The cost is also too great
How did the Soviet Union get the US F86 fighter?
At the beginning of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, because the Chinese Air Force did not yet have combat capability, the Chinese side strongly requested the Soviet Union to provide air cover. As a matter of fact, long before the Chinese People's Volunteers entered the DPRK in October, the 324th Guards Fighter Aviation Division of the Soviet Air Force had secretly stationed at Shenyang's Yuhong Airport and Anshan's Tengao Airport. Through the later declassified Soviet archives, we learned that the reason why Stalin later changed his mind and did not allow his air force to dispatch was that the US military had crossed the 38th parallel, North Korea had become a battlefield, and if his air force was dispatched, it would inevitably lead to a situation of open confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union. Second, they are skeptical about whether the volunteers have the ability to compete with the US military. It was not until October 25, when the first battle of the Volunteer Army began, especially after the heavy defeat of the 1st Cavalry Division of the US Army at Unsan, which changed the tide of the war in Korea, that Stalin ordered the Soviet Air Force to enter the battle.
On November 1, 1950, the first air battle to resist US aggression and aid Korea was fought over Sinuiju, although this air battle was not the first battle of the Chinese and US air forces, but it was a "PK" between the Soviets and the Americans. Sure enough, the Soviet army was extraordinary, shooting down two B29 strategic bombers on the same day. After several air battles, not only did the B-29 bombers suffer heavy losses, but also a large number of escort fighters were shot down. The U.S. military realized that the P-51 propeller fighters and F84 jet fighters participating in the escort were simply no match for the Soviet-made MiG-15 aircraft. In order to seize air supremacy, on December 22, 1950, the F86 jet fighter known as the Sabre officially "appeared" on the Korean battlefield, and as soon as it shot, it gave the Soviet army a "dismount", and on the same day, six MiG-15s of the Soviet army were shot down.
F86 (top) vs. MiG-15 (bottom).
The appearance of the F86 really surprised Lao Maozi, in addition to studying the tactics of dealing with the F86 in air combat, getting a complete F86 has become the goal that the Soviets are eager for. So, the Soviets immediately went into action. In March 1951, Captain Orlov of the Military Intelligence Directorate led a group to North Korea secretly. The first is to obtain information about the aircraft from the interrogation of the captured pilots of the F86. The second is the valuable information obtained from radio monitoring. The third is to collect parts and components from the wreckage of the downed F86 and transport them to the Soviet Union for analysis and research. However, these "fragments" alone still do not provide comprehensive and detailed data on the F86. After the situation was reported to Stalin, the Supreme Commander-in-Chief issued an order to "get an F86 at all costs." At that time, neither Stalin nor the Soviet army expected that the price paid for getting the F86 was indeed too great.....
F86 Sabre fighter
In order to get a complete F86, the first plan considered by the Soviet army was "hunting", that is, creating a situation in which several MiG-15s surrounded an F86 in an air battle and drove it to make a forced landing in northeast China. In April 1951, the Soviet Army sent a special team of test pilots from the Central Institute of Fluid Mechanics of the Soviet Union to practice this tactic at a training base in northeastern China. Subsequently, the group was incorporated into the 324th Regiment of the 196th Aviation Division of the Soviet Army in Andong. The regiment was the first elite air force unit secretly thrown into the Korean War by the Soviet Union. The division commander was Kozhdub, the number one ace of the Soviet Army in World War II.
However, the commander of the 196th Regiment and later the number one ace of the Korean War, Colonel Pepelyaev, was not optimistic about this "hunting" tactic that these formidable test pilots had devoured. He believes that this method of operation will not succeed for two reasons: First, in order to obtain a complete F-86, the Soviet test pilots cannot attack the fatal parts of the F-86, while the opponent can desperately fight back, and the aerial hunt will end in a ridiculous ending of "stealing chickens and rice." Second, the "hunting" tactics are nothing but wishful thinking on the part of the test pilots, and the F86 pilots cannot and will not play their cards according to the wishes of the Soviets, and their good intentions are nothing more than "fishing for the moon in the water." When the test pilots offered to borrow the MiG-196 of the 196th regiment and were willing to record the results in the accounts of the 196th regiment, he replied: "I don't need your records and I don't want them." If you can save your life, you will be lucky. ”
Evgeny S. G. Peperyaev
Sure enough, the ending of the "hunt" was unfortunately said by Peperyaev. On May 31, the first "hunt", the MiG-15 piloted by a senior test pilot was shot down, and two more were heavily damaged. At the end of the second hunting operation eight days later, the commander of the team was killed during the landing at Andong Airport. The "hunting" operation ended in a bleak ending with the loss of four valuable test pilots. At this point, the test pilots returned to Moscow, and no one mentioned the hunt for the Sabre......
However, Pepelyaev, who is not optimistic about the "hunting" of the F86, has never forgotten the unfulfilled wishes of the test pilots, and he is always looking for opportunities. Maybe it's because the sky has eyes, or maybe it's because the F86's luck is not good, and the opportunity has finally come......
