AP 118 · No. 10 Section IV · Numbers The Almanac · 03
The Almanac · No. 031950–1953

The Almanac

Korea

The air war in figures, 1950–1953

The first war fought jet against jet — and the first in which both sides’ scoreboards were later checked against the other’s records. The numbers did not survive the audit unscathed.

Three silver F-86 Sabres with chequered tails and yellow fuselage bands flying in echelon above white cloud.
Sabres of the 51st Fighter-Interceptor Wing over Korea. The chequered fins were the wing’s marking; the yellow bands told friendly pilots in a hurry that this swept-wing jet was not a MiG.
792

MiG-15s claimed by Sabre pilots. Soviet records admit 335 Soviet MiGs lost — to every cause.

1,040,708
UN air sorties flown, June 1950 to July 1953
78
Sabres lost in air combat, by USAF count
635,000
tons of bombs dropped by US aircraft — more than in the whole Pacific war
996
UN personnel rescued from behind enemy lines by Air Rescue
~18,000
casualties flown to hospital by US Army H-13s

Korea began as a piston-engined war. In June 1950 the North Korean air force flew Yak-9s and Il-10s, and the Americans answered with F-51 Mustangs, F-82 Twin Mustangs and B-29s left over from 1945. By November the sky had changed: swept-wing MiG-15s, flown in secret by Soviet pilots, were climbing from bases in Manchuria that the UN would not bomb. The Sabre arrived in December, and the strip of North Korea between the Chongchon and the Yalu became MiG Alley.

The figures that came out of that war — 792 MiGs for 78 Sabres, a ten-to-one triumph — shaped how the West thought about air combat for a generation. Then the Soviet archives opened. This page sets the claims beside the records, and puts the dogfights in proportion: most UN aircraft were lost not to MiGs but to guns on the ground, and the aircraft that saved the most lives was a small helicopter with a goldfish-bowl cockpit.

MiG Alley

Ten to one, said the scoreboard. The archives say something nearer two.

Both sides over-claimed, as every air force in every war has done: a MiG trailing smoke and diving for the border looked destroyed, and gun-camera film was not always conclusive. What makes Korea unusual is that the other side’s books can now be read. The 64th Fighter Aviation Corps — the Soviet formation that did most of the MiG flying — recorded 335 aircraft lost to all causes, including accidents and anti-aircraft fire. China admits 224 MiG-15s lost; North Korean losses are less certain.

Fig. 1

MiG-15s: claimed against admitted

aircraft

= 20 aircraft

  1. Claimed destroyed by Sabre pilotsUSAF credits at the armistice
    792
  2. Soviet MiGs lost, all causes64th Fighter Aviation Corps records
    335
  3. Chinese MiG-15s lost, all causesChinese figure, via Zhang (2002)
    224
  4. North Korean MiG-15s lostabout 100, per defectors; not confirmed
    100

Admitted losses add up to about 659 MiG-15s from every cause, not just Sabres. Many were lost in accidents or to other UN aircraft.

Source USAF credits; Seidov & Britton, Red Devils over the Yalu (2014), p.554; Zhang, Red Wings over the Yalu (2002); No & Osterholm (2007)

Fig. 2

Sabres: claimed against admitted

aircraft

= 20 aircraft

  1. F-86s claimed by Soviet pilotsSoviet corps claims, part of 1,097 UN aircraft claimed (other versions: 651 of 1,106)
    647
  2. F-86s lost in air combat, USAF count
    78
  3. F-86s lost to unknown causes
    26
  4. F-86s lost to other causesground fire, accidents and the like
    61

Even if every Sabre lost to any cause were counted as a MiG kill, the Soviet claim would still be more than three times too high.

Source Soviet 64th IAK claims as published by Russian historians; USAF loss data as tabulated in Wikipedia’s list of Korean War flying aces

Fig. 3

The duel: F-86F Sabre against MiG-15bis

North American F-86F Sabre

Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15bis

  • 11 mLength10 m
  • 11 mWingspan10 m
  • 5,046 kgEmpty weight3,681 kg
  • 26 kNEngine thrust27 kN
  • 15,100 mService ceiling15,500 m
  • 6 gunsGuns3 guns
  • 13 mmHeaviest gun calibre37 mm

Verdict On paper the two were very closely matched. The MiG was lighter, climbed better and hit much harder with its cannon; the Sabre turned and dived better, had a radar-ranging gunsight and a g-suit for its pilot, and was flown by pilots with far more training. Who flew mattered more than what they flew.

