Wikipedia's article on the MiG-15 only states a basic number of 12,000 produced natively, with up to 6,000 more produced in other countries. But it does not list any years for this.
When did mass-production start and end for the MiG-15 in the Soviet Union? This would at least let us divide 12,000 by the total years to get an average production rate. Ideally I'm looking for the number built each year, as this will surely vary year to year.
There is hardly anything that can't be found with the help of a few friends and the Library of Congress. "Истребитель МИГ-15 (MiG-15 Fighter)" ISBN 9785857290194 Pp.52-57.
Plant No.1 (Kuibyshev):
MiG-15 MiG-15bis MiG-15Pbis UTI MiG-15bis
1949 Plan 550
Actual 510
1950 Plan 300 350 50
Actual 301 401 50
1951 Plan 792 5 365
Actual 820 5 371
1952 Plan 425 315
Actual 460 333
1953 Plan
Actual 2 127
Non-flyable [what the heck is that??] MiG-15: 2 in 1949, 4 in 1950. 10 knock-down UTI MiG-15 kits were produced in 1951.
Plant No. 153 - Novosibirsk
MiG-15 MiG-15bis MiG-15Pbis UTI MiG-15bis
1949 Plan 550
Actual 144
1950 Plan 300 500
Actual 308 360
1951 Plan 1173
Actual 1 1196
1952 Plan 840
Actual 863
1953 Plan 200
Actual 1 209
1954 Plan 700
Actual 715
Plant No.381 (Leningrad): 1949 - 75 MiG-15
Plant No.21 (Gor'ky):
MiG-15bis (type 53) MiG-15Rbis (type 55)
1950 Plan 350
Actual 367
1951 Plan 937 60
Actual 992 64
1952 Plan 395 300
Actual 425 300
Plant No.31 - Tbilisi
MiG-15bis (art. 50)
1951 Plan 30
Actual 35
1952 Plan 190
Actual 190
Plant No.126 - Komsomo'ls'k-NA-Amure
MiG-15 MiG-15bis
1950 Plan 250
Actual 1 42
1951 Plan 337
Actual 362
1952 Plan 400
Actual 428
Plant No.292 - Saratov
MiG-15 MiG-15bis MiG-15Sbis
1950 Plan 275
Actual 8? 131
1951 Plan 457 100
Actual 509 49
1952 Plan 350
Actual 354
Plant No.135 - Kharkiv
UTI MiG-15
1950 Plan 25
Actual 6
1951 Plan 50
Actual 50
1952 Plan 150
Actual 85
1953 Plan 150
Actual 158
1954 Plan 200
Actual 212
Plant No.99 (Ulan-Ude)
UTI MiG-15
1951 Plan 75
Actual 29
1952 Plan 125
Actual 53
1953 Plan 150
Actual 127
1954 Plan 200
Actual 206
1955 Plan 225
Actual 245
1956 Plan
Actual 173
1957 Plan
Actual 113
1958 Plan
Actual 106
1959 Plan
Actual 65
Totals for the USSR (may contain errors, haven't double-checked):
| | Combat MiG-15 and variants | UTI MiG-15 |
| Year | Plan | Actual | Plan | Actual |
| 1949 | 1175 | 729 | 0 | 0 |
| 1950 | 2325 | 1911 | 75 | 56 |
| 1951 | 3891 | 4033 | 490 | 450 |
| 1952 | 2900 | 3020 | 590 | 471 |
| 1953 | 0 | 3 | 500 | 621 |
| 1954 | | | 1100 | 1133 |
| 1955 | | | 225 | 245 |
| 1956 | | | 0 | 173 |
| 1957 | | | 0 | 113 |
| 1958 | | | 0 | 106 |
| 1959 | | | 0 | 65 |
My reference is the Osprey Encycopledia of Russian Aircraft, but even here no yearly figures are listed. But it gives a little more details.
The MiG OKB started work on type S (for strelovidnost = swept) in March of 1946 and based it on German work which had determined that a backward-swept midwing configuration with central intake was the best compromise. The first prototype S-01 flew first on Dec. 30, 1947, followed by S-02 on May 27, 1948. The third prototype S-03 had numerous changes applied (many of them diligently listed in the book) and flew first on June 17, 1948. In August 1948 it was selected for mass production as the MiG-15. Initial production started at GAZ-1 with the first aircraft delivered to service units on October 8, 1948. The Politburo decided on March 20, 1949, to increase production, so the plants that were building the La-15, Li-2, Yak-17 and -23 were all switched over to the MiG-15. Until 1956 12,000 units were built in 17 versions, more than half of them (6,500) as two-seater trainers (MiG-15UTI), built from the second half of 1950 on.
The Czech license-built S-102 are given with 853 units, built between 1953 and 1955 and the Polish LIM-1 with 54 units.
The MiG-15bis is listed separately and started production from early 1952 on. In Czechoslovakia 620 were license-built as the S-103 and in Poland as LIM-2 (no numbers given).
The book is clearly more for engineers than for production people. Would you know that the MiG-15 ejection seat needed different cartridges in winter than in summer, or that the MiG-15 Burlak was equipped with a harpoon to catch a cable towed behind the wing of a bomber, so it could fly in tow to be available as fighter cover over the target area? Since the engine was shut down for cruise, the pilot froze abjectly.
The MiG-17 started deliveries from October 1952 on, so it is fair to assume that the bulk of MiG-15 were built between the second half of 1949 and 1952. If you split those three years evenly, the yearly production figure would be 4,000. Now subtract a few hundred for the initial production and some more for the later production years (mostly MiG-15UTI), and I would expect that the highest yearly production was maybe 3,000, with many of the 6,500 MiG-15UTI built between 1953 and 1956.
With the production numbers listed in the book I have a hard time to reach anything close to those 18,000 given in Wikipedia. Many of the MiG-15s flown in East Bloc countries were produced in Russia and exported. The number of exported MiG-15UTI is given as over 1,960 alone.
This article from 1952 states an annual production of 5,500 to 6,200 aircraft. Even if this represented the peak production, that seems a bit high compared to the total production number of over 18,000. Some details of how these sorts of estimates were made is available in this document.
The PZL Mieliec states it build
237 pieces of Lim-1 [inc. 1A & SB] (from '52 to '54) and
510 pieces of Lim-2 [inc. 2A & SB] (from '54 to '56)
Other sources state that less then 220 Lim-1 and less then 500 of the Lim-2 has been build
The Aero Vodochody build 850 pieces of S-102 620 pieces of S-103 and over 4200 pieces of the CS-102
