Inventor of MIG military aircraft
Artem (Artyom) Ivanovich Mikoyan was a Soviet Armenian aircraft designer, who cofounded the Mikoyan-Gurevich design bureau along with 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 in Armenia’s Lori Province) on 5 August 1905. 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, then worked in the « Dynamo » factory in Moscow before being conscripted into the military. After military service he joined the Zhukovsky Air Force Academy, where he created his first plane, graduating in 1936. He worked with Polikarpov before being named head of a new aircraft design bureau in Moscow in December 1939. Together with 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 role. Further MiG-5, MiG-7 and MiG-8 Utka did not progress beyond research prototypes.
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.
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 MiG-23, MiG-29 and MiG-35 and variations.
After suffering from a stroke that occurred in 1969, Mikoyan died the following year and was buried in the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow.
Significant designs
Honours and awards
Some of his awards and honours include:
- Twice Hero of Socialist Labour
- Six Orders of Lenin
- Order of the Red Banner
- Order of the Patriotic War 1st class
- Two Orders of the Red Star
- Lenin Prize (1962)
- USSR State Prize (1941, 1947, 1948, 1949, 1952, 1953)
In 1996, Mikoyan was inducted into the International Air & Space Hall of Fame at the San Diego Air & Space Museum.