Source Manufacturers’ figures as given by the National Museum of the USAF and Gordon, Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 (2001); figures vary by sub-type

Fig. 4

The Soviet corps’ own claimed exchange ratio

UN aircraft claimed per MiG lost
The Soviet corps’ own claimed exchange ratio
Year64th Fighter Aviation Corps, claimed ratio
19517.9
19522.2
19531.9

These are Soviet claims against Soviet losses, so the trend matters more than the level. The first point covers November 1950 to January 1952.

Source Soviet figures as given in the history of the 64th Fighter Aviation Corps (Krylov & Tepsurkaev; Seidov & Britton)

A silver MiG-15 with red star markings and the number 2057, parked on the steel-plank apron at Kimpo, photographed through a dark window frame, with a Sabre and ground crew nearby.
The MiG nobody had to shoot down. Lt No Kum-sok of the North Korean air force landed this MiG-15bis at Kimpo on 21 September 1953, eight weeks after the armistice. It gave the West its first intact MiG-15 to fly and measure.
  1. MiG-15bis ‘2057’, flown south by Lt No Kum-sok on 21 September 1953
  2. A USAF Sabre with yellow tail markings, parked behind the MiG
  3. Pierced-steel-plank apron at Kimpo, home of the 4th Fighter-Interceptor Wing
  4. Taken through a window frame; the MiG was soon hidden away and later flown on test in Okinawa
US Air Force, Public domain · source
Fig. 5

The aces: credited victories, both sides
Nikolai SutyaginSovietMiG-1522Some sources give 21; highest-scoring pilot of the war
Yevgeny PepelyaevSovietMiG-1519Commanded the 196th Fighter Aviation Regiment
Lev ShchukinSovietMiG-151715 plus 2 shared in some counts
Joseph McConnellUSAFF-8616Top US ace; killed testing an F-86H in 1954
James JabaraUSAFF-8615First jet ace in history, 20 May 1951
Manuel ‘Pete’ FernandezUSAFF-8615Includes one shared
George A. DavisUSAFF-8614Killed in action 10 February 1952; Medal of Honor
Dmitry OskinSovietMiG-1514
Royal BakerUSAFF-8613
Sergei KramarenkoSovietMiG-1513Totals of 13–16 are given
Alexander SmorchkovSovietMiG-1512Totals of 12–15 are given
Frederick ‘Boots’ BlesseUSAFF-8610Later wrote the fighter manual No Guts, No Glory
Harold FischerUSAFF-8610Shot down April 1953; held in China until 1955
James K. JohnsonUSAFF-8610
Lonnie MooreUSAFF-8610
Ralph ParrUSAFF-8610Shot down an Il-12 on 27 July 1953, the war’s last day
Vermont GarrisonUSAFF-8610Also an ace in the Second World War
Cecil FosterUSAFF-869
Wang HaiChineseMiG-159Chinese credits; other counts give as few as 4
Li HanChineseMiG-158
Guy BordelonUS NavyF4U-5N Corsair5Only US Navy ace of the war; night victories over ‘Bedcheck Charlie’ raiders
Credits as officially awarded by each air force; all are claims, and the Soviet and Chinese tallies in particular vary between sources. No British or Commonwealth pilot became an ace in Korea.

Source Wikipedia, List of Korean War flying aces (compiling USAF Historical Study 81, Seidov & Britton, Zhang)

The ledger

A million sorties, most of them nowhere near a MiG.

Fig. 6

UN air sorties by service, 1950–1953

sorties
  1. US Air Force (Far East Air Forces)
    720,980
  2. US Navy
    167,552
  3. US Marine Corps
    107,303
  4. Other UN air forcesBritish, Australian, South African, South Korean, Canadian, Greek, Thai
    44,873

Total 1,040,708 combat and combat-support sorties (Correll); the ‘other’ bar is the remainder. Some sources give the FEAF total as 710,886, and series that include airlift run higher.

Source Futrell, The United States Air Force in Korea (1983), as summarised by Air Force Magazine; total 1,040,708

Fig. 7

How UN aircraft lost to enemy action went down

% of 1,041 aircraft
  • 78% Ground fire 816
  • 14% Air-to-air combat 147
  • 7% Unknown causes 78

UN air forces lost 1,986 aircraft in all (FEAF 1,466; Navy, Marines and allies 520); 1,041 of them to enemy action. Guns on the ground, not MiGs, did most of the killing.

