – maybe 2mm!), but IMHO it's a considerable improvement with acceptable fit, even though there are some sink holes and some nasty surprises (in my case, for instance, the stabilizer fins would not match with the rear fuselage at all, and you basically need putty everywhere).

Not much from the Plastyk kit was taken over, though: only the fuselage's rear two-thirds were used, some landing gear parts as well as fin and the horizontal stabilizers. The latter were heavily modified and reduced in sweep in order to match new wings from a Hobby Boss MiG-15 (the parts were cut into three pieces each and then set back together again).

Furthermore, the complete front section from a Novo Supermarine Attacker was transplanted, because its short nose and the high cockpit are perfect parts for a carrier aircraft. The Attacker's front end, including the air intakes, fits almost perfectly onto the round MiG-19 forward fuselage, only little body work was necessary.

1:72 MiG-SK, '14 Yellow' of the 100th Shipborne Fighter Aviation Regiment, Soviet Naval Aviation (Авиация военно-морского флота; Aviacija vojenno-morskogo flota), Kaspiysk AB (Dagestan region), 1970 (Whif/Kitbashing) - WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

1:72 MiG-SK, '14 Yellow' of the 100th Shipborne Fighter Aviation Regiment, Soviet Naval Aviation (Авиация военно-морского флота; Aviacija vojenno-morskogo flota), Kaspiysk AB (Dagestan region), 1970 (Whif/Kitbashing) - WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

A complete cockpit tub and a new seat were implanted, as well as a front landing gear well and walls inside of the (otherwise empty) air intakes. The jet exhausts were drilled open, too, and afterburner dummies added. Simple jobs.

1:72 MiG-SK, '14 Yellow' of the 100th Shipborne Fighter Aviation Regiment, Soviet Naval Aviation (Авиация военно-морского флота; Aviacija vojenno-morskogo flota), Kaspiysk AB (Dagestan region), 1970 (Whif/Kitbashing) - WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

On the other side, the wings were trickier than expected. The MiG-19 kit comes with voluminous and massive wing root fairings, probably aerodynamic bodies for some area-ruling. I decided to keep them, but this caused some unexpected troubles...

The MiG-15 wings' position, considerably further back due to the reduced sweep angle, was deduced from the relative MiG-19's landing gear position. A lot of sculpting and body work followed, and after the wings were finally in place I recognized that the aforementioned, thick wing root fairings had reduced the wing sweep – basically not a bad thing, but with the inconvenient side effect that the original wing MiG-15 fences were not parallel to the fuselage anymore, looking rather awkward! What to do? Grrrr... $:-\$

1:72 MiG-SK, '14 Yellow' of the 100th Shipborne Fighter Aviation Regiment, Soviet Naval Aviation (Авиация военно-морского флота; Aviacija vojenno-morskogo flota), Kaspiysk AB (Dagestan region), 1970 (Whif/Kitbashing) - WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

I could not leave it that way, so I scraped them away and replaced with them with four scratched substitutes (from styrene profiles), moving the outer pair towards the wing folding mechanism.

1:72 MiG-SK, '14 Yellow' of the 100th Shipborne Fighter Aviation Regiment, Soviet Naval Aviation (Авиация военно-морского флота; Aviacija vojenno-morskogo flota), Kaspiysk AB (Dagestan region), 1970 (Whif/Kitbashing) - WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

1:72 MiG-SK, '14 Yellow' of the 100th Shipborne Fighter Aviation Regiment, Soviet Naval Aviation (Авиация военно-морского флота; Aviacija vojenno-morskogo flota), Kaspiysk AB (Dagestan region), 1970 (Whif/Kitbashing) - WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

Under the wings, four new pylons were added (two from an IAI Kfir, two from a Su-22) and the ordnance gathered from the scrap box – bombs and rocket pods formerly belonged to a Kangnam/Revell Yak-38.
The landing gear was raised by ~2mm for a higher stance on the ground. The original, thick central fin was reduced in length, so that it could become a plausible attachment point for an arrester hook (also from the spares box), and a pair of splayed stabilizer fins was added as a compensation. Finally, some of the OOB air scoops were placed all round the hull and some pitots, antennae and a gun camera fairing added.

Painting and markings:
This whif was to look naval at first sight, so I referred to the early Yak-38 VTOL aircraft and their rather minimalistic paint scheme in an overall dull blue. The green underside, seen on many service aircraft, was AFAIK a (later) protective coating – an obsolete detail for a CTOL aircraft.

