Deciphering the MiG

During its 32-month debut in the Korean War, the MiG-15 remained a mystery. Due to superior training and effective tactics, the F-86 pilots were however very successful in combat against it. During the war, the U.S. offered a $100,000 reward for any pilot who would deliver an intact MiG-15, but it never happened until the war was over. On September 21, 1953, a lone MiG-15 came out of nowhere to land undetected at Kimpo Airbase. A young North Korean pilot, Lt. No Kum-Sok, delivered his MiG because of his opposing views to Communism, and he had no idea there was a reward for his fighter.

Under heavy security, the MiG-15 was taken to Okinawa, where it was flown by a well-known test pilot along with Maj. Chuck Yeager. From there, it was disassembled and sent stateside for more testing. When all of the tests were completed, the U.S. offered to return the fighter to any country that would claim it, but no one came forth. Thus, it was incorporated into the displays at the Air Force Museum in Dayton, Ohio, in 1957.

The MiG, under intense scrutiny and testing, revealed many positive and negatives aspects of its performance. It was closely compared with the F-86 Sabre in performances at various altitudes, fuel consumption, payload, time to climb and high-speed dives. All of this data was compiled and passed on to all U.S. fighter interceptor units around the world. The North Korean pilot came to the U.S., changed his name to Kenneth H. Rowe and became a U.S. citizen. Rowe retired from his role as an aeronautical engineering professor at Embry–Riddle and died in 2022 in Daytona Beach, Florida at the age of 90.

Lt. No Kim-Suk’s MiG-15, as seen here during testing by Wright Field’s Foreign Technology’s Branch, was not the first to be examined by the West. Six months before, a Polish defector delivered his MiG to Danish soil where it was thoroughly evaluated and then returned by ship two weeks later.

WW II ace and test pilot Chuck Yeager sits in the cockpit of the North Korean MiG-15 as he test flew it from Okinawa in 1953. The North Korean emblems were replaced by the American Bar and Star emblem by the time it was shipped from South Korea to Okinawa. (Photo courtesy of the National Archives)