Source Correll, ‘The Forgotten War’, Air & Space Forces Magazine (2000)

Fig. 8

The Sabre’s own ledger: how F-86s were lost

aircraft
  • Air combat
  • Anti-aircraft guns
  • Unknown causes
  • Other causes
  1. F-86 Sabre, USAF
    78192661
    184

RAND’s 2008 review of recent scholarship put the Sabre’s real air-to-air exchange ratio at about 1.8 to 1 overall, and about 1.3 to 1 against MiGs flown by Soviet pilots.

Source USAF loss data as tabulated in Wikipedia’s list of Korean War flying aces

Fig. 9

Bombs dropped: Korea against the Pacific war

short tons
  1. US bombs on Korea, 1950–53
    635,000
  2. US bombs, whole Pacific theatre, 1941–45
    503,000
  3. …of which on Japan
    160,000
  4. Napalm on Korea
    32,557

Almost every substantial building in North Korea was destroyed. The FEAF alone delivered some 476,000 tons of ordnance.

Source Kiernan & Owen, ‘Making More Enemies than We Kill?’, The Asia-Pacific Journal (2015)

A B-29 Superfortress seen from behind and above, a vertical stick of bombs falling from its bomb bay towards snow-streaked mountains.
A B-29 of the 19th Bomb Group bombing a target in Korea, 1951. Daylight B-29 raids near the Yalu ended after ‘Black Tuesday’, 23 October 1951.US Air Force (photo 342-AF-78971AC), Public domain · source

Except for air power, the war would have been over in 60 days with all Korea in Communist hands.

General Matthew B. Ridgway, UN commander in Korea, 1951–52
Fig. 10

Three years in the air

  1. North Korea invades on 25 June. Two days later an F-82 Twin Mustang scores the first American air victory of the war.

  2. No. 77 Squadron RAAF flies its first Mustang sorties; HMS Triumph’s Seafires and Fireflies strike airfields in the North.

  3. MiG-15s appear over the Yalu on 1 November. On 9 November a US Navy F9F Panther downs a MiG — a loss Soviet records confirm.

  4. The first Sabres reach Korea; Lt Col Bruce Hinton claims the first Sabre-versus-MiG victory on 17 December.

  5. ‘Black Thursday’, 12 April: MiGs shoot down three B-29s and damage seven over the Yalu bridges.

  6. Captain James Jabara becomes the first jet-versus-jet ace on 20 May.

  7. ‘Black Tuesday’, 23 October: three B-29s lost near Namsi. Daylight heavy-bomber raids in MiG Alley end.

  8. Battle of Sunchon, 1 December: No. 77 Squadron loses three Meteors to MiGs.

  9. Navy and Air Force strike the Sui-ho hydro-electric complex — the largest single air attack since 1945.

  10. Sea Furies of 802 Squadron from HMS Ocean fight MiG-15s; one MiG is credited to Lt Peter Carmichael’s flight.

  11. Strikes on the Toksan and Chasan irrigation dams flood rice lands. McConnell scores his 16th on 18 May.

  12. Armistice on 27 July. Ralph Parr’s Il-12, shot down that day, is the last air victory of the war.

  13. Lt No Kum-sok defects in a MiG-15bis to Kimpo on 21 September.

Source Futrell (1983); Hallion, The Naval Air War in Korea (1986); Australian War Memorial

Britain and the Commonwealth

Light carriers, a borrowed Mustang squadron and flying boats on fifteen-hour patrols.

Britain sent no RAF fighter squadrons to Korea; its air war was fought largely from the decks of four light fleet carriers — Triumph, Theseus, Glory and Ocean — taking turns on the west coast with the Australian carrier Sydney. Their piston-engined Sea Furies and Fireflies flew strike, spotting and blockade patrols, sometimes more than a hundred sorties in a day. The RAF’s contribution was its Far East Flying Boat Wing of Sunderlands, flying from Iwakuni in Japan, a handful of pilots on exchange with American and Australian squadrons, and the Austers of No. 1903 Independent Air Observation Post Flight.

