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| MiG-105 | |
|---|---|
 MiG 105-11 test vehicle at theCentral Air Force Museum. | |
| General information | |
| Type | Test vehicle |
| National origin | Soviet Union |
| Manufacturer | Mikoyan |
| Status | Cancelled |
| Primary user | Soviet Air Forces |
| History | |
| First flight | 1976 |
TheMikoyan-Gurevich MiG-105, part of theSpiral program, was a crewed test vehicle to explore low-speed handling and landing. It was a visible result of aSoviet project to create an orbitalspaceplane. The MiG 105 was nicknamed "Lapot" (Russian:лапоть, orbast shoe; the word is also used as a slang for "shoe"), for the shape of its nose.
The program was also known as the Experimental Passenger Orbital Aircraft (EPOS). Work on this project began in 1965, with the project being halted in 1969, only to be restarted in 1974 in response to the U.S.Space Shuttle Program. The test vehicle made its first subsonic free-flight test in 1976, taking off under its own power from an old airstrip near Moscow. Flight tests, totaling eight in all, continued sporadically until 1978. The actual space plane project was cancelled when the decision was made to instead proceed with theBuran project. The MiG test vehicle itself still exists and is currently on display at theMonino Air Force Museum in Russia.[1]
Another spacecraft to use the Spiral design was theБОР (Russian:Беспилотный Орбитальный Ракетоплан,Bespilotnyi Orbital'nyiRaketoplan, "Unpiloted Orbital Rocketplane") series, uncrewed sub-scale reentry test vehicles. American analogs were theX-23 PRIME andASSET. Several of these craft have been preserved in aerospace museums around the world.
| Image | Type | Launch date | Usage | Current status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| BOR-1 | 15.07.1969 | Flight test, the experimental 1:3 scale model. Burned in the atmosphere at a height of about 60–70 km at a speed 8 000 mph (12 900 km/h). Was deployed at an altitude 328,083 ft (100 km) by11K65 | Burned (planned). | |
 | BOR-2 | 1969–1972 | Sub-scale model of the Spiral space plane. Four launches. | NPO Molniya, Moscow |
| BOR-3 | 1973–1974 | Sub-scale model of the Spiral space plane. Two launches. 1. Destruction of the nose fairings after launch at a height of about five km (speed 0.94 Mach). 2. Flight program is fully implemented. Crashed on landing (Parachute failure) | Crashed. | |
 | BOR-4 | 1980–1984 | Sub-scale model of the Spiral space plane. Four launches and two unconfirmed | NPO Molniya, Moscow |
 | BOR-5 | 1984–1988 | Flight tests, the experimental sub-scale base model. Five launches. Different from Spiral spaceplane shape, data was also used in theBuran project. | Technik Museum Speyer, Germany Museum in Monino, Russia |
 | BOR-6 | Sub-scale model of the Spiral space plane | NPO Molniya, Moscow |
Data from Soviet X-planes[1]
General characteristics
Performance
Aircraft of comparable role, configuration, and era
