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  • Sabres over MiG Alley: The F-86 and the Battle for Air Superiority in Korea
  • Stephen Budiansky
Sabres over MiG Alley: The F-86 and the Battle for Air Superiority in Korea. By Kenneth P. Werrell. Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, 2005. ISBN 1-59114-933-9. Photographs. Notes. Bibliography. Index. Pp. x, 318. $29.95.

The literature of air power history is dominated by books about individual airplanes. These tend to be long on facts and figures about engine horsepower and machine-gun muzzle velocities and short on historical understanding of the process of technological change and the military context of air power.

A few legendary aircraft represent such crucial turning points in the history of air power that their stories can, however, serve as legitimate vehicles for an exploration of these larger ideas. The F-86 Sabre certainly has a claim to being one of this select group. It was the first jet fighter to incorporate the aerodynamically revolutionary swept-back wing and the first operational fighter to break the sound barrier. And the combat experience of the Sabre in Korea (where it achieved an 8:1 kill ratio against the MiG-15) was vitally important not only to events of that war, but in shaping air superiority doctrine and tactics ever since.

In researching Sabres over MiG Alley, aviation historian Kenneth P. Werrell consulted extensive archival sources and interviewed sixty Korean War–era pilots. The result is an encyclopedic collection of factual data and a certain amount of record-straightening detail about controversial incidents. In particular, Werrell claims (official accounts notwithstanding) that unauthorized violations of Chinese and Soviet airspace by F-86 pilots eager to score MiG kills were routine.

The chief deficiency with this book is that little of this information is organized into a coherent narrative, much less placed in a context that elucidates historical connections or developments. Chapters follow neither chronological order nor any other clear logical progression: the book begins [End Page 1104] with several chapters detailing the F-86's various models, technical subsystems, maintenance, and safety; this is followed by a rather cursory overview of air operations in Korea; then come a string of chapters which consist of nothing but a series of capsule biographies of two dozen F-86 pilots, one after another. Despite the subtitle, there is no real discussion of how the fight for air superiority evolved.

In many places, the book reads like little more than raw notes for a book, with loosely connected material filed under general headings and linked by generic transitional sentences such as, "Flying is not a risk-free activity." The result is much repetition and a certain amount of confusion: in chapter three, the author states that the F-86's "three major mechanical problems" were the radar gunsight, the landing gear, and drop tanks; in chapter four, he states that the major mechanical problems were the landing gear, the control stick, and engine failures. At one point he asserts that the problems with the landing gear "came as no surprise to those familiar with the F-86"; elsewhere he says that problems with the landing gear were "surprising because that system was neither new nor exotic."

Those seeking specifics about the F-86 will find this a useful reference; those seeking to understand its significance in the Korean War, in air power history, or in the technological evolution of the jet fighter will have to look elsewhere.

Stephen Budiansky
Leesburg, Virginia
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