Restored MiG 15 starring at Saturday's Pueblo Air Blitz
It was the hottest fighter in the sky over North Korea in 1950 -- the Soviet MiG 15 jet fighter.
Airplane buffs can see one for themselves this Saturday at the annual Pueblo Air Blitz, the airplane show at Pueblo Memorial Airport.
This MiG 15 was lovingly rebuilt by the airplane wizards at the Pueblo Weisbrod Air Museum and it now is be on permanent display there. But the restoration crew wanted to get this piece of air combat history ready in time for Saturday's gala.
The show is free and lasts from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. It will include vintage military airplanes, re-enactors and even remote-controlled airplane displays for kids.
But the new gem being unveiled Saturday is the MiG 15, which was the first jet fighter to challenge American pilots in skies during the early months of the Korean War.
In those early days, the streaking MiG 15 outflew and outgunned the propeller-driven P-51s and F4U Corsairs that were first sent into that war. It wasn't until U.S. pilots received the F-86 Sabrejet that it was a fair fight.
"We've restored it to look like a MiG that was flown by the Chinese Air Force," explained Joe Musso, the project director. "Of course, many of those MiGs were actually flown by fighter pilots from the Soviet Union."
That was one of the secrets of the Korean War -- that Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin wanted his own pilots to test their skills and their new jet against U.S. fighter pilots. That's one reason the Soviet pilots never flew their MiGs south of the Yalu River and stayed over China. When Soviet pilots were shot down -- and they were -- Stalin didn't want U.S. troops discovering who was really at the controls.
It was only after the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990s that veteran Soviet pilots openly talked about dogfighting American flyers in that war.
Musso said the museum's MiG 15 was recovered from Davis-Mothan Air Force Base in Arizona and had to be extensively rebuilt. However, it was flown by U.S. pilots in training as well as in several television shows before being mothballed.
"And we were lucky that the cockpit was in very good shape when we received the airplane," Musso said.
Museum staff intend to leave the canopy open this Saturday so the public can get a glimpse inside the world of a MiG pilot.