Mikoyan, Artem

(also A. I. Mikoian) Born July 23 (Aug. 5), 1905, in the village of Sanain, present-day Tumanian Raion, Armenian SSR; died Dec. 9, 1970, in Moscow. Soviet aircraft designer. Academician of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1968; corresponding member, 1953), colonel general of the technical service, twice Hero of Socialist Labor (1956 and 1957). Became a member of the CPSU in 1925.

In 1923, Mikoyan began working as a lathe operator, first at plants in Rostov-on-Don and later at the Dinamo Moscow Plant. After service in the Red Army he entered the N..E. Zhukovskii Air Force Engineering Academy (1931). After his graduation from the academy (1936) he worked as a military representative in an aircraft plant and then as deputy director of the design bureau of the plant. In 1940 he became chief designer of the experimental aircraft design bureau. The MiG-1 high-altitude fighter was developed in 1940 under his supervision (with M. I. Gurevich). During that year the airplane was modified (the MiG-3) and used at the fronts of the Great Patriotic War (1941–45).

Mikoyan was a pioneer of jet aviation in the USSR. He developed a number of supersonic jet fighters. A number of world records were set by the E-266 jet airplane, which he designed.

Mikoyan was a deputy to the third to eighth convocations of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. He received the State Prize of the USSR in 1941, 1947, 1948, 1949, 1952, and 1953 and the Lenin Prize in 1962. He was awarded six Orders of Lenin, four other orders, and medals.