The Rolls-Royce Affair. 1946-1947
Introduction
By the end of October 1950, after carpet bombing and a successful US counteroffensive, much of North Korea lay in ruins, its capital had fallen, Kim Il Sung and his government had fled north, and South Korean dictator Rhee Seung Man, rubbing his hands with glee, saw himself leading a unified Korea.
But by November 1, 1950, the situation on the Korean Peninsula had changed dramatically - a squadron of American Mustangs (P-51 Mustang) was attacked by unknown fighter jets that suddenly appeared from the direction of China...
North American P-51 Mustang – one of the most significant aircraft developed during World War II, cemented in the public consciousness as the fighter that protected Allied bombers over Germany and Japan during World War II. Unlike newer jet fighters, the Mustang was more resilient to the conditions of the improvised airfields typical of Korea.
Cutting through the cold autumn air over the Korean expanses, these arrow-shaped fighters became the most unpleasant surprise for the UN BBC - superior to anything available in the theater of operations, the MiG-15s could climb to outrun even Allied jets such as Lockheed P-80 и Gloster Meteor, as if they were standing still. And only the urgent transfer of three squadrons of the most modern fighters of the US Air Force - the Sabre (F-86 Sabre), was able to restore balance in the air, where for the next two years of the war, American Sabres and Soviet MiG-15s battled in the so-called "MiG Alley"* high above the border river Yalujiang…
In the photo on the left: Lockheed P-80 – the first American jet fighter, which played a decisive role on the front lines at the start of the Korean War (1950–1953) as a ground-attack and fighter aircraft before being surpassed by the Soviet MiG-15. Pictured right: Gloster Meteor It served primarily with No. 77 Squadron of the Royal Australian Air Force during the Korean War, initially as an air-to-air fighter but quickly switched to the ground attack role after being similarly Lockheed P-80, was outclassed in air combat by the faster Soviet MiG-15
This jet wreaked havoc during the Korean War, competing in aerial combat only with the American Sabre. Indeed, the MiG-15 was significantly superior to the primary British fighter of the time. Gloster Meteor, and the British were forced to shamefully purchase Sabres from their American ally so that the Royal Air Force could at least somehow resist the Soviet Union in the event of a war in Europe.
F-86 Sabre The Sabre was the first American jet fighter with a swept wing. Like the MiG-15, its designers used captured German calculations that showed that swept wings slow down the effects of air compressibility that occur at high subsonic speeds. This means that swept wings can bypass the wave crisis that inevitably occurs as an aircraft approaches the speed of sound, unlike similar aircraft with straight wings. Sabres fought against MiG-15s during the Korean War, and flew most of their sorties from Kimpo Air Base near Seoul.
And when it comes to the air combat in the Korean War of the 1950s, it should always be remembered that the success of the Soviet MiG-15 was due to the combination of the new technology of swept wings with a fully developed, but at that time still far from advanced technology, jet engine developed from the British Rolls-royce nene.
The MiG-15 in the skies over Korea. The MiG-15 was a turning point in the Korean War. Appearing in the skies over Korea in late 1950, it quickly proved its superiority over early UN jets, leading to the end of daylight bombing and the hasty deployment of Sabres.
British Royal Air Force observers (RAF), who followed the progress of the air battles, must have watched all this with mournful envy, because not only did they not have an aircraft capable of competing with the Soviet MiGs (until 1953), but the engines of this fighter were unlicensed copies of the designs Rolls-Royce.
As the American magazine wrote Air & Space Forces, the Soviet MiG-15 fighter in the skies of Korea managed to do what the Germans had failed to achieve a little earlier Messerschmitt and Focke-Wulf - to push the bomber out of the airspace Aviation USA. With the appearance of MiG "superfortress" jets over North Korea B-29 could only carry out combat sorties at night
Blinded by friendliness towards its still allies in the anti-Hitler coalition, the Labour government of Clement Attlee, according to one member of the British Parliament,
sold Britain's crown jewel, the jet, to an unfriendly power, threatening the security of Britain and the entire West.
And as the old saying goes, the road to hell is paved with good intentions, and the West had to pay for those very good intentions in the skies over Korea four years later...
The Soviet MiG-15 and the recently introduced American one F-86 Sabre In the skies of Korea they were equal opponents: the MiG-15 was superior F-86 Sabre in rate of climb and high-altitude flights, and F-86 Sabre – in low-altitude maneuvering. All this led to the legendary air battles in "MiG Alley," where experienced Soviet, Chinese, and UN pilots tested swept-wing technology. In the air, UN Command aircraft (UNC) had air superiority south of the line between Pyongyang and Wonsan, but north of that line the skies were patrolled by 12 MiG-15 regiments, or approximately 350 fighters, flown by Soviet, Chinese or North Korean pilots.
Well, to understand all this stories and to try to understand the motives of the Labour government, unfolding against the backdrop of the only just beginning cooling of relations between the Soviet Union and the Western powers – yesterday's allies – let's rewind time a little…
Retrospective
In the final stages of World War II, turbojet engines began to gradually replace piston engines as power plants. Both the German Luftwaffe and the Royal Air Force had already introduced their jet fighters into combat service, and the US Air Force was already prepared to do so, but the Soviet Union had yet to develop a suitable turbojet engine.