Hence, all upper surfaces and the fuselage were painted in a uniform "Field Blue" (Tamiya XF-50). It's a bit dark, but I have used this unique, petrol blue tone many moons ago on a real world Kangnam Forger where it looks pretty good, and in this case the surface was furthermore shaded with Humbrol 96 and 126 after a black in wash.
For some contrast I painted the undersides of the wings and stabilizers as well as a fuselage section between the wings in a pale grey (Humbrol 167), seen on one of the Yak-38 prototypes. Not very obvious, but at least the aircraft did not end up in a boring, uniform color.

The interior was painted in blue-gray (PRU Blue, shaded with Humbrol 87) while the landing gear wells became Aluminum (Humbrol 56). The wheel discs became bright green, just in order to keep in style and as a colorful contrast, and some di-electric panels and covers became very light grey or bright green. For some color contrast, the anti-flutter weight tips on the stabilizers as well as the pylons' front ends were painted bright red.

1:72 MiG-SK, '14 Yellow' of the 100th Shipborne Fighter Aviation Regiment, Soviet Naval Aviation (Авиация военно-морского флота; Aviacija vojenno-morskogo flota), Kaspiysk AB (Dagestan region), 1970 (Whif/Kitbashing) - WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

1:72 MiG-SK, '14 Yellow' of the 100th Shipborne Fighter Aviation Regiment, Soviet Naval Aviation (Авиация военно-морского флота; Aviacija vojenno-morskogo flota), Kaspiysk AB (Dagestan region), 1970 (Whif/Kitbashing) - WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

The markings/decals reflect the early Soviet Navy style, with simple Red Stars, large yellow tactical codes and some high contrast warning stencils, taken from the remains of a Yak-38 sheet (American Revell re-release of the Kangnam kit).
Finally, after some light soot stains with graphite around the gun muzzles and the air bleed doors, the kit was sealed with a coat of semi-matt acrylic varnish and some matt accents (anti-glare panel, radomes).

1:72 MiG-SK, '14 Yellow' of the 100th Shipborne Fighter Aviation Regiment, Soviet Naval Aviation (Авиация военно-морского флота; Aviacija vojenno-morskogo flota), Kaspiysk AB (Dagestan region), 1970 (Whif/Kitbashing) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

A simple idea that turned out to be more complex than expected, due to the wing fence troubles. But I am happy that the Attacker nose could be so easily transplanted, it changes the MiG-19's look considerably, as well as the wings with (much) less sweep angle.
The aircraft looks familiar, but you only recognize at second glance that it is more than just a MiG-19 with a solid nose. The thing looks pretty retro, reminds me a bit of the Supermarine Scimitar and the Fiat G.91 (dunno?), and IMHO it appears more Chinese than Soviet (maybe because the layout reminds a lot of the Q-5 fighter bomber)? It could even, with appropriate markings, be a Luft '46 design?

Logan Hartke · July 01, 2016, 11:05:37 AM

Very neat. Sort of like a more cuddly, Soviet Q-5 Fantan, given their common parentage.

Cheers,

Logan

zenrat · July 01, 2016, 05:32:05 PM

Nice. Good job Dizz.

sandiego89 · July 01, 2016, 05:57:21 PM

Really like this Dizzy, the colors and paint are perfect. Great concept.

- Dave

DogfighterZen · July 02, 2016, 07:26:04 PM

Looks great, i like the paint job very much!

McColm · July 02, 2016, 10:01:13 PM

My first thought was a kitbashed Scimitar,but that aircraft carrier looks so real!

Dizzyfugu · July 03, 2016, 07:10:24 AM

Thank you very much, gentlemen. It's funny how this kitbash is perceived - at FlickR, where the stuff is originally posted, a fellow modeler rather saw a converted Attacker in it, not a MiG-19 derivative. And the wings a very misleading, too. Seems to work well!

buzzbomb · July 03, 2016, 11:49:45 PM

Very convincing... me likeee

comrade harps · July 07, 2016, 05:04:38 PM

I was reminded of the Scimitar too.

Wonderfull as always.

Dizzyfugu · July 10, 2016, 01:29:18 AM

Thank you very much, too!

Captain Canada · July 13, 2016, 10:25:01 AM

What a neat looking little machine ! Great stuff.