Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
A series of special pages focusing on the significant machines, events and people of powered flights first 100 years
CENTURY OF FLIGHT
1903 ~ 2003
Written and designed by Ted Pitts For more information contact tpitts@coxohio.com. View this and other pages in the Great Planes series at DaytonDailyNews.com
CHINA
Manchuria
er Riv Yalu
Flying tail: The F-86E and subsequent models were equipped with the North American "all-flying tail." The system added full-power operated controls for better maneuverability at high speeds.
North Korea
SOVIET UNION
38th Parallel
PYONGYANG
INCHON
SEOUL
South Korea
PUSAN HIROSHIMA
F-86 Specs&Stats
Model shown is an F-86F-30. Some details omitted for visual clarity. Manufacturer: North American Wingspan: 37 ft. 1 in. Length: 37 ft. 6 in. Height: 14 ft. 8 in. Armament: six .50-cal. machine guns and eight 5 in. rockets or 2,000 lbs. of bombs Engine: General Electric J-47 of 5,200 lbs. thrust Cost: $178,000 Maximum speed: 685 mph. Cruising speed: 540 mph. Range: 1,200 miles Service Ceiling: 49,000 ft. Armament: The F-86 sported six .50 caliber Browning M3 machine guns versus the three cannons (two 23mm and one 37mm) on the MiG-15. Engine: General Electric J-47 produced 5,200 lbs. thrust and filled the entire fuselage. The tail section of the Sabre was removed to allow servicing of the engine. Swept-wing technology: Guided by the aerodynamic design of captured German documents after WWII, North American engineers adopted a fully swept-back wing and added leadingedge slats to compensate for low-speed instability. Drop tanks of several designs allowed the F-86 to stay in the air for longer periods. A flat rather than circular design, stabilizing fins and antisway braces made the combat tanks suitable for speeds approaching Mach 1.
JAPAN
demonstrated itself to be more maneuverable in combat, in part through advanced tail stabilizer technology developed pursuing the speed of sound in the Bell X-planes in the late 40s, but, more importantly, by virtue of the attitude and ability of the pilots that flew the planes: . . . most Communist pilots were good at following instructions, but showed little initiative or aggression . . . the American pilots displayed an outstanding hunger for battle many had plotted and schemed for months or years to arrange a transfer . . . to the Korean front line. The air war in MiG Alley over the Yalu River produced 40 UN aces 39 were Sabre pilots the typical profile: a 30-something WWII veteran like Francis Gabby Gabreski, Joseph McConnell, James Jabara or Frederick Boots Blesse. By the time the cease-fire was signed in 1953, as many as 792 MiGs had been destroyed in aerial combat compared to only 78 Sabres downed by MiGs a success ratio of 10 to 1 in favor of the F-86 pilots.
Joseph M. McConnell
The list of famous Korean War pilots includes icons Guss Grissom, John Glenn, Buzz Aldrin, and Ted Williams, but the top ace of the war was Capt. Joseph M. McConnell, who tallied 16 victories before his commanding officer, fearful that his top pilots luck had run out, ordered him back home to the U.S.A. before you hear the period at the end of this sentence." While on patrol on his final day in combat, McConnells wingman radioed sighting 30 MiGs; McConnell's reply: "Yeah, and we've got 'em all to ourselves."
JET POWER
The first jet aircraft screamed into the skies above Marienehe airfield in Germany on Aug. 27, 1939, four days before the start of WWII. Backed by aircraft manufacturer Ernst Heinkel and the German Air Ministry, Hans von Ohain was able to power the Heinkel He 178 with an engine that utilized a gas turbine to scoop air as it moved along, compress the air and combine it with fuel, ignite the fuel and propel the plane forward as the jet of hot gas was propelled out the back of the engine. Simultaneous to Ohains achievement was the work done by Frank Whittle of the Royal Air Force, who, unlike Ohain, labored in the face of scarce financing and official disinterest.
High speed stream of exhaust gas hits air behind engine so fast that it thrusts plane forward like a balloon deflating
The MiG-15
The MiG-15 like the one shown above was shrouded in mystery until a defecting North Korean pilot delivered one to the United States Air Force in 1953 (and received a bounty of $100,000). Famed test pilots Tom Collins and Chuck Yeager flew to Okinawa to test the Soviet-built fighter and found it to be nothing spectacular, a pretty good fighting machine but lacking the sophistication and safety of American technology. Yeager concluded that the Koreans probably lost more pilots spinning in than from American guns. The plane that Yeager tested in 1953 is on display at the United States Air Force Museum.
Sources: Flight, 100 Years of Aviation by R.G. Grant (Dorling Kindersley Ltd., 2002); Walk Around F-86 Sabre by Larry Davis (Squadron/Signal, 2000); Lincoln Library of Essential Information (Frontier Press, 1967); Great Quotations on Flight by Dave English (McGraw-Hill, 1998); The Century by Peter Jennings & Todd Brewster (Doubleday, 1998); Web sites: North American History, www.boeing.com/history/bna/f86.htm; United States Air Force Museum, www.wpafb.af.mil/museum/history/korea50/k50-14.htm