One of the countries where many steps forward were made in jet fighter design and technology during the decade following World War Two was the Soviet Union. Specifically, the Mikoyan-Gurevich (MiG) experimental design bureau was at the forefront of jet fighter development, embracing many of the emerging concepts for fast, efficient high-performance designs including the use of swept wings. Designated OKB-155 under the unique Soviet system of aircraft development and manufacture, which was (and still is) totally different to that of the West, the bureau emerged during the years after World War Two as the leading jet fighter designer of the Soviet Union. Beginning with the subsonic single-engined MiG-15 which was successful in combat during the Korean War of 1950-53, and progressing with its similar but considerably improved successor, the MiG-17, Mikoyan-Gurevich became a household name not just in the Soviet Union but across the West as well. During the early 1950s it was becoming obvious that the performance envelope of jet fighters could be considerably extended, partly through new advances in aerodynamics but also with the advent of more powerful and generally more reliable turbojet engines. The designers at OKB-155 developed an improved derivative of the MiG-17 designated SM-1, which flew in the early months of 1952 with two Mikulin AM-5 non-afterburning turbojets side-by-side in a redesigned rear fuselage.
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