Mikoyan-Gurevich I-7

The I-7 was the second of three linked experimental fighter prototypes built by the Mikoyan-Gurevich bureau in the Soviet Union in the mid and late 1950s, between the I-3 and the I-75. It was meant as a Mach 2 class interceptor and as one component of the automated Uragan-1 air defence system of the PVO, in which ground radar and a control computer would steer the aircraft to its target with the pilot only as a backup. When the Klimov VK-3 engine of the I-3 was cancelled, the single I-3 airframe was rebuilt with a Lyulka AL-7 afterburning turbojet and a much longer fuselage, a step that marked the move from the MiG-19 family toward the MiG-21. After 19 flights the prototype was rebuilt again as the I-75.