On October 6, 1951, in the airspace near the Yalu River at an altitude of 8,000 meters, 16 F86s of the US Army met 10 MiG-15s of the Soviet Army. At a distance of 550 meters, Pepelyaev fired at an F-86 piloted by U.S. Air Force Second Lieutenant Garrett, and the shell hit the rear fuselage of the canopy, causing damage to the engine and ejection seat. Garrett flew desperately westward toward the Yellow Sea, trying to make a forced landing on the surface of the sea to escape. Unfortunately, this prey was caught by Captain Sheberstov, a pilot of the 324th Division of the Soviet Army, who was flying in a formation of 4 planes, and he pounced on the F86, which was dragging black smoke down at an angle of 45 ° ~ 50 °, and opened fire at an altitude of 1006 meters, more than 300 meters away from the aircraft. Because the F86 lost a lot of altitude in the pursuit process, and the plane had lost power, it had to make a forced landing on the tidal flats along the coast, and a relatively complete F86 was finally placed in front of the Soviet army.
After Garrett sent a distress signal, a US SA-16 "Albatross" seaplane quickly arrived at the scene to rescue him. Next, a battle began around the F86 aircraft.
In the sky, a large number of US planes swarmed to try to destroy it. A large number of Soviet MiG-15s rushed to intercept them, and an air melee that lasted for 3 hours was fought in the dark. With the passage of time, the F86 was gradually submerged by the tide, and the US plane without a target flew away from the sky. In order to protect this "enemy aircraft", the Soviet troops paid a high price again. Pepelyaev later recalled: We lost 7 MiG-15s, but we did not shoot down the Sabre, but fortunately the tide that came soon overwhelmed the plane. ”
Underground, a Soviet detachment, including representatives of the Mikoyan Design Bureau, immediately set off and soon arrived at the place of the forced landing of the F86. First, 500 volunteer soldiers towed the plane to the shore, and after a night of hard work, the fuselage and wings were finally disassembled at 4 a.m. the next day, and after the disassembly, the plane was immediately loaded onto a truck and driven to Anton, China.
On the road, to ensure safety, the trucks carrying the aircraft are driven at night and hidden in tunnels during the day. However, the road is still full of dangers. In the early hours of the morning, several trucks arrived at the scheduled tunnel after a night of travel. Although it was already dawn, the Soviet engineer Chebelev, who was escorting the first truck, tried to get to the next tunnel. Unexpectedly, when the car entered the tunnel, a B-26 bomber followed, fired rockets into the tunnel, and exploded more than ten meters from the entrance of the tunnel. Fortunately, the car had already driven 100 meters into the tunnel without being damaged. Chebelev later recalled the perilous situation and still had lingering palpitations.
After the convoy arrived at Anton, the F86 stayed at the base for several days at the request of the head of the regiment Peperyaev, before the plane was transported to Moscow, and the pilots of the MiG-15 finally had the opportunity to get up close and personal with their opponent's aircraft. Pepelyaev said to the representative of the Mikoyan Design Bureau at that time: "I sat in the cockpit, and we all sat for a while. The cockpit layout is good, giving the impression of sitting in a premium sedan. The sound is that compared with the rough and simple MiG-15, the F86 cabin is more comfortable and more humane in terms of instruments, seats and cabin configuration.
Interior of the F86 cockpit
At the end of October, after the plane arrived at the Soviet Air Force Test Flight Research Institute, although the Test Flight Research Institute, Mikoyan, Yakovlev, Tupolev, and the Sukhoi Design Bureau did not carry out the "reverse design imitation" of the F86 in accordance with Stalin's will, many things on the F86 that they had only heard and had not seen in the past still dazzled the eyes of these experts, and the inventions and creations of their American counterparts also benefited them a lot. For example, the APG-86 radar cannon sight installed on the F-30, the hydraulic assistance of the flight operating system, the leading edge wing of the wing, the full-motion horizontal tail, etc. These were used in the design and development of subsequent MiG-17, MiG-19 and other fighters. When it comes to what is really completely copied, the only thing that is the anti-load suit used by the F86 pilots is the one used. Since the Korean War, US military pilots have begun to fully equip themselves with anti-load suits, which has greatly improved their combat efficiency.
Anti-Dutch clothing of American pilots during the Korean War
Through the study of the F86 radar cannon sight, the Soviets found that with this sight, it was still possible to ensure very accurate shooting at a distance of 914 meters, while the MiG-15 at this time still used an optical sight produced in 1939. In addition to the fact that this technology was later used in the MiG-17ПФ all-weather fighter, more importantly, the Soviet army built a warning receiver for the radar frequency of the F86 sight, and immediately installed it on the MiG-15 aircraft that fought in North Korea. When it is aimed and locked by the F86 radar cannon sight, the pilot's headset will send a warning audio signal, which really enables the pilots of China, the Soviet Union, and the DPRK to discover the enemy plane in time and effectively get rid of the attack.
In comparison, it seems much easier for the United States to acquire the MiG-15 than for the Soviet Union to acquire the F86. On September 21, 1953, Roh Geum-seok, a lieutenant pilot of the Korean People's Army Air Force, defected to South Korea in a MiG-15 Bis fighter with the number 2057, and the Americans acquired a MiG-15 fighter with "all beards and all tails". The U.S. paid only $100,000, albeit more than a year later than the Soviets.
MiG-2057 Bis fighter with the designation 15
In fact, China also acquired an F86 fighter jet, that is, on June 2, 1963, Xu Tingze, the former captain pilot of the 43rd Squadron of the 11th Brigade of the Second Wing of the Kuomintang Air Force, flew back to the mainland in an American-made F86F jet fighter. However, the plane was not given to the Soviet Union, and it is still quietly parked in the Military Museum of the Chinese People's Revolution in Beijing......
Xu Tingze took the opportunity to revolt
*The picture is from the Internet, if there is an infringement dispute, it will be deleted