THE AIR WAR: The Funny-Looking Bird

For nearly a month, U.N. pilots in Korea had been catching glimpses of a new Russian jet fighter. Last week First Lieut. James D. Carey of Las Vegas, Nev. "found myself on the tail of this funny-looking bird. Looked like a MIG-15, except the wings were high up on the fuselage. I gave him a few bursts and caught him in the right wing. Then other Reds started coming from all sides, and I had to get out. They seemed to be trying to protect the new boy."

Next day F-86 Sabre jets spotted a formation of the new planes, but the Reds refused to fight. The Air Force's first hunch was that the Russians were trying an advanced new MIG, possibly the much rumored MIG-19. But later the Air Force guessed that the new plane is either an older, experimental MIG model never mass-produced, or no MIG at all, and dubbed it tentatively "Type 15."

Five and a half feet longer and 25 m.p.h. slower than the stripped-down MIG-15, the new "Type 15" probably has a longer range, thus might be useful if the Communists decide to try something they haven't dared before: low-level attacks on the U.N.'s fighter-plane bases in South Korea. MIG-15s presumably could not go that far and back from their Manchurian sanctuary.