P-51 vs MiG-15: The Propeller Legend Against the Jet That Outran It

Did the P-51 and MiG-15 ever fight each other?

Yes, once the Korean War turned into a jet war. The P-51 Mustang, by then redesignated the F-51, was flying ground-attack and photo-reconnaissance missions there when the MiG-15 arrived.

On November 1, 1950, the Soviet 50th Fighter Aviation Division joined the war with its MiG-15s. According to Wikipedia, eight of them intercepted about 15 USAF F-51Ds that day.

Wikipedia and Pacific Wrecks both say First Lieutenant Fyodor Chizh shot down one Mustang and killed its pilot. Air & Space Forces Magazine describes six MiGs and says the Mustangs escaped without harm.

The sources disagree on the number of MiGs and on whether a Mustang was lost, so treat any exact tally with caution.

The Mustang did not stay on the front line for long. The Australian War Memorial notes that 77 Squadron RAAF replaced its Mustangs with Meteor 8 jets in April 1951, because the piston-engine fighter had lost its technical edge and suited ground support better.

Air & Space Forces Magazine adds that the F-51s were pulled out of storage and sent to Korea, where they could fly from short, unpaved runways.

Edge: MiG-15

Speed, climb and ceiling: the MiG-15 wins easily

The MiG-15 tops out at 688 mph (1,107 km/h), a figure it reached at about 9,800 feet (3,000 m). The P-51D reached 441 mph (709 km/h) at altitude, so the jet was about 250 mph (400 km/h) faster.

The climb gap is wider still. The MiG-15 climbs at 10,080 ft/min (51 m/s) against 3,200 ft/min (16 m/s) for the Mustang, about three times as fast.

The jet also flew higher, with a ceiling of 50,800 feet (15,500 m) against 41,900 feet (12,800 m).

Weight does not explain the gap. The empty weights are close, at 7,635 lb (3,463 kg) for the P-51 and 8,115 lb (3,681 kg) for the MiG-15.

What differs is the engine. The Mustang’s Merlin made 1,720 hp (1,283 kW) at war emergency power, while the MiG-15’s Klimov VK-1 produced 5,950 lbf (26 kN) of thrust.

Edge: MiG-15

Range: the Mustang’s edge is smaller than you might expect

The P-51D could fly 1,650 miles (2,660 km) with external tanks. The MiG-15 managed 1,570 miles (2,520 km) at 39,000 feet with two drop tanks.

Both numbers assume drop tanks, so they describe the best case rather than a typical mission. On paper the two are close.

What the P-51 proved in 1944 was that a single-engine fighter could escort bombers deep into Germany. The Eighth Air Force used shorter-range P-38s and P-47s early in a raid and handed over to P-51s, and by the end of 1944 it flew Mustangs in 14 of its 15 fighter groups.

The MiG-15 was never built for that job. It was designed to intercept bombers, not to escort them.

Edge: P-51 Mustang, by a small margin

Firepower: three cannon against six machine guns

The P-51D carried six .50 caliber (12.7 mm) Browning machine guns. The MiG-15 carried one 37 mm cannon with 40 rounds and two 23 mm cannon with 80 rounds each.

The guns fit the job. A fighter built to kill bombers wants a few heavy shells, and the Smithsonian describes the MiG-15’s attacks as deadly with one 37 mm and two 23 mm cannon.

On October 23, 1951, a day known as Black Tuesday, 56 MiG-15bis intercepted nine B-29s escorted by 34 F-86s and 55 F-84Es. They shot down or damaged beyond repair eight B-29As and two F-84Es, and lost only one MiG.

The price was a short burst. With only 40 rounds for the big gun and 80 for each small one, a MiG pilot had little ammunition to waste.

Edge: MiG-15

Handling and reliability: each had a weakness

The MiG-15 was fast and unforgiving. It tended to spin after a stall, and the pilot often could not recover.

UN pilots recorded 56 occasions in Korea when a MiG-15 entered a spin in combat. At least 25 ended in crashes and ten in ejections.

There was also a speed wall. Pilots had to take care not to exceed Mach 0.92, where the control surfaces became ineffective.

In a test dive Chuck Yeager reached Mach 0.98, lost roll control and did not begin to regain it until denser air at 12,000 feet. He called the MiG-15 a “flying booby trap.”

The Mustang’s weak point was its cooling system. Its Merlin was liquid cooled, so a single hit to the radiator or a coolant line could end a strafing run, and losses on strafing missions were much higher than in air-to-air combat.

The air-cooled radial engine of the P-47 could usually shrug off small-arms fire, a contrast we cover in our P-51 vs P-47 comparison.

Edge: neither

The MiG-15’s real rival was the F-86, not the Mustang

Once the MiG-15 appeared, the UN answer was the F-86 Sabre. Our guide to Korean War fighter jets covers the wider field.

Wikipedia says the MiG-15 was superior to early F-86 models in ceiling, firepower, acceleration, turning and climb. The F-86 was marginally faster, could out-dive the MiG, and had a radar gunsight that helped it shoot accurately at longer range.

Numbers built and years in service

North American built 15,686 Mustangs, and the type served in the air arms of more than 25 nations after the war. The Dominican Air Force retired its last examples in 1984.

Wikipedia counts 13,130 MiG-15s built in the USSR, made up of 1,344 early MiG-15s, 8,352 MiG-15bis and 3,434 two-seaters. At least 4,180 more were built under license, which puts the total above 17,000.

Wikipedia’s operator list shows only North Korea’s air force still flying the type, in limited service.

Edge: MiG-15, on numbers built

Verdict: who wins, the P-51 or the MiG-15?

In the air, the MiG-15 wins clearly. It is the faster, higher-flying and harder-hitting fighter, which is what you would expect of a jet that flew seven years after the Mustang.

The comparison flatters the P-51 only if you judge it by its own job. In 1944 it was the long-range escort that kept raids on Germany going, and in 1950 the same airframe was a ground-attack fighter flying from rough strips.

The Smithsonian says Russian-piloted MiG-15s shocked and stunned Americans when they appeared over North Korea in late 1950. For a closer wartime matchup between a Mustang and a jet, see our P-51 vs Me 262 comparison, or our F4U Corsair vs MiG-15 for another piston fighter against the same jet.