Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-19P & PM, Soviet users

The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-19P was a version equipped with an RP-1 Izumrud radar placed inside a radome in the nose. It's armed with two 23 mm NR-23, late variants being armed with a 30 mm NR-30 cannons placed at the root of the wings. 

The wings were equipped with hardpoints that could carry unguided rockets, one under each wing. It also had an elongated tailfin fillet, all-moving tailplane and a third airbrake added behind the central fin. 

It was produced from 1956 until 1958, though some sources claim its production started one year earlier, in 1955. 

The prototype, the Mikoyan-Gurevich SM7/1, flew for the first time on 28th August 1954 and a total of 433 machines were manufactured at Gorky's Aircraft Factory No.21 with many of them being exported to various Warsaw Pact countries and allies. 

The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-19PM was another variant of the "P" with its cannons completely removed and armed only with four Kaliningrad K-5M beam-riding air-to-air missiles. A total of 369 machines were manufactured at Gorky's Aircraft Factory between 1956 and 1960.

The type entered service with the VVS (Soviet Air Force) and remained in active service together with the older MiG-17 as it never fully replaced it given to its low reliability. They were involved in many interceptions over East Germany and Warsaw Pact airspace. In fact, the first documented encounter with a Lockheed U-2 took place in autumn 1957. The MiG-19P pilot, reported seeing the aircraft but couldn't make up the 3.000 m (9.800 ft) difference in altitude. Later, when Francis Gary Powers' U-2 was shot down in 1960 one pursuing MiG-19P was also hit by a salvo of S-75 Dvina ground-to-air missiles, killing the pilot, Sergei Safronov in a friendly fire incident. 

They served as the vanguard of the VVS's fighter force from the mid 1950s until early 1960s when they were progressively replaced by the much better MiG-21. Many of them were still active in 1968 when they took part in Soviet Invasion of Czechoslovakia.

Sources:

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikoyan-Gurevich_MiG-19#Variants

2. https://www.valka.cz/Mikojan-Gurevic-MiG-19P-kod-NATO-Farmer-B-t12471

3. https://www.valka.cz/Mikojan-Gurevic-MiG-19PM-kod-NATO-Farmer-D-t766

4. Midland Publishing - Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-19. The Soviet Union's First Production Supersonic Fighter

5. Salamander Books - The Complete Book of Fighters

Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-17F, part five, Romanian and Soviet users

The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-17F was also used by every Warsaw Pact country member. Among them Romania and the USSR, as expected.

• Romania: In 1952 the People's Republic of Romania received a batch of 48 MiG-17Fs which were delivered in three stages with the last one being delivered in 1955. When, in 1958 the first MiG-19s were delivered, they were gradually withdrawn from active fighter service and sent to ground support duties, although they were technically never used in combat. During the 1960s some of them were still active and they were kept in active service with the Romanian Air Force until as late as 1992 when they were written off.
• USSR: The MiG-17F was designed for interception of enemy bombers, and not for dog fighting. As it's a subsonic fighter, it was effective against slower (0.6-0.8 mach) heavily loaded American fighters, as well as the main American bombers during its development period in the early 1950s like the piston-powered B-50 Superfortress or the Convair B-36 Peacemaker which was mixed jet and piston-powered. The MiG-17F (which composed the bulk of every Soviet Air Arm during the early-to-mid 1950s) wasn't however able of intercepting the newer generation of bombers that appeared in the mid-1950s like the Avro Vulcan or the Handley-Page Victor as they could flight higher. As the USAF introduced strategic bombers capable of supersonic dashes like the Convair B-58 Hustler or the General-Dynamics FB-111 in the early 1960s, the MiG-17 was rendered obsolete for front-line PVO (Soviet Air Defence Forces) service and they were replaced in that service branch by the MiG-21 and MiG-23.
  In 1958 PVO's MiG-17Fs shot down an American reconnaissance Lockheed C-130 Hercules that was flying over Armenia causing 17 casualties and, during the Prague spring in 1968, the Soviet Forces destined there, used MiG-17Fs to flight over Czechoslovakia.

