Editing Artem Mikoyan

{{Short description|Soviet aircraft designer (1905–1970)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2020}}
{{Family name hatnote|Ivanovich|Mikoyan|lang=Eastern Slavic}}
{{Infobox engineer
|image                = Stamp of Armenia h331.jpg
|caption              = Mikoyan on a 2005 stamp of Armenia
|nationality          = [[Armenians|Armenian]]
|birth_name           = Artem Ivanovich Mikoyan
|birth_date           = {{OldStyleDate|5 August|1905|23 July}}<ref name=bse>[http://bse.sci-lib.com/article076338.html Микоян Артем Иванович]. ''[[Great Soviet Encyclopedia]]''</ref>
|birth_place          = [[Sanahin]], [[Tiflis Governorate]], [[Russian Empire]] (present-day Armenia)<ref name=bse/>
|death_date           = {{death date and age|1970|12|9|1905|8|5|df=y}}<ref name=bse/>
|death_place          = Moscow, Soviet Union<ref name=bse/>
|education            = [[Zhukovsky Air Force Academy]]
|discipline           = [[Aeronautical engineering]]
|employer             = [[Mikoyan-Gurevich]] design bureau
|significant_design   = [[Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-1|MiG-1]]<br />[[Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-3|MiG-3]]<br />[[Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15|MiG-15]] <br /> [[Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-17|MiG-17]]<br />[[Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-19|MiG-19]]<br />[[Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21|MiG-21]]<br />[[Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-23|MiG-23]]<br />[[Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-25|MiG-25]]
|significant_awards   = [[Hero of Socialist Labor]] (twice) <br /> [[State Stalin Prize|Stalin Prize]] (1941, 1947, 1948, 1949, 1952, 1953)
|native_name={{nobold|Արտյոմ Միկոյան}}
|native_name_lang=hy
}}

'''Artem (Artyom) Ivanovich Mikoyan''' ({{langx|ru|Артём Ива́нович Микоя́н}}; {{langx|hy|Արտյոմ (Անուշավան) Հովհաննեսի Միկոյան|translit=''Artyom (Anushavan) Hovhannesi Mikoyan''}}; {{OldStyleDate|5 August|1905|23 July}} – 9 December 1970) was a [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] [[Armenians|Armenian]] [[aircraft]] designer, who cofounded the [[Mikoyan-Gurevich]] design bureau along with [[Mikhail Gurevich (aircraft designer)|Mikhail Gurevich]].

==Early life and career==
Mikoyan was born in the village of [[Sanahin]], then part of the [[Tiflis Governorate]] of the [[Russian Empire]] (today part of [[Alaverdi, Armenia|Alaverdi]] in [[Armenia]]'s [[Lori Province]]) on 5 August 1905.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20080527210455/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,809881-2,00.html "The Survivor"]. ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]''. 16 September 1957.</ref> His older brother, [[Anastas Mikoyan]], would become official head of state of the Soviet Union. He completed his basic education and took a job as a machine-tool operator in [[Rostov, Yaroslavl Oblast|Rostov]], then worked in the "Dynamo" factory in [[Moscow]] before being conscripted into the military.<ref name=armenian>{{cite journal|last1=Ambartsumian|first1=Victor|author-link1=Victor Ambartsumian|title=Artem Mikoyan|journal=Հայկական սովետական հանրագիտարան (Soviet Armenian Encyclopedia)|date=1981|volume=7|page=542|url=https://hy.wikisource.org/wiki/%D4%B7%D5%BB:%D5%80%D5%A1%D5%B5%D5%AF%D5%A1%D5%AF%D5%A1%D5%B6_%D5%8D%D5%B8%D5%BE%D5%A5%D5%BF%D5%A1%D5%AF%D5%A1%D5%B6_%D5%80%D5%A1%D5%B6%D6%80%D5%A1%D5%A3%D5%AB%D5%BF%D5%A1%D6%80%D5%A1%D5%B6_%28Soviet_Armenian_Encyclopedia%29_7.djvu/542|language=hy}}</ref> After military service he joined the [[Zhukovsky Air Force Academy]], where he created his first plane, graduating in 1936.<ref name=zabecki>{{cite book|editor1-last=Zabecki|editor1-first=David T.|title=World War II in Europe: An Encyclopedia |date=2015 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1135812423 |page=415 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Mq_lCAAAQBAJ}}</ref> He worked with [[Polikarpov]] before being named head of a new aircraft design bureau in Moscow in December 1939. Together with [[Mikhail Gurevich (aircraft designer)|Mikhail Gurevich]], Mikoyan formed the [[Mikoyan-Gurevich]] design bureau, producing a series of fighter aircraft. In March 1942, the bureau was renamed OKB MiG (''Osoboye Konstruktorskoye Byuro''), ANPK MiG (''Aviatsionnyy nauchno-proizvodstvennyy kompleks'') and OKO MiG. The [[MiG-1]] proved to be a poor start, the [[MiG-3]] went into production but only occasionally could it fight in its intended high-level [[interceptor aircraft|interceptor]] role. Further [[Mikoyan-Gurevich DIS|MiG-5]], [[Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-7|MiG-7]] and [[Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-8|MiG-8 ''Utka'']] did not progress beyond research prototypes.

