Extract taken from the Lockheed Skunk Work Historical Library

The Mig-37 project started in the late 1960’s with the design concept for a supersonic ‘Stealth’ aircraft being discussed by the designers of the Mig OKB in their spare time.  The thinking behind the project was that a small aircraft of a certain design and painted with radar reflective paint would return such a small radar emission as to make it appear practically invisible.

It wasn’t long until the project came to the attention of the management and was very rapidly pushed up the chain of command all the way to Moscow.  The concept of ‘Stealth’ wasn’t widely understood at the time but at the height of the Cold War the mere suggestion of an ‘invisible’ warplane was enough to guaranty funding for development – even if it was only for one flying prototype. 

In a surprise move the aircraft was to be a naval fighter and not a land based jet as initially intended.  The official reasoning behind this was that the Airforce already had large numbers of conventional aircraft but the Navy required a small amount of aircraft for its new carriers and any technological advantage was welcomed.

Although the project was initially to design a strike aircraft the brief was quickly changed by those in Moscow to turn the aircraft into a fighter to help combat the technologically superior Western fighter aircraft.  This was the first major mistake made. 

In order to become an effective fighter aircraft an air-to-air radar would need to be installed.  The emissions from any radar would give away the position of any aircraft – even an invisible one.  With this in mind it was decided that all missions would be flown in conjunction with a command and control aircraft and the ‘Ferret’ (as it had become known) would only strike when within visual range of its intended prey.  In some ways this made the designers jobs a lot easier as only small, short range AAM needed to be held internally which meant that the weapons bays could be relatively small in size.

Once the first prototype had passed its initial flight and handling tests in early 1973 a mission was flown in conjunction with a Command & Control aircraft against a flight of front line Mig-21 fighters.  The results were disastrous.   Although the Ferret could get within range and destroy the first target without being seen once its cover was blown it was very quickly out flown by conventional fighters - with all of the Migs claiming guns kills.

Not the ideal situation for an aircraft designed to protect the mighty Soviet fleet.

The problem put simply was that the shape of the Ferret was ideal for stealth but was simply not optimised for close in dog fighting.  It was obvious, even to those in Moscow, that the aircraft wouldn’t stand a chance against the Lightings and Starfighters of the West.  As a result a major redesign took place with the aircraft being re-configured as a strike platform. 

This meant that the first prototype had to be ripped apart and rebuilt with larger weapons bays to carry the latest Soviet air-to-ground weapons.  During this time the first rumblings of cancellation for the planned Soviet super carriers started to be heard and it wasn’t long until those in Moscow asked the Mig designers to incorporate a VTOL modification into the Ferret.

The system chosen was, for the time, revolutionary and military historians have quite rightly pointed out the comparisons with today’s JSF aircraft.  The system was simple, the two main engines powered the aircraft in conventional flight and when required to take off and land vertically doors on the top and bottom of the aircraft opened allowing the jet efflux to act as a cushion of air for the Ferret to ride on.

The simple system worked very well and with a minimum of moving parts was ready for flight testing in the autumn of 1975.  The VTOL Ferret became the first aircraft to ever take off vertically, transition to forward flight, accelerate to supersonic flight and then land vertically in January 1976 when it departed its flight test centre and flew out over the East Siberian Sea to land vertically on a specially constructed barge.  The Navy was extremely impressed and ordered the next phase of the programme – weapons tests.  This unfortunately would become the Ferrets down fall as a strike aircraft. 

Due to the lift fans buried in the aircraft the weapons bays had become even smaller than originally planned and the only way for the aircraft to haul a respectable load was externally – eliminating its stealth advantage.

Moscow was beginning to lose patience.  In one final bid the aircraft was quickly redesigned as a sea going recon platform with a secondary strike fighter role.  Two oblique cameras were placed in the nose and all armour was removed to lighten the aircraft.  A specially constructed heavy frame canopy was fitted to allow the aircraft to climb to height and flight-testing for the Ferret once again got under way.

The year was now 1978 and the programme had been in existence for over 10 years. 

Flight-testing continued with the Ferret and respectable heights were beginning to be reached but sadly not quick enough for Moscow and continuing problems with the camera and avionics fit meant that the programme was continually in danger of cancellation.  The axe finally fell in 1979 when the project was cancelled and the Ferret prototype placed in storage at the Mig OKB as a symbol of what could have been – a sad end for an exceptional aircraft.

The Mig-37 model from Italeri is a beauty.  Cheap at around £5 and extremely easy to make, the kit went together in one evening and didn’t require any filler.  Built out of the box the only modification was the inclusion of the revolutionary lift fan system! 

This mod was very simple, I cut away a portion of the spine and rear of the aircraft, boxed the holes using plastic card and then using scraps of card, fuse wire and the engine blades (donated from the Airfix Buccaneer) I made the ‘engines’.

The aircraft was painted by hand using Humbrol paints and is finished off with the kits decals.  All in all a very enjoyable build, I hope you like the concept.

Text and photos copyright © 2004 Tony Inkster

Page created April 13th, 2004