To: E. Charters who wrote (27552 ) 11/19/1997 6:08:00 AM From: KVASIR Read Replies (2) | Respond to
ok..author Bob Cunningham(director of marketing concepts for General Dynamics) to Francis Gabreski: "Colonel Gabreski, in Korea, how did you think the F-86 compared to the Russian Mig? Gabreski: Well, the F-86 was a little heavier airplane. It was a high-quality airplane. In other words, we built the F-86 like we built the P-47 or P-51. After talking to Chuck Yeager, who has flown the MIG-15 after it was brought into Edwards, he concluded that, well, it's very crude, it's very primitive, but it sure does the job. The Russians did not go in for all the refinements. They made the airplane very light for the amount of power that they had, which gave it a little bit better performance and rate of climb than the F-86. but, in a dive, the MiG would fall apart when you'd reach your terminal, what you'd call .95 or .96 Mach. And the F-86 had no problem except compressibility. Later, when we had the flying tail that was put on the newer 86's, we had no problems with compressibility. so, generally speaking, the MiG-15 during that period of time may have hada little better performance at high altitude due to the fact it was lighter and had a little bit more power. It was probably a little faster than the F-86. However, the comforts that the pilot had, the air conditioning, the pressurized cabin, they did not have. So if I had a choice between the F-86 and the MiG-15, I'd take the F-86 any day." CUNNINGHAM:"Did you feel like the Korean pilots ere well-trained in Korea?" GABRESKI:" On the contrary, the Korean pilots WERE IN training in Korea. I think that they were running a school. However, there were pilots that I encountered that were as good as any that I have ever seen any place. I have to assume from the intelligence reports and so forth that I have seen, that the Russians were training the students at a certain point when they brought them into combat. And the Russian pilots, every now and then, would break away and really encounter our force. And they were very good. Very good. But none of them had as much luck as we did-I think we shot down just about 8 MiG-15's for every F-86 that was shot down". Cunningham:"Does any one of those combats stand out in your mind?" ROBBINSON "ROBBIE" RISNER:"Yes, this MiG pilot was the toughest guy I ever flew against. When I knocked his canopy off, he made a 180-degree turn back into me, and I cut him off. Our F-86's could actually outturn 'em. Now the MiG could outclimb and outrun us, and had a superior altitude. But our airplane, I felt, was more stable and we could outturn 'em at medium or low altitude even though our airplane was heavier"...I'm almost ready to cut him down, you know. And he'd shove the stick forward and disappear out of my windshield in an inverted turn. Sometimes he would chop his throttle and throw out his speed brakes to throw me out front where he could nail me. Well, one thing we had better than they had, our speed brakes operated about twice or three times as fast."
