I remember an article from the mid 1980's in Flying  magazine. It was an edition that focused upon the Korean Air War. One of the interviews was a F-86 pilot who had also worked on the F-86 devopment. He explained, if I recall correctly, that the heavier gun's projectile vorticies and gases caused an interuption in the  airflow into the F-86's nose causing flameouts. Bad Ju Ju. The USAF didn't get that corrected until after the Korean war was over.

 

The same pilot said the Russian armament was not much better because it was way to low velocity. He asserted the Red's had difficulty aiming with any degree of deflection because of this. Plus the US pilots had their radar assisted gun sight which helped them score hits more consistently (when it worked!).

 

Check Six

 

Rocky

Suggests the combination of 23mm and 37mm was a mismatch.  Akin to the A6M 7.7mm machine gun and 2cm cannon, neither set of weapons matched ballistically, so the MiG/Zeke pilot had two sorts of firepower with two sorts of ranges and trajectories.  Plus, I understand that the low rate of fire, again akin to the 3cm German weapons of late 1944, made for a hard time hitting a rapidly maneuvering target.

 

I'd say that this period with the T-54/MiG-15/MiG-17 was the high point of Soviet weapons and military development.  After this period the Soviets were increasingly unable to produce effective high-tech weapons, but that in this period  the technology of the era and the Soviet economy of the era were such that the USSR could compete, very effectively.

just to reiterate my previous.

No Kum Sok was an Mig-15 pilot and regarded by the Norks prior to defection as an "ace" - and definitely as an elite. 

His comments about capability on the Mig15 are thus based on actual experience - not heresay.  He also ended up flying the F-86 in latter years and was only one of a handful of people who flew both types.

again, he clearly states that the F-86 was a superior bird - and coupled with superior US pilot training was more than a match.

I'd suggest reading his memoires if you want to find out what the performance differences were really like as he at least was qualified to comment on both the Mig15 and the F-86 (apart from initially, collins and yeager) 

The impression that Chuck Yeager's writing on the subject leave me with is that the Mig-15 of the Korean War wasn't a fully evolved design. Had that been a western aircraft they would have addressed it's many shortcomings prior to full production. While I have not read Kim Sok Ho's words I do remember Yeager's recollection of Ho's warnings about stalling and diving the aircraft. At the time Yeager was tasked to establish whether or not the Mig-15 was actually a super-sonic design, as some US pilots suspected. Clearly Yeager discovered not only that it wasn't supersonic but it would loose all aileron and elevator control as it approached mach .98 or so. To prevent this the Russians rigged it's speed brake to open automatically going past mach .95 or something like that. Where as a late model F-86 with the "flying tail" would happily punch through mach-1 and recover nicely.

 

The Sabre is perhaps the most balanced combat airplane ever built so it is hardly fair to compare anything to it. I know of nobody who has flown one who didn't absolutely adore it. It's systems were technologically a full generation ahead of the Mig-15 yet when Chuck Yeager got into the Mig and fought all comers on Okinawa that rainy week and found the Mig a quite capable aircraft. According to General Boyd, Yeager's commanding officer, Yeager felt it was close enough in performance that the pilot made the difference in which bird would go "Sierra Hotel" and which would punch a hole in the ground at the conclusion of a dogfight.

 

That is why I think it is an interesting piece of history and an interesting discussion. The Russians were able to clearly out perform all other western designs and give their pilots the ability to choose the terms of combat against the Sabre. Since it could out climb and out run the Sabre above about 20,000 feet.

Check Six

 

Rocky

Yeager wasn't representative of the average pilot.  A fighter that has more issues upon getting closer to the edge of the envelope and has higher stick forces, and a poorer gunsight, and poorer cockpit vision basically cancels out any advatgaes it has.

 

http://img23.imageshack.us/img23/7082/mig15versusf86.jpg" height="1000" width="600" />

 

As you can see, the F-86 can readily out-turn the Mig but cannot out-climb it.

 

H.

   

 

It's interesting because Its pretty clear that the russians didn't take the fight to the USAF, NKS makes it pretty clear that they (the russians) would stay on the ground and avoid the fight towards the latter part of the air war.  The chinese however were prepared to make a fist of it and take the fight to the US if they could.  NKS also mentions that the russian Migs were superior to the Nork models.  They were outnumbered and outflown - esp towards the end.

The USAF were predictable in some of their regular raid times, and even though the russians could have pre-empted and bounced they never did.  again, one would have to say that training and doctrine advantages lay with the US (and allies to some extent)

 

 

No Kum Sok thought that Yeager was "full of himself" - and certainly thought that there were better technical USAF pilots around who were not self promoters....

Interestingly enough, I've heard the same about Yeager from some USAF/USN types who've met the man.