Zephyr Net

Depends on the battlefield... If we had to attack North Korea we would be facing the largest integrated air defense network in our history. The DPRK's air defense is essentially 100 times as dense as it was over North Vietnam.


Even the Bone would have difficulty surviving in the face of this dense a defense...

In this sort of environment, the BUFF would have to be a standoff cruise missile launcher with no possibilities of survival in a carpet bombing type of mission...

However, I dont want anyone to think I am detracting from how great this aircraft truly is... No other combat aircraft, in the history of aviation, has served as long as the B-52 in front line service, nor will continue to server...

WIth the possible exception of the TU-95 in Russian Service... This bomber is also a 1950s design and still serves in front line units and is expected to do so for quite awhile, but it has never seen combat and it is unknown what its survival capabilities would be, nor its effectiveness...

However the F-86 still gets the ultimate vote from me for most effective combat aircraft. It won a war that we would have otherwise lost. You cant say that about any other aircraft on your list...

CAG out...

The B-52, while being a great aircraft, was found to be to vulnerable over Vietnam to survive in the face of modern air defenses. Large numbers were lost to SA-2s and MiGs..

Its use in Desert Storm/Iraqi Freedom was only after substancial (if not all) air supremacy and DEAD (Destruction of Enemy Air Defenses) had been accomplished.

In Desert Storm we would have won that war with or without the BUFF...

In the Korean War we simply would have lost without the Sabre... The Reds would have been able to establish air superiority over our straight winged jets, as it was, 2 squadrons fought off MiG-15s at a ratio of 100 to 1... The B-29s suffered huge losses in the face of the MiGs and were forced into nightime strikes. They never again flew to the Yalu in daylight.

The only other comparison you could make, would have been the continued losses of B-17s and B-24s over Europe if the P-51 had not been manufactured. The German Airforces would have maintained air superiority and fought off the bombers, ending up in total control of the air over the continent of Europe, and probably leading to absolute loss on D-Day, if it were attempted at all, in the face of superior axis air power...

The same goes for Korea... If the NKs, China, and Russia had been able to establish air superiority then our forces, which were massivley out numbered, would have been exposed to massive airstrikes and crushed, in the same way we crushed the Chinese infantry from the air when the F-86 assured our control and bottled up the MiGs in MiG Alley in the far northeastern corner of Korea...

No other aircraft has accomplished so much while facing such a superior enemy in technology(The MiG-15 was vastly superior to the F-86 until the solid wing F-86 F was introduced in 1952/53) and in numbers (100 to 1) and stacked up such a kill ratio of 12 to 1...

All other US fights, the USAF held the advantage in numbers and technology...

CAG out...

Also the majority of strategic bombing by the 8th Airforce was ineffective, as it was shown after the war that industial output actually went UP during the bombing campaign...


Besides the best heavy bomber in the European theater was the British Lancaster... It could carry roughtly 3 times the warleoad of a B-17 and do it over a 1/3 longer distance...

However the war was not won by the B-17... The 8th would have been destroyed without the P-51...

But the Mustang did not win the airwar either, as the P-38 and the P-47 were both effective aircraft in their own right...

However in Korea there was only ONE aircraft that could and did stop the MiG-15... The F-86 Sabrejet.... Without it we would have lost complete control of the air, as the F-80 and F-84s were shown to be totally ineffective against the Russian piloted MiGs...

The F-86 went on to serve in larger numbers then any other Western jet ever produced. Much more then the F-4 ever did and in more Airforces...

It also scored the first kills with a2a missiles... Taiwanese and South Korean F-86s armed with AIM-2B Sidewinders downed both MiG-15s(also J-5s) and MiG-17s(again also J-6s) in air to air combat during the mid 1950s...

But again there has been no other time in history where one single TYPE of aircraft did so much to contrubute to victory and save so many lives. Without the F-86 we would have been kicked out of Korea, Taiwan, and probably out of Japan and the Phillipines also...

You just cant compare what it did to any other specific aircraft...

CAG, I'm not a history buff to be sure. When did the F-86s come into the conflict? I believe they were held back for a while in Japan at first?