Russell Brown

First USAF Jet Pilot to Shoot Down an Enemy Jet

By Stephen Sherman, Feb. 2011. Updated July 10, 2011.

On November 8, 1950 Lt. Russell Brown, flying a Lockheed F-80 Shooting Star over Korea, engaged and destroyed a Soviet-built MiG-15. It was a landmark event in military aviation history - the first fighter jet to shoot down another jet.

One of the visitors to acepilots.com was kind enough to share some contemporary newspaper clippings.

Air Force Times, Feb. 6, 1951:

FEAF FIRSTS - Lt. Russell J. Brown (left) was flying an F-80 Shooting Star last November 8th when he ran into a flock of Russian-type MiG-15s over Korea. In history's first jet-vs.-jet battle, Lt. Brown blasted the swifter enemy jet out of the sky. Lt. Col. William K. Bertram (right), commander of a squadron of 27th Fighter-Escort Wing aircraft over Korea, was recently officially notified that he was the first F-84 Thunderjet pilot of FEAF to shoot down a MIG-15 jet fighter in aerial combat. ...

U.S. Jets Hit 3 MiGs, Rocket 8 Red Tanks

300 Sorties Flown by 5th AF

Three U.S. F80 jet pilots reported that they probably destroyed two Russian-made MIG-15 jet fighters and damaged a third in three separate air battles today.

At the same time, F84 jet fighters bombed and rocketed seven Communist tanks in a river bed 20 miles north of the 38th Parallel and a lone tank near the frontlines on the border. ...