MiG-19 Farmer

Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-19S

The first Soviet production fighter capable of supersonic speeds in level flight, the prototype MiG-19 (NATO code-name "Farmer") made its first flight in September 1953. Entering production in 1955, it became the Soviet Union's primary fighter during the last half of the 1950s. Possibly as many as 10,000 MiG-19s, in various versions, were built by the Soviet Union, China, Poland and Czechoslovakia. Many other countries used the MiG-19, including Cuba, North Vietnam, North Korea, Iraq and most of the Warsaw Pact nations. The Soviet Union phased out the MiG-19 in the early 1960s in favor of the more advanced MiG-21, but other nations continued to use the MiG-19 for many more years.