Russia Couldn’t Have Built the MiG-15 Without Britain’s Help
The Soviets knew they had a winner in the MiG-15.
Here s What You Need to Remember: The Nene turbojet engine gave the Soviet Union a remarkable leg up in the race to design high-performing jet fighters early in the Cold War. Unlike many short-lived episodes of technological one-upmanship, the baffling British blunder would have battlefield consequences in just a few years.
By the end of World War II, it was becoming clear that the huge fleets of piston-engine propeller planes used in the conflict would soon be superseded by much faster jet aircraft. Nazi Germany and the United Kingdom had deployed jets in combat, and the United States and Japan were close to doing so when the war ended. Only the Soviet Union seemed to lag conspicuously behind.