The I-200 prototype was the materialization of the K-project (or X-project) begun in 1939 from the Polikarpov bureau.

The project bore some resemblance in philosophy with the He-100, an aircraft that was well-known to the Soviet designers and probably gave inspiration for the project. Other aircraft that could have influenced the project were the well-known I-16, the fast I-17 of 1935, and the American XP-37.
 

He-100	I-16
I-17	XP-37

In december 1939 a portion of the technicians of the Polikarpov bureau were assigned to a new OKO whose chief was Artyom Mikoyan and whose main collaborator was Mikhail Gurevich, to continue the promising project K. Nikolai Polikarpov, then on official visit in Germany, was distraught from his fall from "king of fighters" position.

The project K was envisioned as the smallest aircraft possible, designed around the large, heavy and powerful Mikulin AM-37 engine and optimized for high altitudes and high speed combat. Secondarily, the less powerful AM-35A was chosen as a backup alternative, being that the AM-37 was still unreliable. The aircraft was first referred to as the I-200.

The war appeared close, and so the government offices gave to Mikoyan the date of July 1st 1940 as a deadline for state acceptance trial; it was a result difficult to achieve, because they had started slowly, and because the Lavockin I-301 and Yakovlev I-26 projects had already months of advantage in development.

As many other Soviet fighters, the MiG-3 was made partially of layered and resined wood (alpha wood); this led to a higher weight than aluminium-alloy structures, but reduced the need for strategic materials. The rear fuselage and the outer parts of the wing were similarly constructed.

The mid and aft fuselage were made with a structure of welded steel tubes, covered with aluminium alloy panels. The central part of wing was made of aluminium alloys; the control surfaces were a aluminium alloy strut covered with fabric.

Thanks to a great effort from his bureau, the I-200 prototype was ready to fly on April 5th, 1940, and some days later it reached the speed of 648 km/h at an height of 6,900 m; an exceptional performance not only for the Soviet Union--the only faster semi-operative aircraft was the Heinkel He-100.

Being a brilliant aircraft, production was begun immediately, with a list of recommended modifications: greater longitudinal and directional stability, self-sealing wing fuel tank, slats, new wheels, rubberized tailwheel, two further removable guns,  a new cockpit easier to open while flying, and an increased fuel capacity for a range of at least 1,000 km.

By the end of 1940, the first I-200 were delivered to the VVS. In spite of many improvements in comparoson to the prototypes, noticeably the new sliding canopy, the pilots had many complaints, the aircraft was difficult to fly and had an high landing speed.

After this feedback, and due to an official order to reach a range of 1000 km, a new version was developed:

• a fourth fuel tank was installed behind the radiator;
• the radiator itself was moved forward and enlarged;
• the engine was moved forward some 10 cm for cg reasons, leading to increase the total lenght from 8150 mm to 8250 mm;
• the wing dihedral was augmented from 6° to 7°, to improve stability;
• the undercarriage was streghtened and changed its shape so support the greater weight of the modified aircraft;
• there was the predisposition for underwing gun pods.

During February 1941 MiG-3s production at Zavod 1 in Moscow-Vnukovo was at rate of 70 per week, and they were widely distributed to the air defense regiments of the VVS.

In spring 1941, before the official beginning of the war, the MiG fighters intercepted subcessfully some German Ju-86P reconaissance planes, that had felt safe flying at 12,000 m altitude; the Germans didn't know of the existence of a Soviet fighter able to operate so high.

During 1941, the dispersal and camouflaging of aircrafts was ordered, and the airfields and pilots training were prepared for the oncoming war.
On June 22, 1941 the Germans invaded the Soviet Union, and the Great Patrioctic war began.
At that moment, 1309 MiG fighters had been built, but most of the VVS consisted of outadated Polikarpov fighters.
Besides, this transitional moment was unfavourable for the full operational deployment of both old and new types.

The attempt to improve armament with two underwing pods with UBK 12,7 mm guns led to a five-gun MiG-3, but this caused deterioration of flight characteristics and, although more than 800 MiG-3 were built with suich armament, the units usually removed it.

