@ Tucson, AZ
March 2018
This two seat MiG-15UTI trainer (known as the “Midget” by NATO) hangs in one of the Pima Air & Space Museum galleries. This aircraft was introduced soon after the famous MiG-15 entered service and served as the standard Soviet advanced trainer for many years. This example was license-built by the Wytwornia Sprzetu Komunikacyjneo (WSK) factory in Poland as a Lim-1 fighter and delivered to the Polish Air Force in 1953. In the late 1950s Poland was in desperate need of jet trainers and so early Lim-1s were rebuilt as two-seat SBLim-1 trainers. In 1974, some of these aircraft were further upgraded to SBLim-2 trainers with an improved engine. This aircraft was acquired by the U.S. Air Force in the 1980s, flown by civilian contractors for research projects and later retired to boneyard storage around 1990. In July 1992 it was placed on loan to the Pima Air & Space Museum from the National Museum of the US Air Force.