Note. Turbojet engine development in the USSR began almost simultaneously with the English engineer Frank Whittley (1907–1996), who began implementing his idea for a new engine. In our country, the concept for the first domestic turbojet engine was proposed in 1937 by the Soviet designer A. M. Lyulka (1908–1994), and by the summer of 1941, an experimental engine called the RD-1 was ready. However, after Germany invaded the USSR, work on this engine was curtailed. The decision to cease work on the turbojet engine at the start of the war, understandably, predetermined the Soviet Union's lag in jet propulsion after the war's end.
Pioneers of jet engine design – Franco Whittley (left) and A. M. Lyulka
But it was already 1946, World War II had ended, and relations between the Soviet Union and the Western powers were rapidly deteriorating. The development of jet aircraft became paramount to our country's survival. Moreover, by this time, it was clear to everyone that jet technology was an effective way to increase speed, so the race began to create new, post-war jet aircraft to gain an advantage over the enemy.
Junkers Jumo 004 – the world's first mass-produced turbojet engine, developed by Dr. Anselm Franz and widely used in combat during World War II. This engine powered the world's first mass-produced jet fighter. Messerschmitt Me.262 and the first jet bomber and reconnaissance aircraft Arado Ar 234The engine featured an innovative axial-flow design for its time, with an eight-stage compressor, six ramjet combustion chambers, and a single-stage turbine. By the end of the war, approximately 6000 units had been produced. After the war, the engine's design served as the basis for Soviet copies, such as the RD-10, which was used on the first Soviet jet aircraft—the Yak-15 and MiG-9.
And in line with this question of survival, the very first signs of Soviet jet aircraft manufacturing were the Yak-15 and MiG-9 aircraft, created on the basis of captured German engines. Jumo-004 и BMW 003A, which, after localization, were named RD-10 and RD-20, respectively. But what was considered cutting-edge and state-of-the-art at the end of the war was already obsolete by 1946 – captured German power plants no longer provided sufficient thrust, were heavy, consumed significant fuel, were unreliable, and were difficult to start. Rapidly developing aviation required a completely new engine.
BMW 003A – a German turbojet aircraft engine with an axial seven-stage compressor from World War II, which, along with Junkers Jumo 004 became one of the world's first mass-produced jet engines. The engine was installed on Heinkel He 162 Volksjäger, Arado Ar 234C и Messerschmitt Me.262
Note. One of the design teams that received valuable captured German Jumo 004 turbojet engines was A.S. Yakovlev, whose piston-powered fighters, perhaps more than those of any other designer, turned the tide of the air war in favor of the Soviet Union. And despite clear signs of hasty development, the Yak-15, thanks to its small size and lightweight construction, somewhat compensated for the turbojet's low power, allowing it to demonstrate performance comparable to that of contemporary Western jet fighters.
Work on the Yak-15
It all began on April 9, 1945, when the Chairman of the Council of Ministers and Minister of the Armed Forces of the USSR I. V. Stalin, through the recently formed Council of Ministers, issued a directive to the design bureau of A. S. Yakovlev on the creation of a jet fighter for the country's Air Force.
The Yak-15 was the first Soviet turbojet fighter and the first jet combat aircraft adopted by the Soviet Air Force. One of the Yak-15's distinctive features was its adaptation of the existing Yak-3 piston fighter. To expedite development, the nose-mounted piston engine was simply replaced with a reverse-engineered German engine. Junkers Jumo 004 (produced in the USSR as the RD-10). This made it one of only two successful examples of a piston-to-jet engine conversion to enter mass production. The other was the Swedish Saab 21R
Even though A.S. Yakovlev's design bureau had created one of the finest Soviet fighters, it had no experience designing jet aircraft. Yakovlev and his engineers decided that the fastest way to meet the Soviet government's requirements was to adapt an existing piston-powered fighter to jet propulsion, and that the best candidate for this would be the Yak-3U, which they had previously created, boasting excellent performance and enjoying great popularity among pilots.
The Yak-3U was an experimental Soviet fighter prototype from the end of World War II, equipped with a powerful radial engine instead of the traditional inline engine installed on most Yak fighters. Due to the end of the war and the advent of jet aircraft, it did not enter serial production, but was adapted to be equipped with the RD-10 jet engine (Junkers Jumo 004)
Note. The Yak-3U fighter was a modification of the Yak-3 fighter, replacing its V-shaped liquid-cooled engine with an air-cooled radial engine, increasing the wing area, and introducing some changes to the fuselage design. Among the most famous users of the Yak-3 were the French pilots of the Normandie-Niemen regiment, who, after the war, brought their Yak-3s, donated to them by the Soviet government, to France.
And the work at the Yakovlev Design Bureau began to hum! Transforming the Yak-3U into a jet fighter turned out to be surprisingly simple: the piston engine designed by V. Ya. Klimov in the nose of the fighter was simply replaced with a turbojet engine, already in production in the Soviet Union under the designation RD-10 and a copy of a German turbojet. Junkers Jumo 004, previously used on Messerschmitt Me.262.
By order of the People's Commissariat of the Aviation Industry on April 28, 1945, captured German turbojet engines were placed at the disposal of the Klimov Design Bureau. Junkers Jumo 004, used on German fighters Messerschmitt Me.262 and the world's first jet bomber Junkers Ju 287And already at the beginning of 1946 Jumo 004 The RD-10 engine was launched into serial production at Ufa Aviation Plant No. 26 under the designation RD-10. The RD-10 engine was not yet perfect, but its rapid development and adoption by the first Soviet jet aircraft allowed the gap with Great Britain to be quickly and significantly reduced.
