War Thunder presents first screenshots of MiG-3 - high-altitude Soviet fighter - one of the new planes to be introduced in the upcoming global update.

MiG-3

MiG-3 was an interceptor fighter designed to fight on high altitudes.

The first test flights of the aircraft took place in 1940. Though MiG-3 was a heavy one  - up to 3355 kg - it could reach the speed up to 640 km/h, being the fastest airplane of the time to enter batch production. It was a very promising machine.

By the beginning of the summer 1941 lots of Soviet air forces squadrons received MiG-3's. But only a few pilots had good experience in flying the aircraft, and the problem was that the pilots, who previously flew biplanes had to learn to fly  virtually from the beginning, while the weather did not allow them to reach the needed amount of flight hours. In the first days of Nazi invasion in USSR over 1000 MiG's were lost on the airfields, lots of them were destroyed by artillery.

MiG-3 did not have enough maneuverability at low and medium altitudes, the most common for aerial combat on the Eastern Front. However, it proved itself in the first days of war. On 23rd of June 1941 senior lieutenant Leonid Ivanov engaged  8 Bf 109's which were attacking the airfield. He managed to shoot down 3 of them and rammed the 4th one.

Famous Soviet ace Alexander Pokryshkin was flying MiG-3 at the beginning of the War . During the first week he shot down three Bf 109's, two Hs 126's and one Ju 88.    

The production of MiG-3 was canceled in end of the December 1941. The main reason was that the factory which produced the AM-35A engines also produced AM-38 engines for IL-2's and Soviet Air Force was in dire need of the Shturmoviks.

War Thunder Team