It was in 1950 at the start of the Korean War that the West discovered the MiG-15, the first jet-propelled fighter mass-produced by the Soviet Union. This fast, powerfully armed little machine, especially its improved version, the MiG-15bis, quickly turned out to be a formidable adversary for the United Nations forces since it could outdo all the fighters that they were able to put up into the air, a situation which lasted until the more developed variants of the famous F-86 Sabre arrived and wrested air supremacy back for the United States. In ail, more than 13 000 "Fagots" - the official NATO code-name - were built, of which 3 440 were MiG-15UTI "Midget" two-seaters. The fighter was also licence-built in large numbers in Czechoslovakia, Poland and China. The "Fagot" had barely entered service before MiG designed its successor, the MiG-17 "Fresco", which performed better and had different wings and of which more than 11 000 examples were built up tilt 1958, including several hundred in China and Czechoslovakia. Although the MiG-17 was withdrawn f rom service at the end of the sixties, it was very successful abroad, the "Fresco" being the most exported Soviet fighter until the arrivai of its indirect successor the MiG-21.