The first test flight took place on April 24, 1946 – the aircraft was lifted into the sky by senior test pilot M. I. Ivanov.
Pictured right: Colonel Mikhail Ivanovich Ivanov (1910–1948) - Soviet test pilot, Hero of the Soviet Union, who flew the first Yak-15 into the sky
Although the aircraft turned out to be very small and light for a jet aircraft, the hot exhaust gases melted the runway surface and damaged the tail unit, which later required steel skin and a roller tail wheel made of metal, replacing the rubber wheel that had melted due to the high temperature of the exhaust gases.
The photo on the right clearly shows the steel skin along the fuselage, protecting it from the hot exhaust gases, and the all-steel roller tail wheel.
Between 1946 and 1947, Yakovlev built approximately 280 of these aircraft. However, these were primarily intermediate types, allowing piston-engine pilots to quickly transition to jet aircraft thanks to their familiarity with the Yak-3.
In the top photo on the left: training of technical personnel to work with the RD-10 engine. In the top photo on the right: RD-10 engine installed on the MiG-15 fighter. Photo from below: museum exhibit of the engine
Work on the MiG-9
Unlike the Yak-15, the Mikoyan and Gurevich Design Bureau began developing its own jet fighter, the MiG-9, shortly before the end of the war.
In February 1945, the Council of People's Commissars instructed the Mikoyan-Gurevich Design Bureau to develop a single-seat jet fighter, which was to be equipped with two captured German engines. BMW 003AThe work to prepare for the production of a small series of fighters, then still called the I-300, was unparalleled in its scope and extremely tight deadlines!
The created aircraft was of a completely original design and had two engines. BMW 003A, a small supply of which had been captured in Germany, installed in the fuselage, but weighed twice as much as the Yak-15. Moreover, the MiG-9 suffered from serious design flaws, some of which were never fully addressed—for example, firing the cannons could cause the engines to stall. Known in service as the RD-20 series engines, these original German engines had a time between overhauls of only ten hours, although Kazan Engine Plant No. 16 subsequently managed to increase the time between overhauls to 50 hours.
Test pilot 1st class, engineer-lieutenant colonel Alexei Nikolaevich Grinchik (1912–1946). He died on July 11, 1946, while flying an experimental MiG-9.
And yet, despite all its design flaws, the birth of the MiG-9 ushered in the era of jet aircraft in the Soviet Union, gained invaluable experience, and paved the way for the creation of first-generation jet fighters.
The RD-20 engine, launched into production by the design bureau team under the leadership of S. D. Kolosov (1904–1975). The engine is a copy of the German BMW 003A, but with significant modifications aimed solely at increasing the engine's reliability and service life. It was installed on the Soviet MiG-9 turbojet fighter. A total of 2911 RD-20 engines were produced.
Pictured right: Sergey Dmitrievich Kolosov
Note. In concluding this chapter on the first Soviet jet fighters, it's worth noting that these competing prototypes (the Yak-15 and MiG-9) both took off on the same day, but the MiG-9 took off a few minutes earlier than the Yak-15. Legend has it that A.S. Yakovlev and A.I. Mikoyan tossed a coin to determine which fighter would have the honor of taking off first, and A.I. Mikoyan won, leading the MiG-9 to take off a few minutes earlier.
In the photo on the left: MiG-9 maintenance. Pictured right: cockpit of the MiG-9 fighter
"What fool would sell his secrets?"
Aircraft designer A.S. Yakovlev wrote in his memoirs about a meeting in the Kremlin on the development of jet aviation:
We also proposed purchasing British Derwent and Nene jet engines, which were simpler in design and had proven themselves to be highly reliable. Stalin was very surprised by what he considered a naive proposal and remarked, "What fool would sell their secrets?" But I explained that the Derwent and Nene had long been declassified and were widely advertised in the press, and that the British had sold licenses for their production to a number of countries.
Engine Rolls-Royce Derwent – a centrifugal turbojet engine of the 1940s, famous for powering Britain's first jet fighter Gloster MeteorIt was the second jet engine produced by the company. Rolls-Royce, and an improved version of the original designs of British engineer Frank Whittle, who created the world's first working gas turbine engine
After this meeting in the Kremlin, already well aware that Soviet engine manufacturing was significantly lagging behind the West, I. A. Stalin approached the British government with a request to sell turbojet engines to the Soviet Union. Rolls-royce nene и Derwent, which at the time were the most advanced in the world. To Stalin's surprise, the new Prime Minister, Clement Attlee, approved the request, but on the condition that the engines not be used for military purposes. The Prime Minister's decision was reportedly made after lobbying by the Ministry of Trade, which justified the economic benefits of the sale, and amid concerns that a refusal could lead Stalin to abandon the grain and timber export deal to Britain, which was essential for the massive post-war housing program.
Rolls-royce nene – a British centrifugal-compressor turbojet engine from the 1940s. It was the most powerful engine of its era, although it was relatively little used in British aircraft design, giving way to the subsequent, axial-flow engine. AvonIt got its name from the river that flows in the east of England.
"I don't see any compelling reason to withhold engines from the USSR..."
