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  • Sabre Pilot

    Air Force F-86 pilots wore a mix of World War II and newly-issued flight gear. This pilot has a flying suit and goggles from WWII, but he is also wearing a newer B-15 flight jacket and a post-WWII hard-shell helmet.He is equipped with an oxygen mask for the thin air at high altitude, and a "g-suit"

  • F-86 Sabre vs. MiG-15 Armament

    The F-86 carried six M-3 .50-caliber machine-guns like the one displayed at the museum. The M-3 was a later version of the M-2 used in World War II. The MiG-15 carried two 23mm and one 37mm cannon and was designed to destroy enemy bombers. The two cannons on display came from the museum's MiG-15.The

  • Soviet Pilots over MiG Alley

     The opening of archives in the former Soviet Union confirmed a fact that had long been denied -- the USSR provided many of the MiG-15 pilots and units that fought in MiG Alley. Like their U.S. Air Force opponents, several of these Soviet pilots were World War II combat veterans.Before the Korean

  • MiG Alley: Sabre vs. MiG

     "The MiG-15 was good, but hardly the superfighter that should strike terror in the heart of the West ... There was no question that the F-86 was the better fighter."- No Kum-Sok, North Korean fighter pilot who escaped to South Korea in 1953 after flying nearly 100 combat missions in the

  • Birth of Jet Aircraft

    The Korean War served as the arena for history's first air-to-air combat by jet-propelled aircraft. U.S. Air Force pilots did not start scoring heavily against Russian-made MiG-15 jets until the swept-wing F-86A Sabre arrived in Korea in late 1950. Then the victories began to mount, and by the end

  • First Aerial Victories

    On the morning of June 26, 1950, one day after the start of the war, the U.S. Air Force's 68th Fighter (All-Weather) Squadron sent four F-82G aircraft from Itazuke Air Base in Japan to protect two Norwegian ships evacuating civilians from Seoul. While covering a motor convoy of civilians on the

  • Air Superiority: Controlling the Skies

    "As it happened, the air battle was short and sweet. Air supremacy over Korea was quickly established."- Lt. Gen. E. George Stratemeyer, Far East Air Forces Commander during the first year of warControlling the skies over Korea was the USAF's primary mission. After defeating the small North Korean

  • Defending Hill 351: Allies Work Together

    On March 26, 1953, 16 F-51 Mustang fighter-bombers of the newly-created Republic of Korea Air Force (ROKAF) led by Maj. E. Yul Yoon furiously attacked Communist ground forces attacking Hill 351. The air-to-ground action was being directed by a USAF T-6 Mosquito airborne forward air controller flown

  • "Bout One:" Building a South Korean Air Force

    At the beginning of the Korean War, the South Korean air force (known as the Republic of Korea Air Force or ROKAF) had no combat ready aircraft. The U.S. Air Force quickly provided USAF instructor pilots and 10 F-51 Mustangs to the fledgling ROKAF under the code name "Bout One" and commanded by Col.

  • Air Power Partners in Korea

    "Members of the United Nations furnish such assistance to the Republic of Korea as may be necessary to repel the armed attack and restore international peace and security in the area."- United Nations Security Council Resolution 83, June 27, 1950Although the U.S. Air Force provided the largest