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Nenes & Rooster Tails. After the war, Russia's master of tactical air power and air force chief, Alexander Novikov, was fired and jailed. Just about that time, Russia turned more attention to heavy bombers, even separated its air force from ground command (it has since been returned to army control). The new air boss was a shining party light, 46-year-old Marshal Konstantin Vershinin, Hero of the Soviet Union, and one of the top World War II commanders. His orders were to get going on jets. Russia's designers had proved that they could build conventional planes; now with German help they proved that they could build first-rate jets. In 1947, the first really topnotch Russian fighter, the jet MIG-15, appeared. It had a high rooster-like tail, a barrel-like fuselage, and an ancient radio antenna jutting out into the slip stream. But it had swept-back wings, quick visual proof that the Russians and their German experts had been delving deep into transsonic research. It was light and maneuverable and powered by the best existing jet engine, the Rolls-Royce Nene, which the British government sold to Russia.
Today, even better jets are coming out of Russia's 25 main aircraft plants. How fast can be gauged by Russian willingness to send large numbers of MIG-15s to Korea. Half of the 1,000 planes in the Chinese Red air force are MIG-15s.
How good are the Russian jets? The only one U.S. pilots have met is the MIG-15, and they treat it with respect. Nothing can catch it except the U.S. F-86 Sabrejet, and then only under 30,000 feet. It has a more powerful engine, is lighter, more maneuverable, can climb faster than the F-86. U.S. pilots have knocked the MIGs down with shooting-gallery precision, partly because U.S. pilots are better trained, have the advantage of a much better electronic gunsight. Even so, every once in a while, a special flight of red-nosed MIGs scrambles up from Antung across the Yalu. They are the first team. Then, say the Sabre pilots, there is "one grand hassle."
Hard Lesson. Good as they are in fighters, the Russians still have a long way to go before they can count a well-rounded air force. Hoyt Vandenberg's lessons on strategic air power have been hard to learn. Air Force Chief Vershinin has been kicked out, and Colonel General Pavel Zhigarev is now belatedly building up Russia's heavy bomber fleet.
The Reds have about 1,000 heavy bombers, mostly direct copies of a number of U.S. B-29s that made forced landings in Siberia in World War II. The B-29s yielded the Russians their design plus the Norden bombsight.* The U.S.S.R. called its well-made copy the TU-4. Unless and until the Russians pour out their new heavier bomber, they are behind the B-36, and even farther behind the new eight-jet B-52 bomber, which, when it gets into production, will be able to hit Russia from 50,000 feet at 600 m.p.h. in any weather. The Russians also lack the vast U.S. battle experience in bombers.