Fighter Aircraft

Korean War era: 1950 - 1953

The Korean War between North Korea and South Korea began June 25th 1950 and lasted until an armistice was signed July 27th 1953.

As WW II came to a close, in September 1945, the Soviets liberated the northern part of Korea above the 38th parallel from the Japanese occupiers and the USA liberated the southern part from the Japanese occupiers. This led to the splitting of Korea with a northern government adopting communism and a southern government capitalism.

In an attempt to unify north & south Korea, backed by Stalin and using Soviet weapons, the communist north led by Kim Il-sung invaded the south Sunday, June 25th 1950.

The first significant foreign military intervention by US & United Nations forces took place July 5th 1950. Hostilities further escalated when China entered the war on the side of North Korea. Chinese troops engaged US troops for the first time November 1st 1950.

An armistice was signed July 27th 1953 after the death of about 400,000 South Koreans and 500,000 North Koreans. Foreign servicemen to die in combat were about , 33,000 US, 2,100 UN, and 110,000 Chinese.

P-80 Shooting Star 1945, U.S., 600 mph
The Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star was the first operational jet fighter used by the United States Army Air Forces, seeing extensive combat in Korea as the F-80. The first jet-versus-jet aircraft battle took place November 8th 1950 in which Lieutenant Russell J. Brown, flying an F-80, claimed a MiG-15 shot down. Despite the initial claim of success, the straight-wing F-80s were inferior in performance to the MiGs.

The arrival of the US designed F-86 Sabers in late 1950 early 1951 saw the Shooting Star assigned to ground attack missions and advanced flight training duties. Armed with 6 x 0.50 in (12.7 mm) machine guns. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P-80_Shooting_Star

Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 1949, Russian, 668 mph
The MiG-15 was one of the first successful swept-wing jet fighters achieving fame in the skies over Korea, where early in the war, it outclassed all enemy fighters. The MiG 15 entered the Korean War in November 1950. The success of the MiG against the U.S. designed F-80s and British WWII designed Gloster Meteors, led to the U.S. rushing their F-86 Sabres to the area with the first arriving in December 1950.

The arrival of the F-86 Sabres began one of the closest matched battles between any two types of fighter aircraft as there was little difference in performance. Armed with 20, 25, 30 or 40 mm cannon. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MiG-15

F-86 Sabre 1949, U.S., 690 mph
The F-86 entered service with the United States Air Force in 1949 becoming their primary air-to-air jet fighter used in the Korean War. The F-86 could out-turn and out-dive the MiG-15, but the MiG-15 was superior to the F-86 in ceiling, acceleration and rate of climb. By the end of hostilities, F-86s had shot down 792 MiGs at a loss of only 76 F-86, a victory ratio of 10 - 1. This applied to the MiGs flown by Chinese or North Korean pilots who were poorly trained.

Russian pilots who flew the plane in Korea claimed a 2 - 1 kill ratio in favour of the MiG-15. Armed with 6 x 0.50 in (12.7 mm) machine guns. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F-86_Sabre www.plane-crazy.net/links/f86

One of the most disastrous mistakes of WWII turned out to be Great Britain sending six Rolls-Royce 'Nenes' jet engines to Russia soon after the end of the war. Copies of that fine engine powered the Mig 15 in Korea.