List of Korean War flying aces
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Dozens of aviators were credited as flying aces in the Korean War from 1950 to 1953. The number of total
flying aces A flying ace, fighter ace or air ace is a military aviator credited with shooting down five or more enemy aircraft during aerial combat. The exact number of aerial victories required to officially qualify as an ace is varied, but is usually co ...
, who are credited with downing five or more enemy aircraft in air-to-air combat, is disputed in the war. The
Korean War , date = {{Ubl, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (''de facto'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950, month2=7, day2=27, year2=1953), 25 June 1950 – present (''de jure'')({{Age in years, months, weeks a ...
saw the first widespread use of
jet engine A jet engine is a type of reaction engine discharging a fast-moving jet of heated gas (usually air) that generates thrust by jet propulsion. While this broad definition can include rocket, Pump-jet, water jet, and hybrid propulsion, the term ...
-powered
fighter aircraft Fighter aircraft are fixed-wing military aircraft designed primarily for air-to-air combat. In military conflict, the role of fighter aircraft is to establish air superiority of the battlespace. Domination of the airspace above a battlefield ...
for both sides of a war. Subsequently, difficulty arose in crediting the number of victories for each side, thanks in part to poor records, intentional overestimation, and the difficulty of confirming crashes in
MiG Alley "MiG Alley" was the name given by United Nations (UN) pilots during the Korean War to the northwestern portion of North Korea, where the Yalu River empties into the Yellow Sea. It was the site of numerous dogfights between UN fighter pilots and ...
, where the majority of
air-to-air combat Air combat manoeuvring (also known as ACM or dogfighting) is the tactical art of moving, turning and/or situating one's fighter aircraft in order to attain a position from which an attack can be made on another aircraft. Air combat manoeuvres ...
took place in the war. As a result, there is a large discrepancy on both sides as to the number of victories claimed versus aircraft lost, and it is extremely difficult to determine the accuracy of many victories. The ace status of dozens of pilots still remains in question. Aviators from four nations may have qualified as aces during the Korean War; between six and nine aces have been estimated for
China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
and up to four in
North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu River, Y ...
. Pilots of the
Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
had the most difficulty confirming victories and accurately determining which pilots achieved ace status, and between 34 and 60 pilots from that nation have been postulated as possible aces in the war. For the
United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...
, the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
was the only country with pilots to attain ace status, with 40. No pilot from another UN country attained ace status, though many claimed victories. Among these,
Royal Canadian Air Force The Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF; french: Aviation royale canadienne, ARC) is the air and space force of Canada. Its role is to "provide the Canadian Forces with relevant, responsive and effective airpower". The RCAF is one of three environm ...
pilot Ernest A. Glover claimed three victories.


