MiG is the design initials for Mikoyan(formerly Mikoyan-Gurevich), a Russian design Bureau-turned-manufacturer. Founded in 1938 by
Artem Mikoyan and
Mikhail Gurevich, MiG primarily designs fighter aircraft for soviet/russian service. MiG made some pretty good fighters in WW2 but really became legendary during the
Korean War with the MiG-15, which was at least equal with the best of contemporary western fighters. After the vietnam war, however,
MiGs have been consistently whooped by American fighters such as the
F-15. However, this is probably due to the fact that most MiGs involved in wars since the 1970s were
downgraded export models flown by poorly trained pilots.
During the Cold War, MiG fighters were the types that American fighters were designed against, due to the fact that dozens of countries around the eastern
bloc and third world used the type. "MiG Diplomacy" was a coin termed to describe the Soviet practice of giving newly formed countries a gift of MiG fighters. All production MiG fighters have odd-numbered designations, because stalin said so back in the 1950s.
Stalin's long dead, but MiG keeps up the tradition.
Since the 1990s, MiG hasn't seemed to be doing much, thanks to economic hard times in russia and having the spotlight stolen by the well-connected
Sukhoi corporation. Nonetheless, MiG managed to pop out the weird looking but kickass MiG-1.44 prototype, as well as several upgraded Fulcrums.
MiG fighters include the
MiG-15(a nasty shock to the USAF in Korea)
MiG-17(an even more embarassing shock to the USAF and
USN in vietnam)
MiG-21(the most produced
jet fighter ever)
MiG-25(Superfast mystery plane)
MiG-29(A good airplane... thats gotten its ass kicked in every war its seen)