Re: Korean Air War

[Donald McElfresh <a0019874@airmail.net>]

Gentlemen:

Didn't General Claire Chennault's Flying Tigers (in their P-40's or "Warhawks")
dive down and through Japanese formations, as a standard approach, and then go
like hell rather than dogfight, where they were at a disadvantage.  They were
heavier aircraft, also.  No one can discredit their 6 month success record of
1941/1942.

Don

Diego Zampini wrote:

> 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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