Re: Korean Air War

["Diego Zampini" <dzampini@hotmail.com>]

Hi, Dan:

>The F86 was a full ton heavier then the Mig with the same power.

And such difference of weight allowed the MiG to accelarate faster in 
leveled flight. This ability was used by many Soviet (and Chinese pilots) to 
disengage when they were jumped by Sabres.

>It seems all the US planes were lacking in the performance
>department during WW2. The Mustang could be outturned and
>outclimbed by most of the Axis and Japanese planes.

I am an expert in American WW2 warplanes, but it seems to me that the P-51D 
Mustang could easily out-turn the German Bf 109s and Fw 190s (the last one 
was, however, a better match), despite I guess the Fw 190 climbed better 
than the Mustang. The P-47 Thunderbolt was the one who was easily out-turned 
and out-climbed by both the Messerchmitt and the Focke Wulf. The only one 
thing that the Thunderbolt did better was to dive. Of course, the A6M Zero 
could out-turn the P-51, but the Zero out-turned every existing combat 
plane.

>The F86 below 30k was said to be more maneuverable than
>the Mig but when you have a plane diving on you it is hard
>to get out of the way.  All of the exploits by the best pilots
>always stipulated altitude advantage and using the sun.

In that aspect (to begin a combat with altitude advantage and using the sun) 
the Soviet MiG-15 pilots in 1951 used to take the best part, due to the 
higher ceiling of the MiG (51,000 feet vs 47,000 of the Sabre). The Soviet 
Ace Nikolai Sutyagin scored most of his Sabre kills with such tactic. His 
first F-86 on June 19 1951 was shot down that way. I only know an occasion 
where the MiGs score a kill while they were lower than the Sabres: on 
October 6 1951 Yevgeni Pepelyayev began a head-on pass against 2 F-86s while 
he was at 8,000 meters (24,000 feet) and the Sabres at 9,000 meters (27,000 
feet). Despite that, in such head-on pass was when he shot-up the F-86A BuNo 
49-1178. But since 1952 many of the poorly trained newcomer MiG drivers stop 
using such tactic and lost the advantage.

>Interestingly the early G-suit was the difference in WW2 also.
>As speeds got up to 500mph and cranking in 6 to 9 Gs helped you
>focus on a quick leading shot on the enemy before they could react.

Certainly the lack of G-suits by the Communist air forces was an edge in 
favour of the US pilots, particularly since 1952 onwards. A veteran pilot 
could (at least partially) counterest the G-effects, but a rookie one could 
not. Despite I think the reports about dozens of MiGs crashing into the 
ground after tight turns in May 1953 are mainly USAF propaganda and are 
inflated, I am sure that some of them really happened. In any case, the lack 
of G-suit sharply limitated the flight envelope of the MiG, not because the 
plane, but the pilot!

>My comparison: The Mig vs Sabre is like the Warhawk vs Zero

In your comparison, the MiG is the Zero and the Sabre is the Warhawk?
Regards,
Diego

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