Featured Artifact: North American F-86F Sabre

The F-86 Sabre was the first swept-swing fighter flown by the U.S. Air Force. The plane was first ordered from North American in the autumn of 1944. The original design called for an aircraft with straight wings and a straight-through jet flow, but when the results of German research on jet aircraft were published, a decision was made to redesign the plane with wings at a 35 degree sweep and a lengthened fuselage. Other advance features were bower-boosted ailerons and automatic leading edge slats. These changes delayed delivery of the plan for a year; but the prototype made its first flight on October 1, 1947. The F-86 made its first supersonic flight in the spring of 1948, and on September 15, 1948 set a world speed record of 670.981 mph.

After the outbreak of the Korean War, the 4th Fighter Interceptor Squadron was the first unit to receive F-86 Sabres to combat the MiG-15. The first engagement between these swept wing aircraft occurred in December 1950. The F-86 achieved an outstanding combat record in Korea, making 81,179 combat sorties and totaling 168,400 flying hours. The superiority of the Sabre to the MiG is attested to by the ten-to-one MiG/Sabre losses. The number of Sabre wings in the USAF reached its peak of 35 in 1955, and the last deliveries of this “MiG killer of the Korean War” were made in December 1956.

The F-86F was designed to increased performance over the MiG-15 with a new, extended leading edge wing and no slats, called the 6-3 wing (6 inch extension at the root decreasing to 3 inches at the tip). Boundary layer fences were also added. The improved J47-GE-27 engine’s increased thrust also helped performance. The F-86F went into action in the fall of 1953 with the 4th and 51st Fighter Interceptor Wings, while the 8th and 18th Fighter-Bomber Wings converted early in 1953.

A total of 2,540 F-85F’s were built at plants in Los Angeles, California and Columbus, Ohio.

The F-86F on display at the San Diego Air & Space Museum’s Annex in Gillespie Field is painted in the colors of The Paper Tiger in honor of Captain Harold Fischer, and is on of the few Sabres to have a shark mouth applied to the nose. Captain Fischer was assigned to the 39th FIS out of Suwon, Korea and ended the war with 10 confirmed MiG kills scored between November 26, 1952 and March 21, 1953.

The San Diego Air & Space Museum’s Gillespie Field is open to the public Wednesdays through Sundays, 9 am to 4 pm, and is located at 335 Kenney Street, El Cajon, 92020. The Museum’s site in El Cajon serves as an additional exhibit space for the Museum's growing collection, as well as a storage and restoration facility. Located at the northeastern corner of Gillespie Field, visitors can view various aircraft, including many examples of military jets, private sport aircraft and small racing planes. New additions at Gillespie include a reproduction of an FB-5, the first airplane designed specifically to take off and land on aircraft carriers, the last flight-worthy S-3 Viking, a rare P2 Neptune, and Baron Hilton’s iconic personal Staggerwing.