When the USSR Tried to Copy the F-86 Sabre … and Failed



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In 1952, after a thorough examination of a U.S. F-86 Sabre captured in Korea, Joseph Stalin unexpectedly ordered Soviet engineers to copy the American fighter and build a “Soviet Sabre.” The project, however, ended up in complete failure and remained largely unknown to the public.

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34 Comments

  1. They tried to copy the Me262, the Arado, the V2, all failed, why? Look at Russia today, innovation is an accident waiting to happen, it is not normal in Russia. The reason is that Russians suspect people who are cleverer than most of being spies, witches, anything other than intelligent.

  2. Excellent video, well done, well researched and narrated. Thank you for not using Ai.

    Had cough a little at the description of Stalin: "Wise and flawless leader" more like, murderous tyrannical despot.

  3. Nevee forget everyone,canadians made the sabre better.
    The yank fighter piolots wanted our version.
    Everybody wanted our version.
    We put in a bigger engine and better landing gear.
    Other mods turned a great fighter into a super fighter.
    Check the statistics.
    Canadians ,in korea constantly punched above their weight.
    But of course yanks will never give us any credit as usual.

  4. The generalization that "the Russians lagged behind in technology" is certainly inadequate in the face of such examples. Although the Soviet Union trailed the West in certain areas of consumer electronics and mass production, it was far ahead of its time in basic sciences, physics, radio wave theory, and innovative engineering solutions. Those who think the Soviets were technologically backward have never heard of the "Thing"—or, as it is otherwise known, the Great Seal Bug. The Soviets were directing a high-power radio signal (a microwave beam) at a specific frequency—around 330 MHz—from a building opposite the embassy toward the room where the seal was located.

    The Americans only discovered this in 1952, after British radio operators happened to pick up voices related to American diplomacy on the airwaves in Moscow. The US National Security Agency (NSA) found the tiny metal capsule inside the wooden seal after meticulously searching every inch of the room. They were so baffled by the technology that they took the device to British scientist Peter Wright for analysis, and the British struggled for months to decipher its operating principle.

    The Soviet approach to technology differed from that of the West: while the West focused on complex, high-cost electronic systems, Soviet scientists created solutions that were extremely simple, maintenance-free, and undetectable by leveraging the fundamental laws of nature and physics in ingenious ways.

  5. Those career bureaucrats who knew how to keep their heads down and quietly wait to punish those who used their access to the great leader’s whim to overreach and self amplify. They were all that kept the system running for as long as it did. God I hope we have some of them lying in wait for Kegsbreath, Voldemiller and friends.

  6. Copy the F-86 Sabre? – This nonsense! This is typical Western propaganda, designed to exploit the listener's ignorance. Because:
    1) Mig-15 the first flight took place 1947. The aircraft entered service in 1949;
    2) F-86 Sabre the first flight took place 1947. The aircraft entered service in 1949.
    It is obvious that dates are facts, unlike the myths of false propaganda

  7. Funny how the Mig 15 has a high tailplane and the designers of the British Electric Lightning and test pilots realized that the high tail plane was dangerous for stability for ultrasonic flight. So Russian designers consider a tailplane configuration similar to a Lancaster bomber for a ultra sonic fighter

  8. We want to thank our British cousins for GIVING the Soviet Union their Rolls-Royce Nene jet engine so they could reverse engineer and mass produce it as the VK-1 and then put it in the Mig 15. The widows and children of the killed USAF pilots in Korea also give you a hearty THANKS.

  9. 39:47 Oh my God, that guy is a believer. I’m assuming a lot here, but I get the impression (maybe we’re supposed to) this guy’s just some ordinary bloke, my counterpart on the other side of the Iron Curtain. I know I’m supposed to see the guy’s devotion while knowing of Stalin’s tyranny, but the guy knows what knows because that was what he had been taught.

    It would be a shocker if I found out I was the brainwashed/conditioned/programmed one. That’s probably not the case, generally speaking, but there’s no question I’m being guided about what to think about, and it’s presented in such a way that my response will be highly predictable.

    That’s not bad if everything is true, but that’s not the point here. This guy’s basically worshipping a monster, and he’s just a regular person.

    Ignorant of his ignorance. People really don’t know how much they don’t know; nor of what they can’t know.

  10. The Soviets copied a whole bunch of our Stuff!! Most obviously, the B29 Bomber and that Buran Space-Shuttle Clone!! Dumb Ruskies couldn't come up with anything original!! On another subject, I'll refrain from pointing out that More People died under Stalin's reign of Genocide than that of Adolf Hitler.

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