Less than a year after the MiG-15 had been sanctioned for production (1948), this design bureau initiated work on a follow-on fighter that would approach the speed of sound mainly through refinement of the basic airframe configuration. The first prototype received the designation I-330, and flew for the first time in January 1950. Claims that the I-330 managed to better M1.0 during test flights are believed to be unsubstantiated, but the overall improvements in performance were important.
Following the loss of the first prototype, a second and further improved prototype took over, allowing
testing to be completed in 1951, and production of the MiG-17 was given the go-ahead. Compared to the
MiG-15, the MiG-17 had a lengthened fuselage with softer taper, larger area tail surfaces to benefit handling
characteristics, and thinner section wings with rounded tips. Indeed, the wings were designed from scratch,
with the inner leading-edges extended forward; this resulted in greater root chord and varying leading-edge
sweepback (45° along inner portions, 42° on outer panels). A mark of identification was the MiG-17's three
boundary layer fences on each wing.
Production began with a day fighter model (NATO `Fresco-A'), which retained the VK-1 engine. The later MiG-17PF introduced all-weather capability, housing Izumrud S-band radar in a `bullet' radome at the
centre of the nose air intake and in an extension on the upper lip of the intake. Subsequently, this S-band radar was superseded by an E/F-band version of `Scan Fix', which still gave neither a large antenna nor a wide angle of scan and is now thought obsolescent.
In addition to the specialised two-seat trainer derivative of the MiG-17, known as the JJ-5 and exclusive
to Chinese production, the MiG-17 was also built (apart from in the former USSR) in China, Czechoslovakia and Poland, with whom it was known as the J-5, S-104 and LiM-5 respectively. A total of 11,015 was built (including licence production). The last one was built in 1958.