The Soviet ace with MiG Alley’s highest score
From 1951 to 1952, he flew 149 combat sorties over Korea and was credited with 22 victories.
Nikolai Sutyagin was a Soviet fighter pilot who served in the Second World War and the Korean War, becoming a defining ace of the early jet age. Flying the MiG-15 in Korea, he completed 149 combat sorties and 66 aerial engagements, and Soviet records credited him with 22 aircraft destroyed, making him the leading Soviet pilot of the war. His record captures both the Soviet Union’s covert intervention in the air war over Korea and the way victory claims can vary with sources and combatants.
Career Timeline
- 1941–1942Conscripted into the Red Army; trained at the Chernigov Military Aviation Pilot School
- 1942–1947Pilot and flight commander, 5th Fighter Aviation Regiment, Far East
- 1945Served in the Soviet–Japanese War and the Manchurian Strategic Offensive
- 1947–195117th Fighter Aviation Regiment; transitioned to the MiG-15
- 1951–1952Korean War, command and air-combat tactics roles with the 17th Fighter Aviation Regiment; 22 victories
- 1956–1964Studied at the Air Force and General Staff academies; commanded training units
- 1964–1978Head of the Kharkiv aviation school, air-force commander, and aviation adviser in Vietnam
- 1978Retired as a major general of aviation