Rare Single-Seat MiG-15 Leaves St. Louis for New Home In Houston

Fred Harl and Carmelo Turdo

A rare single-seat MiG-15 left St. Louis today and began the journey to a new home in Houston, TX.  The aircraft, originally a Soviet-built MiG-15bis improved variant fighter powered by a development of the British Nene jet engine, was built in 1950 and served with Chinese forces during the Korean War opposite the U.S. Air Force F-86 Sabre fighters battling for control of the skies.  The MiG-15 had superior performance to early U.S. jet fighters, but the advent of the later models of the U.S. Air Force F-86 Sabre along with superior pilot skills of U.S. pilots turned the tide against the North Koreans in the air.  The aircraft was used by eastern European bloc and many Soviet allies in Asia and the Middle East in the fighter and mostly trainer role into the 1980s.  Most MiG-15s that came to the jet warbird market were the two-seat, MiG-15UTI trainer.      

The MiG-15bis featured here was owned by Dr. Terry Klingele, former Marine pilot and co-founder of Quantum Vision Centers.  It was known in the St. Louis area by its presence at airshows often with an F-86 Sabre.  The aircraft was donated to Wings of Hope several years ago, and has recently been sold to the Vietnam War Flight Museum in Houston, TX.  Rick Sharpe, Founder of the museum, took off from St. Louis Downtown Airport around 2:30pm Tuesday following some last-minute maintenance at Ideal Aviation.  The following sequence shows the rollout from Ideal Aviation Curtiss-Wright Hangar 1, a flight around the pattern, and departure for Houston.