Skyful of Jets

Red jet pilots--some of them believed to be Russians or Germans--are fighting harder, better and in larger numbers than ever. On three successive days last week the sky over northwestern Korea was full of battling jets. On the biggest day, more than 250 planes--150plus MIGs and about 100 U.S. Sabres and British Meteors--tangled in four separate dogfights in the swift, new-style warfare in which fighters have one whooshing chance at each other, and seconds later are miles apart. Red losses for the three days: 5 planes destroyed, 2 probably destroyed, 19 damaged. U.N. losses: 1 destroyed, 3 damaged.

Despite these lopsided figures, the Reds are narrowing the gap, both in pilot ability and tactics. Said Colonel Francis S.("Gabby") Gabreski, an ace in two wars: "We used to go up and find them spread out like sitting ducks. This time they were in flights of four stacked up at all altitudes. Their pilots are better and their system's better. They're as good as any German pilots I met during the last war."

Some correspondents, after talking to U.N. pilots, were convinced that a new Red jet had made its debut--either a beefed-up MIG-15 or a new-model MIG. The U.S. Air Force did its best to squelch such speculations. Improved Red air tactics, said a high-ranking U.S. airman ("It's only logical to assume they've held exhaustive critiques on our tactics"), could give the mistaken impression that the Reds are flying better planes.

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