Controversy

The status of many claimed aces in the Korean War has been increasingly debated as more data becomes available, showing that instances of over-claiming abounded on both sides. An example of this occurred on 20 May 1951, when the war's largest fighter battle to date took place between 28 F-86 Sabres and 30 MiG-15s. After this battle the Americans claimed three MiGs (including two for
James Jabara James "Jabby" Jabara (10 October 1923 – 17 November 1966) was the first American and United States Air Force flying ace, jet ace. Born in Oklahoma, he lived in Kansas where he enlisted as an aviation cadet at Fort Riley after graduating from ...
) and the Soviets claimed four Sabres (including one for
Yevgeny Pepelyaev Yevgeny Georgievich Pepelyaev (russian: Евгений Георгиевич Пепеляев; 18 March 1918 – 4 January 2013) a Soviet fighter pilot in the Korean war; most Russian sources credit him as the second-highest scoring pilot in the wa ...
). In fact, each side lost only one aircraft. The Americans claimed that Jabara was their first jet ace after the 20 May combat but, apart from the discrepancy on that date, he was also credited with a kill in a 12 April 1951 combat in which the Americans claimed a total of 11 MiGs shot down when the Soviets actually lost only one fighter. For their part, the Soviets claimed 15
Boeing B-29 The Boeing B-29 Superfortress is an American four-engined propeller-driven heavy bomber, designed by Boeing and flown primarily by the United States during World War II and the Korean War. Named in allusion to its predecessor, the B-17 F ...
kills on that date when the Americans only lost four in the combat itself and six written-off later. Compounding the problem, both sides were using
jet engine A jet engine is a type of reaction engine discharging a fast-moving jet of heated gas (usually air) that generates thrust by jet propulsion. While this broad definition can include rocket, Pump-jet, water jet, and hybrid propulsion, the term ...
-powered
fighter aircraft Fighter aircraft are fixed-wing military aircraft designed primarily for air-to-air combat. In military conflict, the role of fighter aircraft is to establish air superiority of the battlespace. Domination of the airspace above a battlefield ...
on a large scale for the first time, and the high speeds of combat made visual identification of damaged and destroyed aircraft difficult. USAF pilots were credited with a kill if the gun camera showed their guns striking the enemy aircraft even if no one actually saw it go down. After the war the USAF reviewed its figures in an investigation code-named ''Sabre Measure Charlie'' and downgraded the kill ratio of the
North American F-86 Sabre The North American F-86 Sabre, sometimes called the Sabrejet, is a transonic jet fighter aircraft. Produced by North American Aviation, the Sabre is best known as the United States' first swept-wing fighter that could counter the swept-wing So ...
against the
Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 (russian: Микоя́н и Гуре́вич МиГ-15; USAF/DoD designation: Type 14; NATO reporting name: Fagot) is a jet fighter aircraft developed by Mikoyan-Gurevich for the Soviet Union. The MiG-15 was one of ...
by half. The Soviets also had lax standards for confirming kills at the beginning of the war, leading to widespread over-claiming. Both sides made extensive use of gun cameras to better track effectiveness, but Soviet cameras were less effective, further contributing to over-claiming. Records from the
United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...
show that 40 American pilots reached ace status. However, records from
China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
, the
Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
, and
North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu River, Y ...
conflict widely and accounts vary on how many aircraft on each side were lost and who is credited with the victories. Air victory claims, which are often controversial between two sides of a war, were particularly difficult to measure in Korea thanks to the difficulty recovering crashed aircraft and confirming losses, as well as poor records for the two sides which fought the bulk of their engagements in an area known as
MiG Alley "MiG Alley" was the name given by United Nations (UN) pilots during the Korean War to the northwestern portion of North Korea, where the Yalu River empties into the Yellow Sea. It was the site of numerous dogfights between UN fighter pilots and ...
. The number of aircraft lost during the war is in dispute among both the UN and the
Soviet bloc The Eastern Bloc, also known as the Communist Bloc and the Soviet Bloc, was the group of socialist states of Central and Eastern Europe, East Asia, Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America under the influence of the Soviet Union that existed du ...
nations. UN pilots claim 840 aircraft shot down during the war, while Chinese, Soviet, and North Korean sources indicate only 600 were lost among the three nations, including non-combat losses. Conversely, the Soviet Union sources claim to have shot down 800 UN aircraft, while the US claims to have lost only 100 aircraft in combat. Overestimation of victories on both sides has been attributed to the stress and confusion of air combat situations during the war, as well as the tendency for pilots to deliberately exaggerate claims for career advancement. Historians suggest that numbers in these nations were deliberately exaggerated for
propaganda Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded ...
purposes and to appease their superiors. For example, Soviet pilots faced penalties for perceived failure or ineffectiveness, making inaccurate or false claims of victories more common. Conversely, data-matching with Soviet records shows that US pilots claimed up to 400 per cent more kills in some combats than they actually achieved, and that they routinely attributed their own combat losses to landing accidents and "other causes". The Soviet bloc nations claim to have destroyed a combined total of between 1,000 and 1,600 UN aircraft in air-to-air combat, the most common number in sources being 1,106 UN aircraft total, including 651
F-86 Sabres The North American F-86 Sabre, sometimes called the Sabrejet, is a transonic jet fighter aircraft. Produced by North American Aviation, the Sabre is best known as the United States' first swept-wing fighter that could counter the swept-wing S ...
. The most authoritative Soviet numbers indicate 1,016 UN aircraft, including 595 Sabres. Chinese sources claim an additional 330 victories, including 211 Sabres. The most common number used is a total of 271 victories for China and North Korea. Other, more recent works claim 1,337 UN aircraft. During the entire course of the war, UN air forces lost about 3,000 aircraft. The
United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Signal ...
(USAF) reported a total of 516 non-combat losses and 1,466 aircraft lost in combat missions, with 757 of them lost to enemy fire Of these 139 were destroyed in air-to-air combat, 305 were unknown causes and 472 were "other losses". Of these, just 78 Sabres were listed as lost in air-to-air combat, 26 were unknown causes and 61 were "other losses". The
United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...
and
United States Marine Corps The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through combi ...
lost 1,248 aircraft to all causes and the other UN countries lost about 300 aircraft. Tallying claims for the many Soviet pilots who claim to have achieved ace status is extremely difficult. The system of claims awards in the Soviet Union was unclear and appears to have been highly inconsistent during the war. There is also no single list of victories for each pilot in the Soviet Union, with numbers instead drawn from
after action report An after action report (or AAR) is any form of retrospective analysis on a given sequence of goal-oriented actions previously undertaken, generally by the author themselves. The two principal forms of AARs are the literary AAR, intended for recrea ...
s and accounts from pilots and unit leaders. These complications, in addition to the intentional exaggeration of kills in order to please superiors, means that the about 50 Soviet pilots claiming ace status have a total number of victories which far exceeds the number of aircraft the UN lost in the Korean War's air battles. Realizing the chronic problem with false claims, Soviet leaders began to tighten the criteria for confirming victories in 1952. As a result, far fewer Soviet pilots were made aces in the second half of the war. Similarly, data-matching shows that US aces also over-claimed. For example, the US claimed that
James Jabara James "Jabby" Jabara (10 October 1923 – 17 November 1966) was the first American and United States Air Force flying ace, jet ace. Born in Oklahoma, he lived in Kansas where he enlisted as an aviation cadet at Fort Riley after graduating from ...
became the world's first jet-versus-jet ace during his first tour of duty, but Soviet data shows he didn't achieve ace status until his second tour.


