Retrieve a MIG-15: Royal Navy Mission in Korea 1952

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The discussion centers on a 1952 article from Meccano Magazine detailing the recovery of a crashed MIG-15 in Korea, highlighting the unusual method of dismantling it with hand grenades. Participants express skepticism about the effectiveness of this method, questioning how it could preserve any usable parts of the aircraft. The conversation also references the 1976 defection of Viktor Belenko, where a MIG-25 was carefully disassembled for transport, contrasting the hurried and destructive approach used in the earlier incident. The initial article is noted for its admiration of the MIG-15 without anti-Communist sentiment. Overall, the thread explores the challenges and methods involved in recovering military aircraft under duress.
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Use of the Nene engine in the MIG-15
Hello All

I've included here a small piece from Meccano Magazine for November 1952, describing the recovery of a crashed MIG-15 in Korea. Certainly a dangerous mission and I like the way the MIG was dismantled "with hand grenades"!

Interestingly the text is full of praise for the aircraft, and apparently free of anti-Communist propaganda.

Was it when the previous MIG-15, retrieved by the Royal Navy, was inspected that the use of a Nene-clone was discovered?

best regards ... Stef
 

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How does one dismantle anything with hand grenades?
 
jedishrfu said:
How does one dismantle anything with hand grenades?

Afterwards they are certainly no longer mantled.
 
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@Vanadium 50 the reference of dismantling was from the posted news article where it said they dismantled a MIG for transport using hand grenades.

It would seem that doing that would have destroyed most if not all of the plane so I was wondering if the OP knew more about it.
 
I know no more about this dismantling than what's shown in the article. Since this was done on enemy territory, they were in a hurry and so some form of explosive did the trick quickly.

I recall the defection of Viktor Belenko in 1976 who flew his MIG-25 to Japan from Vladivostok. In that incident, the American technicians felt it was necessary to take the plane to pieces (presumably NOT using hand grenades) so that it could be carefully packed into 40 crates for safe return to the Russians.
 
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