==Jet aircraft designs==

[[File:2014 Prowincja Lorri, Sanahin, Muzeum braci Mikojanów (06).jpg|thumb|Artem Mikoyan monument. Mikoyan Brothers Museum in Sanahin, Armenia]]
[[File:MiG-21 at the Mikoyan Brothers Museum in Sanahin, Armenia.jpg|alt=|thumb|Memorial to Artem Mikoyan in Sanahin]]
Early post-war designs were based on [[Alexander Yakovlevich Bereznyak|domestic works]] as well as captured German jet fighters and information provided by Britain or the US. By 1946, Soviet designers were still having trouble in perfecting the German-designed, axial-flow [[BMW 003#Post-war use|BMW 109-003]] jet engine — blueprints for the 109-003 turbojet had been seized by Soviet forces from the Basdorf-Zühlsdorf plant near Berlin and from the Central Works near [[Nordhausen, Thuringia|Nordhausen]]. Production of the 003 was set up at the "Red October" GAZ 466 (''Gorkovsky Avtomobilny Zavod'', or Gorky Automobile Plant) in [[Leningrad]], where the 003 jet engine was mass-produced from 1947 under the designation RD-20 (''reaktivnyy dvigatel'', or "jet engine").<ref>{{cite book | last = Albrecht | first = Ulrich | title = The Soviet Armaments Industry | publisher = Routledge | date = 1994 | isbn = 3-7186-5313-3}}</ref> New Soviet airframe designs from their design bureaus, and near-sonic wing designs were threatening to outstrip development of the jet engines needed to power them. Soviet aviation minister [[Mikhail Khrunichev]] and aircraft designer [[Alexander Sergeyevich Yakovlev]] suggested to [[Joseph Stalin]] that the USSR buy advanced jet engines from the British. Stalin is said to have replied: "What fool will sell us his secrets?"<ref name=gordon>{{cite book|last1=Gunston|first1=Bill|last2=Gordon|first2=Yefim|title=MiG aircraft since 1937|date=1998|publisher=Naval Institute Press|page=56|isbn=9781557505415|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Lc8hAQAAIAAJ}}</ref> However, he gave his assent to the proposal, and Artem Mikoyan, engine designer [[Klimov]], and other officials traveled to the United Kingdom to request the engines. To Stalin's amazement, the British Labour government and its pro-Soviet minister of trade, Sir [[Stafford Cripps]] were willing to provide technical information and a licence to manufacture the [[Rolls-Royce Nene]] centrifugal-flow jet engine. This engine was reverse-engineered and produced in modified form as the Soviet [[Klimov VK-1]] jet engine, later incorporated into the [[Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15|MiG-15]] (Rolls-Royce later attempted to claim £207 million in licence fees, without success).<ref name=gordon /><ref name=caygill>{{cite book|last1=Caygill|first1=Peter|title=Sound Barrier: The Rocky Road to Mach 1.0+|date=2006|publisher=Pen & Sword Aviation |location=Barnsley |isbn=1844154564 |page=130 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oBvOAwAAQBAJ}}</ref>

In the interim, on 15 April 1947, the Council of Ministers issued a decree #493-192, ordering the Mikoyan OKB to build two prototypes for a new jet fighter. As the decree called for first flights as soon as December of that same year, the designers at OKB-155 fell back on an earlier troublesome design, the [[Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-9|MiG-9]] of 1946. The MiG-9 used a pair of the RD-20 Soviet copies of the BMW 003 for its power, which proved to be unreliable, with the airframe's straight-winged design suffering from control problems.

The prototype-only [[Mikoyan-Gurevich I-270]] of the immediate post-war era was a rocket-powered, "straight-winged" point-defense fighter design based on captured examples of, and documentation for the never-produced German [[Messerschmitt Me 263]], which had some influence on future MiG jet fighter designs. Thanks to the MiG OKB designing the very first airworthy swept-wing Soviet aircraft design of any type in 1945, the strictly experimental [[Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-8]] ''Utka'' canard pusher monoplane, the swept-wing research from it and captured German research documents allowed the Soviets to eventually develop the prototype design for the single-jet [[MiG-15]] fighter, the [[Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15#Design and development|I-310]]. With the Klimov VK-1 version of the British Nene jet engine, this design became the mass-produced [[Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15|MiG-15]], which first flew on 31 December 1948, some fifteen months after the first prototype of its American swept-winged counterpart, the [[North American F-86 Sabre#Development|XP-86 Sabre]] first flew.<ref>[http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/factsheets/factsheet.asp?id=2297 "North American F-86 Sabre (Day-Fighter A, E and F Models)".] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150107013207/http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/factsheets/factsheet.asp?id=2297 |date=7 January 2015 }} ''National Museum of the United States Air Force''. Retrieved: 7 June 2011.</ref> Despite its mixed origins, this aircraft had excellent performance and formed the basis for a number of future fighters. The MiG-15 was originally intended to intercept American bombers such as the [[B-29 Superfortress]], and was even evaluated in mock air-to-air combat trials with interned ex-U.S. B-29 bombers as well as the later Soviet B-29 copy, the [[Tupolev Tu-4]]. A variety of MiG-15 variants were built, but the most common was the MiG-15UTI (NATO 'Midget') two-seat trainer. Over 18,000 MiG-15s were eventually manufactured, then came the [[Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-17|MiG-17]], and [[Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-19|MiG-19]].

