How Good Is the MIG?

Why did the U.S. Sabre jet win so many victories (13 to 1) over the MIG-15? Many U.S. fighter pilots insisted the MIGs were so good that only U.S. pilot superiority kept them from sweeping the Sabre jets out of the air. U.S. airplane builders insisted that the Sabre jet was the better airplane. Last week the MIG was appraised by famous U.S. pilots. Their verdict: it is nothing exceptional.

The MIG landed behind U.S. lines by North Korean Pilot Noh Keum Suk on Sept. 21 was flown in simulated combat against Sabre jets by Major General Albert Boyd, commander of Wright Air Development Center, by Major "Chuck" Yeager, the first pilot to fly faster than sound, and by Captain Harold E. Collins, who set an official speed record in a Sabre jet. After putting the MIG through its paces, they decided that it 1) has "insufficient stall warning"; 2) has a cramped, uncomfortable cabin with poor heating and ventilation; 3) is hard to control in combat; 4) is "deficient in speed."

Probably most important was the three experts' judgment that the MIG lacks the instruments and controls that make a Sabre jet easy to fly. A MIG pilot, they decided, would be kept so busy flying his airplane that he would have little attention left over "for engaging the enemy."

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