List of aces


China

Various sources claim that between six and nine Chinese pilots attained ace status during the course of the war. A USAF report listed six Chinese pilots attained ace status during the Korean War. Although all Chinese aces have received the title Combat Hero in acknowledgement of their services, very little information is known of the Chinese pilots during the war due to the lack of published records.


North Korea

There is some controversy as to whether any pilots of the North Korean People's Air Force attained ace status. Various sources claim there were either zero, two or four aces from North Korea. Research by the USAF in 1999 concluded two North Korean pilots may have attained the status. However, historian
Michael J. Varhola Michael O. Varhola (born September 24, 1966) is an author, publisher, and lecturer. He has written numerous books, games, and articles, and founded game development company and manufacturer Skirmisher Publishing LLC. He also served as the assista ...
subsequently contended that Chinese and Soviet records indicate it is unlikely any North Korean pilots attained enough victories for ace status.


Soviet Union

Various sources claim between 43 and 60 pilots from the Soviet Union attained ace status in the war. Most sources claim around 50 pilots attained ace status during the Korean War, of whom many are very controversial. Research by the USAF named 52 pilots who may have had legitimate claim to the title. Little is known of some of the pilots and their combined tally is incompatible with the number of aircraft the USAF claims to have lost in the war. Subsequent independent sources generally agree the number of aces claimed was around 52, but 15 names differ among the lists, particularly lower-scoring pilots. The number of victories for virtually all of the ace pilots is subject to dispute. Listed are names of 67 Soviet pilots attributed as aces in various sources. Of these, the ace status of 30 are in question among historians.


United States

Of 40
United States military The United States Armed Forces are the military forces of the United States. The armed forces consists of six service branches: the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, and Coast Guard. The president of the United States is the ...
servicemen who attained ace status in Korea, all but one of them flew primarily the
F-86 Sabre The North American F-86 Sabre, sometimes called the Sabrejet, is a transonic jet fighter aircraft. Produced by North American Aviation, the Sabre is best known as the United States' first swept-wing fighter that could counter the swept-wing So ...
during their air-to-air fights. Early in the war against the older North Korean People's Air Force aircraft, US pilots flew a variety of aircraft including the
F-51 Mustang The North American Aviation P-51 Mustang is an American long-range, single-seat fighter aircraft, fighter and fighter-bomber used during World War II and the Korean War, among other conflicts. The Mustang was designed in April 1940 by a team ...
,
F-80 Shooting Star The Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star was the first jet fighter used operationally by the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) during World War II. Designed and built by Lockheed in 1943 and delivered just 143 days from the start of design, prod ...
and
F-82 Twin Mustang The North American F-82 Twin Mustang is the last American piston-engined fighter ordered into production by the United States Air Force. Based on the North American P-51 Mustang, the F-82 was originally designed as a long-range escort fighter ...
. However, with the introduction of the MiG-15 when the People's Liberation Army Air Force entered the war, only the Sabre fighter could match the Soviet-built fighters in single combat. Similarly to the Chinese and Soviet aces, the kill totals of many American pilots are disputed. Their combined tally is incompatible with recorded losses by communist forces, and data-matching with Soviet records shows that many of the aces' claimed kills were erroneous. In some cases, American pilots over-claimed by 400 per cent after air combat. The pilots who attained ace status in the war scored a disproportionate number of kills in the war. Of 1,000 fighter pilots who served in the war, only 355 were credited with aerial victories. A total of 756.5 victories were credited for aircraft shot down by the UN, with the 40 aces shooting down a total of 310.5 aircraft, or 40 percent of the total. The top five aces are credited with a combined ten percent of the UN aircraft victories of the war. In addition to the 40 pilots who attained ace status in the Korean War, another 17 US pilots who had been aces in World War II claimed additional kills in the Korean War. Two Canadian World War II aces, J. Lindsay and John McKay, also garnered additional kills in the war.


References


Footnotes


Citations


Sources

* * * * * * * * * * * {{Korean War
Ace An ace is a playing card, die or domino with a single pip. In the standard French deck, an ace has a single suit symbol (a heart, diamond, spade, or club) located in the middle of the card, sometimes large and decorated, especially in the c ...
Korean War , date = {{Ubl, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (''de facto'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950, month2=7, day2=27, year2=1953), 25 June 1950 – present (''de jure'')({{Age in years, months, weeks a ...
Korean War flying aces