By authorizing the sale of engines, Clement Attlee defied his own senior military officials and the Foreign Office when he agreed to supply advanced British fighter engines to the Soviet Union in the early days of the Cold War. The Labour Prime Minister's decision to sell jet engines to Moscow Rolls-Royce was one of the most controversial during his premiership and caused serious outrage in Washington!
Clement Attlee (1883–1967). Following Labour's victory in the 1945 election, Attlee's government fulfilled most of its campaign promises—especially his government's reforms of the welfare system, the creation of the National Health Service, and the preservation of the so-called "special relationship" with the United States. During Attlee's reign, decolonization—essentially the voluntary dissolution of the British Empire—was implemented, resulting in the independence of India and Pakistan in 1947, followed by Burma and Ceylon, which led to the transformation of the British Empire into the Commonwealth. Many considered him too left-wing, as his political views were shaped by his work in London's poor East End.
On September 26, 1946, K. Attlee wrote:
I see no compelling reason to withhold the engines from the USSR, while their failure will only cause problems and suspicions.
And what were the other reasons for the sale?
Financial Dunkirk
By the end of World War II, Britain was on the verge of bankruptcy, with massive debts accumulated during the war, which John Maynard Keynes, the preeminent economist of the time, described as "financial Dunkirk".
On top of all this, Britain still had to import food to feed the country. Rations introduced in 1940 were still in effect, and in July 1946, due to a poor wheat harvest, bread had to be rationed for the first time, meaning increased grain imports. And the Soviet Union was one of the major wheat producers, capable of meeting these needs.
Britain spent approximately a quarter of its national wealth on the war and faced a devastated economy, massive debt, wealth loss, widespread destruction, severe rationing, and shortages, leading to the "Austerity Era," characterized by state controls, high taxes, and continued rationing. Homes, factories, and infrastructure were heavily damaged, and vital merchant ships were sunk. Food, raw materials, and essential goods were in short supply, necessitating continued rationing—for example, of bread and fuel.
But, alongside the financial and food crises in Britain, one must also consider the diplomatic situation that developed at the time between Great Britain, the United States, and the Soviet Union. Relations between Britain and the United States in the post-war period were extremely strained – the old colonial empire, weakened by the war, was in decline, and the Americans were literally happy to profit from this situation, with no real guarantee that the British could rely on the Americans.
Prime Minister Clement Attlee came under considerable criticism, particularly from the United States and his own War Office/Foreign Office, for approving the sale of advanced jet engines to the Soviet Union in 1946. Baby и Derwent, which was seen as helping potential enemies, but he rightly prioritized rebuilding the British economy
Moreover, at the beginning of August 1946, the British were hit by another disaster:Atomic Energy Act", signed by President Harry Truman and prohibiting the transfer of atomic technologies and secrets to foreign powers, and for the British, who considered the development of nuclear energy to be largely a joint achievement with the Americans, all this was perceived as an outright betrayal.
A captured German engine (I think it was V. Ya. Klimov)
Thus, Prime Minister Attlee faced the challenges of a financial crisis, American betrayal, and the need to feed the country, which, in turn, meant satisfying the needs of one of his main suppliers. As he wrote when deciding to sell jet engines in September 1946: "I don't see any compelling reason to withhold engines from the USSR..."
In Britain
So, after an agreement in principle to sell the engines was reached, at the end of 1946, aircraft designer A. I. Mikoyan visited the plant as part of a Soviet delegation Rolls-Royce in Derby, UK, for negotiations on the purchase of advanced British jet engines.
In 1946, a high-ranking Soviet delegation, which included leading aircraft designer A. I. Mikoyan and engine designer V. Ya. Klimov, visited the plant Rolls-Royce to Derby to see advanced jet engines and discuss their purchase. This visit led to Britain selling a number of powerful jet engines to the USSR. Baby и Derwent
At that time, the Cold War had only just begun, and we were still on semi-friendly terms with each other, and a basic sense of gratitude towards a former ally repelled many British people from the new aggressive course imposed by part of the Western political elite towards their former ally in the anti-Hitler coalition.
Note. Legend has it that A. I. Mikoyan was a very good billiard player and made a bet with the management of a British company that if he won the match, Rolls-Royce would sell them jet engines, which he promised to use only for non-military purposes. Another legend has it that A. Mikoyan and V. Klimov, wearing soft-soled shoes, collected metal shavings from the factory floor to study the metal's composition.
During the negotiations in London, the Soviet delegation skillfully exploited the contradictions that had arisen between the United States and Great Britain in the post-war period, and after the negotiations, Soviet engineers were given the opportunity to become familiar with modern jet engines, but without receiving full information about the production technology of individual engine components and the composition of their alloys.
Company Rolls-Royce The US government actively lobbied for the sale to preserve its export markets, while the Treasury and the Chamber of Commerce were concerned about jobs and export revenues. The Cabinet and ministry officials, balancing strategic concerns with immediate economic difficulties, favored a compromise (a sale with restrictions) rather than a complete ban, which would have cost a significant amount of money and job losses.
Note. Previously, the British had not allowed their jets to operate outside the Netherlands, lest the USSR learn of them, but Clement Attlee's post-war Labour government was more friendly...
The engines purchased from Britain were advanced centrifugal-compressor turbojets; they were commercially attractive and relatively compact. However, the licensing and accompanying documents contained restrictions—the engines were sold for "non-military use" (civil aviation, research, or test rigs).