Black-and-white photograph of the snow-covered flight deck of HMS Theseus with Sea Fury and Firefly aircraft parked in rows and sailors in duffel coats.
Winter off Korea: Sea Furies and Fireflies parked on a snow-covered flight deck of the light fleet carrier HMS Theseus, 1950–51. Some of the crew have stopped to make snowballs.
  1. Folded wing of a parked aircraft, raised to save deck space
  2. Black-and-white identification stripes, painted on all British naval aircraft for Korea
  3. More Sea Furies and Fireflies ranged aft along the deck
  4. A crewman holding a snowball
Royal Navy official photographer (IWM A 31788), Public domain (expired Crown copyright, PD-UKGov) · source
Fig. 11

British and Commonwealth air units in Korea
No. 77 Squadron RAAFAustraliaMustang, then Meteor F.8Jul 1950–Jul 195318,872Almost 60 aircraft lost; 41 pilots killed (6 of them RAF exchange pilots) and 7 captured
No. 2 Squadron SAAFSouth AfricaF-51D Mustang, then F-86F SabreNov 1950–Jul 195312,06710,373 sorties on Mustangs; 74 Mustangs and 4 Sabres lost; 34 killed, 8 captured
HMS Ocean (802, 825 Sqns)UKSea Fury, FireflyMay–Nov 1952–About 5,600–5,900 sorties on her first tour, by different counts
HMS Theseus (807, 810 Sqns)UKSea Fury, FireflyOct 1950–Apr 19513,500About 3,500 sorties on 86 flying days
HMS Glory (804, 812 Sqns)UKSea Fury, Firefly1951–1953, three tours2,800Over 2,800 on the first tour alone (Apr–Sep 1951)
HMAS Sydney (805, 808, 817 Sqns)AustraliaSea Fury, FireflyOct 1951–Jan 19522,36613 aircraft lost; three aircrew killed
HMS Triumph (800, 827 Sqns)UKSeafire FR.47, FireflyJul–Sep 1950360Seafire sorties only; the first British carrier strikes of the war
Far East Flying Boat Wing (88, 205, 209 Sqns)UKSunderland1950–1953900Nearly 900 sorties, 13,350 hours, from Iwakuni
RCAF pilots with USAF Sabre wingsCanadaF-861951–195390023 pilots; 9 MiGs credited, none lost
No. 1903 Independent AOP FlightUKAuster AOP.61951–1953–Artillery spotting for the Commonwealth Division
No. 30 Transport Unit / 36 Sqn RAAFAustraliaDakota1950–1953–Casualty evacuation and transport between Japan and Korea
Sortie figures are the most-cited published totals and are not all on the same basis; Glory’s figure covers one tour of three, and Triumph’s only her Seafires.

Source Robson, Of MiGs and Men (RAAF); Royal Australian Navy Sea Power Centre; Australian War Memorial; SAAF Association; RAF Museum; Canadian Aviation Historical Society

Fig. 12

Commonwealth sorties by unit

sorties
  1. No. 77 Squadron RAAF
    18,872
  2. No. 2 Squadron SAAF
    12,067
  3. HMS Theseus, 1950–51
    3,500
  4. HMAS Sydney, 1951–52
    2,366
  5. RAF Sunderlands
    900

Source As for the table above

A silver Gloster Meteor F.8 of No. 77 Squadron RAAF, serial A77-570, raised on wooden trestles at Kimpo with a crumpled external fuel tank on the ground beside it.
Meteor F.8 A77-570 of No. 77 Squadron RAAF on trestles for maintenance at Kimpo (K-14), c.1952. Outclassed by the MiG-15 in the fighter role, the Australian Meteors were switched to ground attack from early 1952.
  1. RAAF roundel — the Australians still used RAF-style markings in 1952
  2. Serial A77-570
  3. A crumpled external fuel tank on the ground
  4. Wooden trestles taking the weight while the undercarriage is serviced
US Air Force, Public domain · source
F-51D Mustangs of No. 2 Squadron South African Air Force on a Korean airstrip; a pilot sits in the cockpit of the nearest, number 332, as ground crew prepare it.
F-51D Mustangs of No. 2 Squadron SAAF, the ‘Flying Cheetahs’, in Korea on 1 May 1951. The springbok roundel is on the fuselage of the nearest aircraft.
  1. Springbok roundel of the South African Air Force
  2. Aircraft number 332
  3. Ground crew at the wheel chocks
  4. Another Mustang running up beyond
US Air Force, Public domain · source

Rotors

The helicopter’s first war, and the one that made it indispensable.

