Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-8 Utka
The MiG-8 Utka was a Soviet experimental light aircraft that first flew in 1945. Its nickname, Utka, is Russian for "duck": just as the French word canard has come to designate an aircraft whose horizontal control surface is placed ahead of the main wing, Russian aeronautical jargon calls this layout the "duck scheme" (skhema utka). Only one example was built.
Although it carries a MiG designation, the aircraft is reported to have been designed by students of the Zhukovsky Air Force Engineering Academy, under the supervision of Professor G. A. Tokaev, and built in the experimental workshop of the design bureau headed by Artem Mikoyan and Mikhail Gurevich. Its purpose was to study the stability and control of a canard layout combined with a swept wing, at low speed. The formula looked promising for future jet aircraft: with the horizontal control surface in the nose, the rear fuselage remains clear of any interference from the jet exhaust.
The Utka was a high-wing monoplane of wooden construction with fabric covering. The wing was swept back by about 20° and fitted with leading-edge slats over roughly the outer third of the span, while the elevators were carried by the foreplane. A five-cylinder Shvetsov M-11 radial engine – the same family of engines that powered the Po-2 – was mounted behind the cabin and drove a two-bladed fixed-pitch pusher propeller. The cabin accommodated a pilot and two passengers. The Utka was also the first aircraft of the bureau to use a tricycle undercarriage.
The aircraft was flown by test pilots Aleksandr Zhukov and Aleksei Grinchik; the latter would make the first flight of the bureau's first jet fighter, the MiG-9, in April 1946. During the trials the Utka was modified several times to evaluate different arrangements of vertical tail surfaces and wingtips: the fins were moved to mid-span and the wingtips were turned downwards. The aircraft proved stable and easy to fly.
The MiG-8 is often presented as a testbed used in developing the swept wing of the MiG-15, and the flight data it gathered are said to have encouraged the bureau to adopt swept wings on its later designs.
Once its research programme was over, the Utka was considered as a possible successor to the Po-2 for liaison work, a role for which its performance was adequate, but it was never put into production. The single prototype remained in use for several years as a communications and utility aircraft of the design bureau. Light, docile and very forgiving at low speed, it was reportedly a favourite of the MiG test pilots.
The canard layout itself was not new – Santos-Dumont's 14-bis had flown in 1906 with its elevator in front – and it would reappear decades later on aircraft as different as the Saab 37 Viggen fighter and Burt Rutan's VariEze light aircraft.
Note on sources: published data on the Utka vary. The English Wikipedia dates the first flight to 13 August 1945, the Japanese Wikipedia to 19 November 1945 (with A. I. Zhukov at the controls), while other sources simply mention the end of 1945. The attribution of the design to students of the Zhukovsky Academy is given by several English-language references but not by the English Wikipedia. Sources also disagree on the modifications: according to the Japanese Wikipedia the fins, initially at the wingtips, were moved to mid-span after handling difficulties on the first flight, whereas another source states that the aircraft performed well without any modification. Finally, the Utka's actual contribution to the MiG-15 is disputed: the English Wikipedia describes it as a testbed for the MiG-15's swept wing, whereas the Japanese Wikipedia states that the results were not conclusive enough to be applied to future jets and were not used in the bureau's jet programmes.
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