The picture shows an airplane Lancastrian at Paris's Le Bourget Airport in November 1946, completing a fifty-minute flight from London Heathrow to Paris, effectively marking the first international flight by a jet passenger aircraft. It was a passenger-transport aircraft derived from a World War II bomber— Lancaster, widely used as a test bed for gas turbine engines. There was even a version with two piston and two jet engines, which you see in the photo. This is one example of the use of unclaimed aircraft for civil and scientific purposes.
Such end-use restrictions were common, but they depended on the buyer's good faith and the seller's ability to verify compliance. However, post-war export control mechanisms were weak, particularly with respect to the USSR, where any inspection or control on its territory was both practically and politically impossible.
Note. Engines are inherently dual-use products – the same engine can power a civilian passenger aircraft or be installed on a test rig, but it can also be installed in a military aircraft with minimal modifications...
Ultimately, an agreement was reached to supply 55 engines to the USSR. Baby и DerwentAnd in the summer of 1947, the Soviet side made a request to send 17 engineers to the plant. Rolls-Royce for a period of three to seven months in connection with a contract for the sale of engines Baby и DerwentThe issue was submitted to the Cabinet of Ministers for consideration, and in October the British government decided to issue visas to Soviet specialists for a period of two months.
Note. Here, as an additional, little-known fact, it should be noted that, along with the request for Nene and Derwent engines, the Soviet Union also requested three Gloster Meteor and three De Havilland Vampire jet aircraft. However, this request was denied, as the British suspected the USSR of wanting to copy these aircraft and therefore refused to export them.
In the photo on the left: Gloster Meteor – the first British jet fighter and the only Allied jet aircraft to take part in World War II with an engine Derwent. Pictured right: De Havilland Vampire – the second jet aircraft of the Royal Air Force, it served from 1945 to 1955. The Soviet side was denied the acquisition of these aircraft...
One British official, Stanley Hooker, who was largely responsible for Britain's jet engine program, wrote in his memoirs that the decision to sell was political and was taken by the Board of Trade under Sir Stafford Cripps, a noted leftist. The Kim Philby Effect...
Stafford Cripps (1889–1952), British Minister of Trade. It was to him that the USSR first approached him with a request to purchase several Rolls-Royce engines and license their production. Although not a communist, Cripps was very sympathetic to the USSR and granted the permit. Today, Stafford Cripps's name has become a byword – he is considered a true idiot. The following epitaph was circulated about him: "He was a vegetarian and looked the part."In the West, the engine deal is considered one of the biggest mistakes in recent history...
I'd like to point out another very important point about this deal. The sale of engines to the Soviet Union was viewed as merely a gesture of goodwill, of little strategic significance, as the Soviet Union already had access to German jet technology, but that technology was geared toward the use of centrifugal compressors, while the British had decided to focus their future engine development on axial compressors. And if the Soviet Union had violated the military use prohibition clause and reverse-engineered the engines, Baby и Derwent, then this would give him a temporary advantage, but in the future it would lead him to a technological dead end.
After returning from Great Britain, A. I. Mikoyan and V. Ya. Klimov wrote in their report to the Minister of Aviation Industry M. V. Khrunichev:
Our personal acquaintance with British jet engines has once again demonstrated our enormous backwardness in this area and the need to make urgent decisions... Since British engines will allow us to create completely modern, high-performance jet aircraft, regardless of the work on domestic jet engines, it is necessary to immediately, in the shortest possible time, copy and begin serial production of the Nene and Derwent engines...
Reverse engineering*
Completely ignoring the contractual clause that the engines would not be used for military purposes, and despite the lack of a production license, I.V. Stalin ordered the mass production of engines in the USSR for installation on the famous Soviet MiG-15 fighter, which was later used against British and American forces during the Korean War.
Engineering incentives and Soviet central planning allowed these engines to be quickly integrated into military projects, as the Soviet Union viewed Western technical imports as legitimate spoils for strengthening its national defense.
Frankly speaking, neither BabyOr Derwent They weren't top-secret projects—they were commercial products, available to anyone who could afford them, and were openly advertised as such in the aviation press. The engine's design was known from scientific and commercial publications, as were its key parameters. But Britain was confident that the USSR wouldn't be able to replicate the metallurgy of the engine's most critical components, especially the turbine blades, which were made of an advanced, heat-resistant, and oxidation-resistant alloy called Nimonic.Nimonic) and was not supposed to be available for copying in the Soviet Union.
The chief engineer of the Moscow Engine Plant No. 500, V.V. Chernyshev, who was tasked with setting up production of the purchased engines, recalled:
The purchased engine samples not only lacked any technical documentation, but even the necessary forms... Extensive research was conducted with the participation of several aviation research institutes and the USSR Academy of Sciences. We developed and mastered completely new technological processes and specialized equipment, fundamentally restructured the plant's workshops, and created production lines for machining key and mass-produced engine parts...
In the photo on the leftVladimir Vasilyevich Chernyshev (1906–1983). From 1945 to 1947, he served as chief engineer at Moscow Engine Plant No. 500. Under his leadership, despite a complete lack of technical documentation, serial production of Derwent engines, known as the RD-500, for the La-15 and Yak-23 aircraft was established in just seven months. Pictured rightEngine-Building Plant No. 500 (now the Moscow Machine-Building Enterprise named after V.V. Chernyshev). Today, it is part of the United Engine Corporation (UEC) of the Rostec State Corporation.
