AVIATION: The Cats of MIG Alley

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In the process, he has produced more planes than anyone else in the world. Among his prize productions: the T-6 Texan trainer in which thousands of World War II pilots learned to fly; the PSI Mustang, one of the best World War II fighters; the 6-25 Mitchell bomber, which General Jimmy Doolittle flew off a carrier in 1942 for the first bombing raid on Japan. Typically, Dutch Kindelberger has already stopped thinking about the feats of the F-86 Sabre and is looking ahead to his next hot fighter. "In this business," says he, "once we get to know what we are doing, we know that thing is obsolete."

The F-86's successor is the F-100, the first jet combat plane able to go through the sound barrier in level flight. Already test-flown, the swept-wing F-100 is bigger than the F-86 and is powered by the Pratt & Whitney J57 engine (10,000 Ibs. thrust).

Long Odds. But last week, while obsolete in the mind of its maker, the F-86 Sabre was busier than ever as the Korean war neared its third anniversary and truce hung in the balance (see WAR IN ASIA). In 2,500 sorties, the Sabres brought down 19 MIGs.They sustained their worst losses to date—twelve planes knocked down, mostly by antiaircraft batteries as the Sabres took on a job not expected of most fighters: bombing in close support of the hard-pressed infantry. But in air-to-air combat, the F-86 reigned supreme.

Historians will argue for many years over what the U.N. accomplished in Korea, but no one will ever question the outcome of the Korean air war. Ever since the Sabres arrived on the scene, they have been outnumbered, sometimes as high as 30 to 1; two or three of them have, on occasion, boldly dived into a formation of 100 or more MIGs. Nevertheless, they have knocked 719 MIGs out of the sky, v. an air-combat loss of only 56 Sabres. In the last six months alone 200 MIGs have been downed in air-to-air combat, v. only nine Sabres—a phenomenal kill ratio of more than 20 to 1. The Sabre has proved to be the only operational U.N. plane capable of controlling the Korean skies against the MIG. Yet the Sabre, like the P-40 in World War II, has come in for criticism aplenty.

The complaints started when U.S. pilots found to their dismay that in Korea the Reds could pick the time and place of battle. This was due partly to the sanctuary beyond the Yalu, where Reds could always flee when the going got rough. But it was due also to the MIG itself: its greater rate of climb and operating ceiling (51,000 ft, v. 45,000 ft. for the Sabre) enabled it to lie in wait for F-86s and pounce on them from above; its greater acceleration enabled it to break off combat at will. Pilots complained that the Sabre, at 16,500 Ibs., v. about 12,000 Ibs. for the MIG, was loaded down with too much armor and far too many "gadgets" —emergency fuel pumps, self-sealing fuel tanks that didn't hold up against the Reds' 23-and 37-mm. cannons. Such top aces as Colonel Francis Gabreski (6½ MIGs) and Captain Joseph McConnell Jr. (16 MIGs) thought the Sabre's electronic gunsight was unreliable, hard to maintain, and should be eliminated. Cracked Gabreski:

"I just stick a piece of chewing gum on my windscreen and use that as a sight." On the other hand, Captain Manuel J. Fernandez Jr. (14½ MIGs), says the Sabre is a "fabulous plane."