Sources:

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikoyan-Gurevich_MiG-17#Operators

2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_Air_Defence_Forces

3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanian_Air_Force

4. http://www.aeroflight.co.uk/tag/romanian-air-force

5. Salamander Books - The Complete Book of Fighters

Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-17, part two, European users

The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-17 is a high-subsonic fighter aircraft made mainly in the USSR from 1952 and operated by many world's air forces in many variants. It was an advanced development of the previous MiG-15 which showed excellent results during the Korean War. It was also built under license in China, as Shenyang J-5 and in Poland as WSK-Mielec Lim-6.
It was employed in combat for the first time during the Second Taiwan Strait Crisis and later proved to be effective against the more advanced supersonic fighters of the United States during the Vietnam War. Prior to the official NATO designation, it was known by the United States Air Force as Type 38.
The first variant, called just "MiG-17" (NATO code "Fresco-A") was the basic fighter version powered by the Klimov VK-1 engine which delivered a power of 26.48kN (5952lb) of thrust, with some versions retrofitted later with the improved Klimov VK-1A which yielded 26.87kN (6041lb) of power.
It was armed with a single 37mm N-37D cannon, two 23mm NR-23 cannons and could carry up to 250kg of bombs or external fuel depots, which was the most usual underwing addition.
The basic variant, was used, among others, by the next European users:

• Albania: Just before the Soviet-Albanian Split of 1955, the Albanian People's Army Air Force received some MiG-17s. Their operational use and/or fate is unknown and, as we couldn't find graphical evidence, the drawing should be taken as speculative.
• East Germany: The first fighters of the Air Forces of the National People's Army, founded in 1956, were MiG-17s and MiG-17Fs which served together until mid-1960s when they were replaced by the more advanced MiG-19 and MiG-21.
• USSR: The main user of the MiG-17. More than 5467 exemplar built in many Soviet factories from 1952 until 1955. They were the main Soviet fighter until 1955 when they were gradually replaced by the more advanced variant MiG-17F. 

Sources:

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikoyan-Gurevich_MiG-17

2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_Forces_of_the_National_People%27s_Army

3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albanian_Air_Force

4. https://www.valka.cz/topic/view/49437/

Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15UTI, part one

The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15UTI was the two-seat trainer variant of the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15bis. It has been regarded as one of the most successful jet-trainer aircraft of all time and, with almost 5500 exemplars having built it's also one of the most produced aircrafts in history.
It was designed by Mikoyan-Gurevich OKB (which stands for "design bureau") and flew for the first time on 27th June 1949. It was produced from 1950 until 1959, just in Soviet factories and, the licensed variants like the Czechoslovak Aero CS-102 ,the Chinese Shenyang JJ-2/FT-2 or the Polish WSK-Mielec SB Lim-1 and Lim2 were still under production as late as 1958 and, in the Chinese case most probably until early-to-mid 1960s. The first factory to produce the UTI variant was the Kuybyshev Aircraft Factory No.1 "Stalin", located at Kuybyshev which manufactured the UTI from 1950 until 1953 which, manufactured 881 exemplars. The second factory to manufacture it was Ulan-Ude's Aircraft Factory No.99, in Ulan-Ude. This one, with 1117 exemplars manufactured from 1951 until 1959 has the record of being the one that most MiG-15UTIs manufactured. The third factory to manufacture it was Kharkov's Aircraft Factory No. 135, in Kharkov which produced 511 of them from 1950 until 1954 and the fourth factory to manufacture it was Novosibirsk's Aircraft Factory No.153, in Novosibirsk which made 924 exemplars making it the second most productive one.
Just like the regular Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15, the UTI version was powered by a single Klimov RD-45F which delivered a thrust power of 5005lb (22.26KN), had an internal fuel tank of 1080L (238 imp. gal. or 250 US gal.) with the possibility of carrying two additional external fuel tanks on the wings with a capacity of 400L (88imp. gal, 106 US gal.) each. It was armed with a single 12,7mm (0,5in) UBK-machine gun placed under the nose and could also mount a single 23mm NR-23 cannon also under the nose. It had also hardpoints to carry either two 50kg (110lb) or 100kg (221lb) bombs underwings.
Due to its high success and popularity, it was quickly adopted as the VVS main trainer and remained in that role until the fall of the USSR in 1992 and, some of the ex-Soviet republics still kept it in active combat service during the conflicts of the 1990s. At VVS's command was used not only in the trainer role but also in the recon role during the 1960s (and more exactly to watch the Czechoslovak-German border during the Soviet Invasion of Czechoslovakia, AKA the Prague Spring) and the type became famous because the first man in space, Yuri Gagarin, was killed in a crash during a training flight in a MiG-15UTI due to poor visibility.
A sub-variant, the MiG-15UTI-P was a single prototype designed in Czechoslovakia by the "1st Aviation Repair Division" (translation not 100% precise) in 1957 which was unarmed but was equipped with a Izumrud RP-1 radar mounted in the nose (which was the same radar type the MiG-17PF had) and was intended to train pilots in the usage of airborne radar. However it wasn't accepted into production as there was already another type covering that need.

Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikoyan-Gurevich_MiG-15
2. https://forum.valka.cz/topic/view/22676
3. https://forum.valka.cz/topic/view/12489