At the stage of reverse engineering copies of engines Derwent и Baby, produced in the Soviet Union, did indeed face serious problems in finding suitable alternative materials, but the Soviet government, seriously concerned about the American monopoly on atomic weapon, has made every effort to address all these issues as a national priority and get high-performance jet aircraft into the air as soon as possible.
In the photo on the left: V. Ya. Klimov and N. N. Polikarpov in the office of A. I. Mikoyan (1940). Pictured right: in the design bureau of V. Ya. Klimov
Purchased from Rolls-Royce The engines were disassembled down to the smallest detail, and drawings and diagrams were created based on them, but the process turned out to be much more complex than Soviet engineers had anticipated.
The British version of the engine used alloys and metalworking technologies completely absent from our country, so engineers had to not only simply copy the engine but also adapt it to existing Soviet materials and production methods. Furthermore, the design bureau team had to thoroughly understand the aerodynamics of blades and compressor design, which were still largely unknown to Soviet engineering. And yet, despite lacking access to all the necessary materials and technologies, our scientists and engineers were able to develop and implement their own equivalents.
As the final result of the Soviet engineers' work shows, the British seriously underestimated the Soviet aircraft industry's ability to produce copycat engines and the lessons that were learned from this...
Mastering the engine by Soviet engineers Baby went on almost in parallel with the development Derwent, for which a design bureau was specially organized at the engine-building plant No. 45 in Moscow (today "UEC-Salut"), under the leadership of V. Ya. Klimov, and by the end of 1947 the result of this work was the RD-45 turbojet engine (subsequently its further development became the RD-45F, and even later - the VK-1), which turned out to be even more powerful and reliable than the British original.
In the photo on the leftV. Ya. Klimov (1892–1962) was a Soviet aircraft engine designer and academician, founder of the Klimov United Engine-Building Enterprise. He is best known for developing highly efficient piston engines, which powered approximately 90% of Soviet fighter aircraft during World War II, as well as for creating the first Soviet jet engines. Pictured rightMoscow Engine Plant No. 45 (now UEC-Salut)
So, having received the engines BabySoviet engineers reverse-engineered it, creating the RD-45 engine, then upgrading it to the VK-1, with larger combustion chambers for increased performance, and using it on iconic fighters like the MiG-15. The engine's success during the Korean War proved the effectiveness of early Soviet jet technology, and later variants were even license-produced in China under the designation WP-5.
In the photo on the left: RD-45 engine. Soviet copy of the engine. Rolls-royce nene, created using reverse engineering. It was crucial to the operation of the first Soviet jet aircraft, such as the famous MiG-15 fighter. Pictured right: The VK-1 engine is a more advanced analogue of the RD-45/RD-45F engine
The key feature of this engine was its role in powering the MiG-15 fighter, providing high performance with swept wings and an excellent thrust-to-weight ratio. Looking ahead, it should be noted that a further modernized version of the engine, the VK-1F, incorporated an afterburner to increase thrust, further enhancing the combat capabilities of later MiG-15bis fighters and extending to such types as the Il-28 frontline bomber and early MiG-17 fighters. Production of these exceeded 30,000 units, including licensed production in China and further modifications in Poland and Czechoslovakia.
MiG-15 fighter with a VK-1 (VK-1F) engine unrolled
Note. It is known that licensed copies of the Rolls-Royce Nene engine were produced not only in the Soviet Union, but also in France on the first serial French jet fighter Dassault Ouragan (under the name Hispano-Suiza Nene), in the USA on the Grumman F9F Panther (under the name Pratt & Whitney J42), in Australia on the de Havilland Vampire (H-1 Goblin) and in Argentina on the FMA I.Ae. 33 Pulqui II aircraft, as a post-war debt payment, but a full-scale licensing deal with the British side never took place...
In the photo on the left: FMA I.Ae. 33 Pulqui II – Argentine multirole jet fighter with a Rolls-Royce Nene turbojet engine. Pictured right: Dassault Ouragan – a French fighter, the first production jet aircraft of the French Air Force. It also has a British engine. Rolls-royce nene (Hispano-Suiza Nene)
And to sum up the reverse engineering, one can cite the words of aviation historian Jacob Whitfield from Australia, who claimed that the Klimov VK-1 engine, installed on the formidable MiG-15bis, which caused so many problems in Korea, was developed long before the Nene ended up in Soviet laboratories and became available for study.
Production of RD-45 engines. Pictured right: engine leveling
In the specialized literature it is usually indicated that the VK-1 was a direct copy of the British Baby, and was then improved through the design bureau's efforts to increase its power. But this isn't entirely true – V. Ya. Klimov began designing an engine developed to Soviet specifications and materials standards, based on Soviet materials, technologies, and scientific research, long before he saw the Nene in action. As a result, the VK-1, the main engine of the MiG-15bis fighter, turned out to be far superior to the copied version of the British Nene, as it was initially developed using materials available and understood by Soviet engineers.
