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When the KPA began Kim Il-Sung’s invasion of South Korea, USAF Intelligence erroneously believed that the KPAF had some 22 Yak-16 10-passenger light transports in its inventory (only two Yak-16 prototypes were ever produced). Actually the MAR had about a half dozen of the similar looking, but much smaller, four-passenger Yak-6s, which were used for liaison duties and as twin-engine trainers, preparing the KPAF’s initial cadre of pilots, the ‘First Swallows’, to fly the much larger Douglas C-47/Lusinov Li-2 medium transports. (Artwork by Tom Cooper)