#30, MiG-15: Shocked the West Into a Jet Arms Race
When MiG-15s appeared over Korea in November 1950, they immediately rendered every propeller-driven aircraft in the UN arsenal obsolete. B-29 Superfortresses, the kings of strategic bombing just five years earlier, were shot down so fast that unescorted daylight bombing missions had to be abandoned entirely. The MiG-15's swept wings, powerful cannon armament, and high-altitude performance shocked Western intelligence agencies and triggered an urgent reassessment of NATO's entire defense technology strategy.
The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 was built around a reverse-engineered Rolls-Royce Nene engine that the British had naively sold to the Soviet Union. Its 37mm and two 23mm cannons could destroy a B-29 with a single burst. Over 18,000 MiG-15s were built, equipping the air forces of the Soviet Union, China, North Korea, and dozens of Warsaw Pact nations. In Korea, MiG-15s held their own against F-86 Sabres in history's first jet-versus-jet battles, and their performance convinced the West that the era of propeller air power was over. The MiG-15 was the aircraft that made the jet age a global military reality.