The helicopters of 1950 were frail things: a Bell H-13 could carry two stretchers in pods outside the cabin, a Sikorsky H-5 one or two inside. Yet they cut the journey from a hillside aid post to a surgical hospital from hours on mountain tracks to minutes. US Army helicopters alone carried about 18,000 of the war’s casualties to the forward hospitals; the USAF’s Air Rescue Service evacuated 8,598 more and plucked 996 men from behind enemy lines. Historians still debate how many lives this saved — the share of all casualties flown out was modest — but no army afterwards went to war without it.

Fig. 13

Lifted out by helicopter

people

= 500 people

  1. Casualties flown by US Army H-13sabout 18,000 of 23,000 Army helicopter evacuations
    18,000
  2. Sick and wounded evacuated by Air Rescuemostly H-5s, the Air Force S-51
    8,598
  3. Rescued from behind enemy linesincluding 170 American airmen
    996

H-13: the Bell 47. H-5: the Air Force’s Sikorsky S-51, built in Britain under licence as the Westland Dragonfly.

Source US Army, ‘Army helicopters in Korea, 1950 to ’53’ (army.mil); National Museum of the USAF, Air Rescue fact sheet

A Sikorsky H-5 helicopter lifting off a dirt field in Korea, with a second H-5 marked RESCUE parked on the left.
Two Sikorsky H-5s of the USAF’s 3rd Air Rescue Squadron in Korea, 1952. Air Rescue brought back 996 UN personnel from behind enemy lines.US Air Force (342-AF-121981AC), Public domain · source
A US Marine Corps HO3S helicopter, number 342, on a hillside landing zone in Korea while Marines and Navy corpsmen tend wounded men in the foreground.
A Marine HO3S, the naval version of the Sikorsky S-51, waits on a ridge as wounded Marines are prepared for evacuation, 1951.US Navy (80-G-429571), Public domain · source
A wounded Australian soldier on a stretcher being loaded into the external pod of a US Army Bell H-13 helicopter.
A wounded Australian is loaded into the stretcher pod of a US Army Bell H-13, 1951 — the M*A*S*H helicopter.Australian War Memorial, Public domain (PD-Australia) · source
41American aces, all but one in Sabresthe exception flew a Navy Corsair
64,000sorties flown by the Soviet 64th Fighter Aviation Corps
120Soviet pilots killed in Korea
1,466USAF aircraft lost on combat missions, all causes
1,248US Navy and Marine aircraft lost, all causes

Source Wikipedia (USAF loss data); Seidov & Britton; history of HMS Ocean

The line-up

Korean War types from the Gazetteer’s own hangar, at one scale.

Fig. 14

Korea’s aircraft at true scale

drawn to one scale
  1. North American F-86F Sabre, side view North American F-86F Sabre 11.4 m
  2. Gloster Meteor F.8 (No. 77 Sqn RAAF), side view Gloster Meteor F.8 (No. 77 Sqn RAAF) 13.6 m
  3. Lockheed T-33 — stand-in for the F-80 Shooting Star, side view Lockheed T-33 — stand-in for the F-80 Shooting Star 11.5 m · The F-80C fighter that flew in Korea was the single-seat parent of the T-33, about a metre shorter
  4. North American T-6 ‘Mosquito’ forward air controller, side view North American T-6 ‘Mosquito’ forward air controller 8.8 m
  5. Auster AOP.6 (No. 1903 AOP Flight), side view Auster AOP.6 (No. 1903 AOP Flight) 7.2 m
  6. Sikorsky S-51 / H-5 family (as the Westland Dragonfly), side view Sikorsky S-51 / H-5 family (as the Westland Dragonfly) 17.5 m · Length with rotors turning; span is the rotor diameter
  7. Douglas C-47 Dakota, side view Douglas C-47 Dakota 19.7 m
  8. MiG-15bis, side view MiG-15bis 10.1 m
  9. Hawker Sea Fury, side view Hawker Sea Fury 10.6 m
  10. Fairey Firefly, side view Fairey Firefly 11.5 m
  11. F-51 Mustang, side view F-51 Mustang 9.8 m
  12. Bell H-13 (Sioux), side view Bell H-13 (Sioux) 9.6 m
  13. Short Sunderland, side view Short Sunderland 26.0 m
Fig. 15