The MiG-15s were the jets used during the Korean War by Communist forces, and '''"[[MiG Alley]]"''' was the name given by U.S. Air Force pilots to the northwestern portion of [[North Korea]], where the [[Yalu River]] empties into the [[Yellow Sea]]. During the [[Korean War]], it was the site of numerous [[dogfight]]s between U.S. fighter jets and those of the Communist forces, particularly the [[Soviet Union]]. The [[F-86 Sabre]] and the Soviet-built Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 fighters were the aircraft used throughout most of the conflict, with the area's nickname derived from the latter. Because it was the site of the first large-scale jet-vs-jet air battles, MiG Alley is considered the birthplace of jet fighter combat.

==Later work==

From 1952, Mikoyan also designed [[missile]] systems to particularly suit his aircraft, such as the famous [[MiG-21]]. He continued to produce high performance fighters through the 1950s and 1960s.

He was twice awarded the highest civilian honour, the [[Hero of Socialist Labor]] and was a deputy in six [[Supreme Soviet]]s.

After Gurevich's death, the name of the design bureau was changed from ''Mikoyan-Gurevich'' to simply ''Mikoyan''. However, the designator remained ''MiG''. Many more designs came from the design bureau such as the [[Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-23|MiG-23]], [[Mikoyan MiG-29|MiG-29]] and [[Mikoyan MiG-35|MiG-35]] and [[Mikoyan MiG-29K|variations]].

After suffering from a stroke that occurred in 1969, Mikoyan died the following year and was buried in the [[Novodevichy Cemetery]] in Moscow.<ref name=zabecki />

==Honours and awards==
Some of his awards and honours include:<ref name=armenian /><ref name=zabecki />
*Twice [[Hero of Socialist Labour]]
*Six [[Order of Lenin|Orders of Lenin]]
*[[Order of the Red Banner]]
*[[Order of the Patriotic War|Order of the Patriotic War 1st class]]
*Two [[Order of the Red Star|Orders of the Red Star]]
*[[Lenin Prize]] (1962)<ref name=bse/>
*[[USSR State Prize]] (1941, 1947, 1948, 1949, 1952, 1953)<ref name=bse/>

== Memory ==

* A memorial plaque has been installed on [[House on the Embankment]], where he was living.
* Postage stamps dedicated to Mikoyan have been issued in [[Armenia]].
* There is an Aviakostruktora Mikoyana Street in Moscow, Ulan-Ude and Minsk district (Republic of Belarus).
* A school №166 in Armenia is named after him.
* In Orel, a memorial plaque dedicated to A. I. Mikoyan was installed on the building where the Orel Armored School was located.
* In 1996, Mikoyan was inducted into the [[International Air & Space Hall of Fame]] at the [[San Diego Air & Space Museum]].<ref>Sprekelmeyer, Linda, editor. ''These We Honor: The International Aerospace Hall of Fame''. Donning Co. Publishers, 2006. {{ISBN|978-1-57864-397-4}}.</ref>

==References==
{{Commons category|Artem Mikoyan}}
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* [https://www.mikoyanbrothersmuseum.com/ Mikoyan Brothers Museum] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210818131724/https://www.mikoyanbrothersmuseum.com/ |date=18 August 2021 }}, Sanahin, Alaverdi, Armenia

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mikoyan, Artem Ivanovich}}
[[Category:1905 births]]
[[Category:1970 deaths]]
[[Category:Armenian engineers]]
[[Category:Armenian inventors]]
[[Category:20th-century Armenian scientists]]
[[Category:Burials at Novodevichy Cemetery]]
[[Category:People from Lori Province]]
[[Category:Heroes of Socialist Labour]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Stalin Prize]]
[[Category:Soviet aerospace engineers]]
[[Category:Communist Party of the Soviet Union members]]
[[Category:Soviet military personnel]]
[[Category:Soviet inventors]]
[[Category:Full Members of the USSR Academy of Sciences]]
[[Category:Russian Aircraft Corporation MiG]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Order of Lenin]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Lenin Prize]]
[[Category:Members of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:Soviet Armenians]]
[[Category:Mikoyan family]]
[[Category:Russian scientists]]