COBI MiG-17 NATO Code Fresco Set 2424

COBI's MiG-17 is a 1:32 model built from 575 blocks, with movable wheels, an opening canopy and a detailed pilot figure. A display stand with a printed nameplate and national markings is included. All markings are printed; the set contains no stickers.

The aircraft that founded Topgun

By 1965 the MiG-17 was old. It was subsonic, it had no radar worth the name, and it was armed with cannon at a time when American doctrine had decided that guns on fighters were finished and missiles would do the work.

Over North Vietnam it shot down supersonic, missile-armed American jets anyway. The MiG-17 turned inside anything the US had, and the early Sidewinders and Sparrows launched against it missed far more often than the brochures promised — they had been designed to hit bombers flying straight and level, not fighters pulling hard at close range.

The US Navy's response was to examine why its crews were losing these fights, and the answer was training rather than hardware. In 1969 it set up the Navy Fighter Weapons School to teach dissimilar air combat, using small agile aircraft to imitate the MiG. That school is the one everybody knows by its nickname.

The specific aircraft

The paint scheme and the number 0327 match a Polish-built Lim-5 — the licensed MiG-17 — displayed today aboard the museum carrier Intrepid in New York. The type served with the air forces of around forty countries.

Specifications

Pieces: 575 · Figures: 1 pilot · Scale: 1:32
Model dimensions: 36 × 30 × 11 cm (14.2 × 11.8 × 4.3 in)