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Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-17


MiG-17 at the Central Texas Airshow,
USA, May 2003.


The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-17 is a Russian jet fighter aircraft armed with 3 machine guns, considered to be most effective in action against enemy aircraft. Its bombload was considered light relative to other aircraft of the time since it had been designed primarily as an interceptor.

It saw considerable service as the main aircraft of the North Vietnamese Air Force during the Vietnam War, when it frequently worked in conjunction with MiG-21s ordinarily flown by Soviet or Chinese pilots.

The Chinese-built version of the MiG-17 is known as the J-5 or F-5 (not to be confused with the American-built F-5.