This whole copying thing Rolls-Royce This cemented Soviet engineers' reputation as masters of reverse engineering and became an important lesson for the West – from then on, international exports of advanced technologies began to be subject to strict controls, and the development of new engines made it possible to begin developing jet fighters in the USSR…
Note. A Rolls-Royce executive, upon learning of Soviet VK-1 production in Chinese factories, threw a fit. Rolls-Royce then attempted to sue the USSR for illegally copying the Nene, demanding £200 million in royalties. But such tactics don't work with the USSR...
And while our engine builders were modernizing the British engines they had acquired under license, Soviet designers were already working on creating suitable airframes…
Thanks to the large number of VK-1 engines produced, after their removal from aircraft, they were used for non-aviation purposes for a long time – after being installed on cars, they were used to remove ice from runways at civil and military airfields, and sometimes on railways.
Work on the MiG-15
It all began on March 11, 1947, when the Soviet government issued the Mikoyan Design Bureau official technical specifications for a jet fighter, which was to become the primary fighter of the Soviet Air Force for the next several years. These requirements called for the fighter to have a speed of 1050 km/h at an altitude of 5000 meters, a service ceiling of 13,000 meters, a time to reach that altitude of 3,2 minutes, and a flight endurance of at least one hour. Furthermore, the new fighter was required to be easy to manufacture and maintain, as well as easy to operate, suitable for inexperienced pilots. And just like their engine-building colleagues, the design bureau's work began to hum…
In the photo on the left: A. I. Mikoyan and M. I. Gurevich. Pictured right: one of the first MiG-15 fighters
At the very beginning of the design, several possible designs for the new aircraft were considered - a twin-boom design, a fighter with two engines on the wings, then the previously created MiG-9, with its “gearbox” was taken as a basis.* engine layout. But as development progressed, the original design, based on the MiG-9, underwent changes.
In the photo on the left: the team of developers of the MiG-15 fighter. Pictured right: assembly of the aircraft tail sections
Having considered all possible options, the developers settled on a design with a spindle-shaped fuselage, a circular cross-section with a central air intake, a teardrop-shaped canopy, a swept-back wing, and a similarly swept-back tail unit.
In the photo on the left: assembly of the MiG-15 fighter. In the photo in the center and on the right: ejection seat
When considering the chosen wing sweep, it should be noted that a straight wing is of little use for aircraft approaching the speed of sound, as it results in poor aerodynamic performance, increases drag, and can lead to deformation of the wing structure, even to its destruction...
In the photo on the left: the instrument panel of the MiG-15 fighter with flight-navigation and control-measuring instruments, which were powered from the on-board network with a voltage of 27 V. Pictured rightThe MiG-15 fighter's chassis had three supports with liquid-gas shock absorbers, two of which were located in the wing and retracted into the root of the wing console, and the front strut was located in the forward part of the fuselage.
The engineers also paid attention to ease of operation: the fuselage connectors dividing it into the nose and tail sections were created as a simple and easily removable joint, allowing the regiment's engineering and technical staff to easily install and remove the engine during maintenance.
In the photo on the left: brake flaps located in the rear part of the fuselage. Pictured right: the aircraft was armed with three cannons, located in the lower forward part of the fuselage - one NS-37 (37 mm with 40 rounds of ammunition) and two NS-23 (23 mm with 80 rounds of ammunition)
In early December 1947, the first MiG-15 (then still known as the S-1) left experimental production and was sent for a "baptism of fire" test. On December 30, 1947, test pilot V.N. Yuganov performed the first flight of the new fighter, still smelling of the factory. I won't go into detail about the subsequent refinement of the aircraft and the elimination of all the malfunctions discovered during the first flight, but just a year later, final flight tests were conducted and the fighter was approved for serial production. The aircraft fully met all requirements and was even capable of performing all aerobatic maneuvers at altitudes of up to 8000 meters.
In the photo on the left: test pilot V. N. Yuganov (1922–1964), who took the MiG-15 into the sky. Pictured right: the first prototype of the MiG-15 fighter
Manufacturing also took notice, having been ordered by the government to launch serial production of a new fighter jet designated the MiG-15. In 1949, the Stalin Plant, having finally ceased production of the MiG-9 (except for spare parts), switched entirely to the production of the new aircraft.
In the photo on the left: participants in the control tests of the MiG-15 aircraft. Pictured right: MiG-15bis fighter, equipped with a special "Harpoon" device for in-flight refueling (later modification)
Something about the MiG-15
The Soviet MiG-15 has rightfully gone down in history as one of the most famous aircraft of the Cold War era. It was the first swept-wing fighter to see combat and subsequently became one of the most widely produced jets of all time. It shocked the West during the Korean War (1950-1953) with its high-altitude performance, thanks in part to its initially copied and then successfully modernized Rolls-Royce engines, and eventually became a dominant force alongside the American F-86 Sabre on the "MiG Alley"*.
Everyday life of the MiG-15 fighter regiment
Its simple and robust design, sealed cabin and swept wing ensured rapid climb and high speeds, making it ideal for air combat, and the air combat itself MiG-15 against F-86 Sabre In the skies of Korea, they entered the history of air battles and are rightfully considered the cradle of jet air combat!
Everyday life of a MiG-15 fighter regiment
Note. Both the Soviet Union and the United States based their designs on swept wings, relying primarily on data collected by German designers and obtained by us and the Americans at the end of World War II.
