Forum: Air Power

Rob_Sabre wrote:

Does anyone have the gun camera footage that shows the MIG 15 that Buzz Aldrin shot down?

Time Life has the stills in their book "Fighting Jets". They haven't run their aviation series since the '90s, so if you can find the book in a second hand store, it is worth whatever you will pay.

Great frame by frame, showing the engine shell out, and then the canopy jettison, followed by a very good framed shot of the ejection seat as it clears the rails and leaves the jet.

Beers and MiGs were made to be pounded!

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Is this the footage of Aldrin shooting down the MIG?

Another advantage for the Sabre was that, in a high altitude dive, the Mig-15's canopy would frost up, the Sabre had a climate control system so this wouldnt happen. The Sabre also had an early radar-assist gunsight. And the F-86A did NOT have hydraulic assist according to an interview with Boots Blesse. "In December 1950, the USAF began flying the Sabre model designation F-86A in Korea. It had manual cable controls, but it was the only swept wing jet fighter available, and they elected to send it to Korea where it was combat tested. They were still flying the "A" when I got there, in April of 1952. My first sixty missions I flew in an A-model. The "A" did not have the hydraulic control system that came with the F-86 E-10, which was the second model. I flew the rest of my 100 missions in the E-10."
Also our (USAF) pilots wore an early G-suit, the Mig pilots did not. That coupled with no hydraulic assist makes for quite a struggle, and I respect those aces who flew the Mig-15 as much as i do our guys. The History Channel had a great show on in the fall called "Dogfights" and they talked about one from the Korean War, where they discussed the pros and cons of each aircraft. (Mig-15 and F-86) They also did a dogfight from WWI, WWII, and Richie Cunningham and Willy Driscol's in Vietnam.
Here is the article with the interview of Boots Blesse:
http://www.acepilots.com/korea_blesse.html

Yes Rob. That is Aldrin's gun camera footage. Great sequence, IMHO.

Beers and MiGs were made to be pounded!

where would you get footage like that?

This is a great website that lists all US, UN, Chinese and Soviet air-to-air victories over korea in a detailed chart showing the date, service, unit, aircraft, pilot(s), weapon, victim, pilot downed and country.

The following are links to the charts:

US air-to-air victories over Korea. Part 1 (27 June 1950- 31 May 1951):
http://www.acig.org/artman/publish/article_307.shtml

US air-to-air victories over Korea. Part 2 (1 June 1951- 28 December 1951):
http://www.acig.org/artman/publish/article_308.shtml

US air-to-air victories over Korea. Part 3 (1 January 1952- 31 May 1952):
http://www.acig.org/artman/publish/article_309.shtml

US air-to-air victories over Korea. Part 4 (1 June 1952- 31 December 1952):
http://www.acig.org/artman/publish/article_310.shtml

Soviet air-to-air victories over Korea. Part 1 (1 November 1950- 31 August 1951):
http://www.acig.org/artman/publish/article_313.shtml

Soviet air-to-air victories over Korea. Part 2 (1 September 1951- 31 December 1951):
http://www.acig.org/artman/publish/article_314.shtml

Hope this helps.

Wow on one of those charts all they used was their 12.7 mm WWII experiance I assume...

Many of those drivers were WWII vets, and had AA kills in both wars. The preferred nomenclature of the gun was .50 caliber, but since that was the only weapon available to them, that's what they had to use...and our guys were d@mn good at it. For American pilots, the first missile engagements didn't happen until Vietnam.

Beers and MiGs were made to be pounded!

Forum: Air Power

Sabre Versus Mig-15 in Korea 1950