Korea’s aircraft, parked together

live 3D, true scale
  • F-86 Sabre 11.4 m long, 11.3 m span
  • Meteor F.8 13.6 m long, 11.3 m span
  • T-6 Mosquito 8.8 m long, 12.8 m span
  • Auster AOP.6 7.2 m long, 11.0 m span
  • S-51 / H-5 17.5 m long, 14.9 m rotor
  • C-47 Dakota 19.7 m long, 29.0 m span
  • MiG-15bis 10.1 m long, 10.1 m span
  • Hawker Sea Fury 10.6 m long, 11.7 m span
  • Fairey Firefly 11.5 m long, 13.6 m span
  • F-51 Mustang 9.8 m long, 11.3 m span
  • Bell H-13 (Sioux) 9.6 m long, 11.3 m rotor
  • Short Sunderland 26.0 m long, 34.4 m span
Four F-86 Sabres of the 51st Fighter-Interceptor Wing breaking left in formation over Korea.
Four 51st Wing Sabres break left over Korea, 1952.US Air Force (photo 82042 AC), Public domain · source
Fig. 16

Where to see Korean War types in Britain

in British museums

Sources

  1. Robert F. Futrell, The United States Air Force in Korea, 1950–1953 (Office of Air Force History, revised 1983)
  2. Air & Space Forces Magazine, ‘This Day in Airpower: July 29, 1953’ (FEAF end-of-war summary)
  3. Igor Seidov and Stuart Britton, Red Devils over the Yalu: A Chronicle of Soviet Aerial Operations in the Korean War 1950–53 (Helion, 2014)
  4. Xiaoming Zhang, Red Wings over the Yalu: China, the Soviet Union, and the Air War in Korea (Texas A&M University Press, 2002)
  5. John Stillion and Scott Perdue, ‘Air Combat Past, Present and Future’, RAND Project Air Force briefing (2008)
  6. Robert F. Dorr, Jon Lake and Warren Thompson, Korean War Aces (Osprey, 2005)
  7. Wikipedia, List of Korean War flying aces (compiling USAF and Soviet sources)
  8. Wikipedia, North American F-86 Sabre — Korean War section
  9. Wikipedia, 64th Fighter Aviation Corps
  10. Ben Kiernan and Taylor Owen, ‘Making More Enemies than We Kill?’, The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus (2015)
  11. US Army, ‘Army helicopters in Korea, 1950 to ’53’
  12. National Museum of the United States Air Force, ‘Air Rescue’ fact sheet
  13. Australian War Memorial, ‘Mustangs, Meteors and MiGs: No. 77 Squadron RAAF in Korea’
  14. Royal Australian Navy Sea Power Centre, Hawker Sea Fury Mk 11 (HMAS Sydney in Korea)
  15. Wikipedia, 2 Squadron SAAF
  16. Wikipedia, HMS Ocean (R68)
  17. RAF Museum, Short Sunderland MR5
  18. Canadian Aviation Historical Society, ‘In Korean Skies’
  19. Richard P. Hallion, The Naval Air War in Korea (Nautical & Aviation, 1986)

Photographs

  • Sabres of the 51st Fighter-Interceptor Wing over Korea. The chequered fins were — US Air Force, Public domain · source
  • The MiG nobody had to shoot down. Lt No Kum-sok of the North Korean air force la — US Air Force, Public domain · source
  • A B-29 of the 19th Bomb Group bombing a target in Korea, 1951. Daylight B-29 rai — US Air Force (photo 342-AF-78971AC), Public domain · source
  • Winter off Korea: Sea Furies and Fireflies parked on a snow-covered flight deck — Royal Navy official photographer (IWM A 31788), Public domain (expired Crown copyright, PD-UKGov) · source
  • Meteor F.8 A77-570 of No. 77 Squadron RAAF on trestles for maintenance at Kimpo — US Air Force, Public domain · source
  • F-51D Mustangs of No. 2 Squadron SAAF, the ‘Flying Cheetahs’, in Korea on 1 May — US Air Force, Public domain · source
  • Two Sikorsky H-5s of the USAF’s 3rd Air Rescue Squadron in Korea, 1952. Air Resc — US Air Force (342-AF-121981AC), Public domain · source
  • A Marine HO3S, the naval version of the Sikorsky S-51, waits on a ridge as wound — US Navy (80-G-429571), Public domain · source
  • A wounded Australian is loaded into the stretcher pod of a US Army Bell H-13, 19 — Australian War Memorial, Public domain (PD-Australia) · source
  • Four 51st Wing Sabres break left over Korea, 1952. — US Air Force (photo 82042 AC), Public domain · source

Figures are drawn from the sources above; where they disagree the most widely cited figure is used and the range is given in the notes. Side profiles and 3D models are the gazetteer’s own procedural models, drawn to scale from published dimensions. Spotted an error? Tell us.