Many improvements were gradually introduced during the summer:

• wing slats to improve spin behaviour;
• inhert gas system for fuel tanks;
• propeller and gear were modified for a lower rpm rate;
• a new engine cowling scomposition, inspired to that of Bf-109, allowed a better and faster engine access; this was the main distinctive characteristic of late type MiG-3;
• installation of 6 underwing rockets bot for air-to air and air-to-ground use;
• armament modified into 2 UBS, or 2 ShVAK on very late examples, omitting the 2 ShKAS.

During August 1941, Stalin decided to move the war industry eastwards, far from the menaced zones. In August the design bureau was moved to Kuybyshev, 885 km east of Moscow. Then, in September and October the machines were rapidly disassembled, moved, and 'production' (reassembly) began in Kuybyshev immediately after the arrival, assembling components already built in Moscow. Due to improvised installation, extreme cold and problems, only few aircrafts were assembled at Kuybyshev.

In the middle of the moving of the plant, Soviet government has decided that the production of MiG-3 should cease in October 1941, because of its unsatisfactory war results. But, the aircraft had still the possibility to be improved, and its defects were not sufficient to stop the production in a moment which required any fighter, so it therefore continued till the end of the year.

The end of the MiG-3 production was due to the fact that both engines AM-35A for MiG-3 and AM-38 for Il-2 were built in the same plant at Kyubyshev. The production of the Il-2 was slow because the principal factory producing the AM-38 engine had been in Belorussia, and was captured by Germans. The easiest way to increase the production of AM-38 was to stop the production of the similar AM-35A, and Stalin wrote an angry telegram to the factory directors, that caused the immediate cessation of the AM-35, and few weeks later, of the MiG-3.

Mikoyan tried to save the MiG-3 programme by adapting the aircraft to accomodate the easily available M-82 radial. But the thusly built aircraft, called I-210, suffered from disappointing performance, far worse than the original MiG-3, the similar looking Polikarpov I-185, and the La-5 using the same engine.
This was due to the difficult adaptation of the narrow fuselage to the wide radial that gave a wide cross-section, unfavourable air flow and consequently high drag. Besides that, the poor visibility and the exhaust fumes completed the disappointing performance of the machine, which was built in 5 examples in December 1941.

The Mikoyan team received the status of OKB (experimental design bureau) and were moved to Moscow, now out of German menace, during March 1942. They were accommodated in a spartan facility where they built a further 50 MiG-3s with unused parts; these last fighters were assigned to the Moscow defence. With these aircraft, the production totalled 3,322 MiG-3, plus 100 MiG-1.

During february 1943, the bureau built a strongly improved MiG-3 with an improved M-82F. This plane, called I-211, was built in 10 examples that demonstred excellent characteristics, such as a speed of 670 km/h, a max altitude of 11,300 m, and was armed with two ShVAK guns. These excellent performance parameters were not sufficient to replace the LA-5 which was already in production. The I-211 were operationally used.

The MiG-3U, also known as I-230 or aircraft D, and sometimes referred erroneously as MiG-3D, was a far improvement of the original MiG-3, with a lighter and easier to build structure, metal wing, two syncronized 20 mm ShVAK guns, extended canopy, and a new undercarriage and radiator. Finding an engine was problematic: engines for four aircraft were assembled with spare parts from some AM-35A and AM-38F engines.
Even with this hybrid engine, the four aircrafts flew well and reached a speed of 656 km/h; they were delivered to the 12 Gv.IAP defending Moscow in August 1943.

With the availability of a single AM-39 engine, it was possible to build the powerful I-231 (sometimes erroneously called MiG-3DD) that reached a speed of 707 km/h at an altitude of 7,100 m; despite this exceptional performance, the aircraft was lost due to engine malfunction, and then the project was abandoned because of the cancellation of AM-39 (due to its unreliability).

The I-230 and I-231 were the last of the MiG-3 family, and were thought as a backup program for a more innovative family of large high-altitude fighters, the I-220/221/222/223/224/225. This family of fighters was developed between 1943 and 1945 and never become operational due to the advent of the jet age.