Air Warriors: Series 8 – F-86 Sabre

The inside story of the F-86 Sabre, one of America’s first fighter jets, and its epic battles against the Soviet MiG jet during the Korean War and beyond.

This new season of ‘Air Warriors’ showcases the best of the best Designed with the engineering specs from captured Nazi documents, Take a soaring look the world’s top bombers, jet fighters, and other Air Warriors from WWII and the Cold War America’s first swept-wing jet fighter – the F-86 Sabre – was also the first that could take on the deadly Soviet MiG. Me 109 Considered the deadliest fighter of WWII, Germany’s Me-109s were feared by Allied bombers and fighters alike. Discover how the F-86 Sabre went from an untested, new aircraft to the deadliest fighter of its time.

Early in WWII, American aircraft researchers were confronted with the problem of “shock waves” building up at the frontal surfaces of aircraft, and particularly wing and tail surfaces when the aircraft was flown at high speeds. Shock waves could and did cause complete destruction of several aircraft, notably the P-38 Lightning and P-47 Thunderbolt. Taking advantage of flight research data seized from the German Luftwaffe at the end of the war, the North American P-86 Sabre was the first American aircraft to use swept wings as was used on the German Messerschmitt Me 262. Up until this point, American jets were designed with straight rather than swept back wings.

The North American F-86 Sabre was one of the greatest fighter aircraft of all time. It entered service with the USAAF in 1949 and although not as fast and maneuverable as the MiG 15, it was instrumental in denying air superiority to the Chinese during the Korean War. Afterwards, many Sabres entered service with dozens of foreign air arms, becoming the primary fighter of many Allied nations.

The origin of the Sabre began with an order on May 18, 1945, of three North American model NA-140 experimental aircraft by the US Army Air Corps.2 Designated the XP-86, it made its inaugural flight on October 1, 1947 at Muroc Dry Lake, California. It was equipped with a 4,000 pound thrust J-35-C-3 jet engine built by Chevrolet—production was later turned over to Allison. The highest speed attained was 618 mph (995 km/h) at 14,000 ft (4,267 m), it had a ceiling of around 41,300 ft (12,588 m)and its initial climb rate was 4,000 fpm (20.32 m/s). This was fantastic performance when compared to any prop-driven plane the US had produced up to the end of the war. Even North American’s own prop-driven P-51 paled by comparison. Test pilots were ecstatic over the Sabre, with comments such as “…rock-steady gun platform.” and “…so easy to fly you can almost control it with your thoughts”.

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