North Korean Airfields
Saturday, 19th November 2005 by James Turnbull
There's a couple of airfields in North Korea that airplane buffs and wannabe spies will enjoy browsing.
Taechon airfield has numerous biplanes sitting in little bunkers and a couple more randomly parked on the runway. One submitter reckoned they could be AN-2 Colts.
Kaechon airfield has loads of unidentifiable planes sitting at the south end of the runway. Following a small road leads to more planes, perhaps a service area? Also off the same road is what appears to be a cave entrance with another plane (maybe two) blocking the way. I wonder what else they've got hidden in there?
Thanks: kb, Michael Davis, Steve Rot, Marc Armstrong, Joey, Pete, Tiger Wang, toufox, Kowy, Ranty B, BenQ, DJ Swammi & TGM.
Biplanes ? Or just wings and shadows ? If you see biplanes where are the shadow ?
Everyone get under the table. The biplanes are coming!
While North Korea does, in fact currently fly AN-2 aircraft as troop transports, some of these are probably not the AN-2 biplane given the shadows. However, having said that, its very difficult to tell from this resolution, and some do appear to have the vague shape of the flightly forward lower wing.
Also, at the Kaechon airfield I suspect several of those concentrations of planes to be nothing more than fake shaddows used to confuse enemy reconnaisance. Those that are real are almost certainly Mig-19s but I believe it would be more likely that they would keep at least some of the active aircraft scattere ind the revetments pictured to the east and southeast of the runway and not tightly lined up along the runway. Thus I supposed that at least some of what looks like airplanes in a row on the apron are probably nothing more than big sheets of black material or black paint that LOOK like the shadow of Mig-19s.
“Fake shaddows used to confuse enemy reconnaisance” ???
Thats the funniest camouflage ever. Totally useless, vain and ineffective. (Except few minutes a day, and you need a sunny day) Why can’t we just see military airplanes like on the US airfields. Do you suspect US to use evil stratagems for paranoids ? No, most of time, and in North Korea too, airplanes are airplanes. Sorry to disappoint you.
What’s hidden? Maybe weapons of mass destruction, but real ones this time…
If you want to see what AN-2s look like from above in a clearer shot, check out this airstrip in Hungary…
View Placemark
You can see to lower wing on the planes on the left, but not the one on the right.
Those are AN-2s. If you look south of the airfield, you can find some AN-2s letting some Special Operations Forces out the door (numerous parachutes).
Actually DDA, the Germans AND the U.S. used that strategy with cardboard cutouts during World War II. It is actually an effective strategy. Because the person who is looking at the imagery, which is never that great of a quality, doesn’t know what to make of the shadow, so they assume that the camoflauge on the plane is the reason why they can’t see the plane. It works.
In the case of Kaechon, I reckon the planes parked near the runway are MIG21s (there’s the shadow of one flying over the runway further up). The planes parked further south off the small road are MIG19s.
I will now go out and get a real life …
Take a look at the two airfields either side of Sunchon (39 30 13N; 125 57 45E) (39 24 44N; 125 53 30E)- there is plenty of quantity- even if there is no quality! (Also see Hamhung airfield).
My question is “why Google Earth pictures of the N. Korean military airfields look like the runways and taxiways are painted with white reflective paint?” Is there something our own Glorious Leaders doin’t want us to know?