MiG-15 fighter jets in the skies over Korea
As already mentioned, this aircraft became one of the first successful and mass-produced swept-wing jet fighters – about 12,000 MiG-15s were built in the Soviet Union, another 6000 were produced abroad under license and successfully operated in the air forces of the Soviet Union, China, North Korea and forty other countries, and remained in service throughout the world until the 1970s and even later.
Everyday life of the engineering and technical service of the MiG-15 fighter regiment
The MiG-15 design itself served as the basis for the development of the next fighter, the MiG-17, which remained an effective threat to American aviation over North Vietnam until the 1960s!
The MiG-15 Hijacking Incident
The United States was desperate to acquire the MiG-15, so much so that in the spring of 1953 they announced a program called Operation Mule (Operation Moolah), which offered a cash reward of $100,000 (for today's equivalent, multiply that figure by ten) to anyone who could deliver a fully functional aircraft.
In the photo on the left: MiG-15 at the American base in Okinawa. In the photo in the center: pilot No Kum-Sok. Pictured right: Hijacked plane at the National Museum of the Air Force in Dayton
And on September 21, 1953, after the armistice, North Korean pilot No Kum-Sok hijacked a plane, flying his MiG-15bis through the demilitarized zone to Kimpo Air Base, near Seoul, South Korea.
In the photo on the left: US President R. Nixon and pilot No Kum-Sok. In the photo in the center: pilot Noh Kum-Seok (1932–2022). Pictured right: Pilot No Kum-Sok, who took the name Kenneth Rowe in the United States, next to the MiG-15 he stole at the National Air Force Museum in Dayton, Ohio. 2015.
The hijacked fighter was delivered to Okinawa, Japan, where it was flown by American test pilots. In December 1953, the aircraft was disassembled and airlifted to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, where it was reassembled and this time underwent extensive flight testing. The US then offered to return the MiG-15 to its rightful owners, but no country claimed the aircraft. It was then transferred to the National Air Force Museum in Dayton, Ohio, in 1957.
Summing up
Purchased from the company Rolls-Royce The engines provided a decisive technological leap for Soviet industry, allowing it to quickly develop and launch powerful jet fighters, which significantly reduced the West's technological advantage, influencing the early stages of development, although it is believed that German research also played a role.
A similar role was probably played by the Soviet Union's concern about the American monopoly on atomic weapons, which spurred the Soviet government, as a national priority, to get high-performance jet aircraft into the air as quickly as possible, with the result that the VK-1, the main engine used on the MiG-15, turned out to be much better than the acquired version of the British Baby.
And as has already been said, the direct study of the Nene engine was of great help to V. Ya. Klimov, but the standard mantra in the West is that “The Soviets illegally copied Nene", however, like most of the generally accepted so-called "facts" of this case, it is oversimplified...
Moreover, it must also be said that the deal to sell the latest jet engines to the Soviet Union was far from a Machiavellian communist plot or outright stupidity, although some in Britain today, just as in 1946, are asking the same question - What genius in the British government decided it was a great idea to give the USSR the best jet engine in the world at that time?
But it was still a logical commercial decision by the Labor government—to sell a world-famous and highly marketable commodity to a country that, at the time, wasn't yet considered a serious military threat and was an important trading partner. Moreover, it was assumed that selling such technology would serve as a sign of goodwill to the Soviet Union, especially given widespread concerns about US nuclear superiority, and would help smooth future relations. And, as a bonus, to spite their American "friends"...
And one more thing! There's also a purely technological issue in this matter – the engines. Rolls-Royce, sold to the Soviet Union, were not a success in Britain. British engineers considered them a dead end and the end product of centrifugal compressor development, as they were now being replaced by axial compressors, more suitable for aircraft. Therefore, the company Rolls-Royce, having received the green light from the government, happily sold to the Soviet Union part of the accumulated stocks, which had become obsolete, from the point of view of British engineers.
Sold Derwent was already a relatively old centrifugal engine, however, like its more modern modification, Baby, but by the time it was sold to the Soviet Union, it remained the most advanced and powerful jet engine in the world. But centrifugal engines were already being nipped in the heels of much more complex and efficient axial engines, such as the Avon, which have already begun to be produced in the UK for use in future fighters. And I have a suspicion that engines developed on the basis of Avon, are still being produced today…
Another reason for the sale, as mentioned above, was that Great Britain was experiencing an acute shortage of funds, and the left-wing Labour government of the time viewed the Soviet Union not as an enemy, but as a former ally that had suffered greatly in the war and deserved Great Britain's goodwill.
And the deal was made, even before the Iron Curtain came down…
The article was written based on materials from Russian and British newspapers and magazines.
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*"MiG Alley"This is what United Nations pilots during the Korean War called the northwestern part of North Korea, where the Yalu River flows into the Yellow Sea. This area became the scene of numerous air battles between UN fighters and their opponents from North Korea and the People's Republic of China. This territory is rightfully considered the site of the first air battles between jet fighters.
*Reverse engineering (Reverse engineering) is the process of deconstructing a mechanism to understand its design, function, and components, essentially working backwards from the finished product to discover how it was created and functions, often with the goal of reproducing or improving it.
*Redan diagram – an aircraft configuration in which the jet engines are located in the forward fuselage, with the exhaust nozzles directed just beneath the fuselage belly. This configuration was effective in reducing drag, which reduced fuel consumption and increased range. However, it also had serious drawbacks: hot gas jets heated the lower fuselage and created a vacuum under the horizontal stabilizer.
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