F-86F day fighter
The major production version
of the day-fighter Sabre was the F-86F. The F-86F Sabre was basically
a more powerful version of the F-86E, powered by the 5,910 lb.
s.t. J47-GE-27 engine in place of the 5200 lb.st. J47-GE-13.
Work on the new aircraft began
on July 31, 1950 as the NA-172, and was scheduled to begin production
as the F-86F in October of 1950. A contract (NA-172) for 109 F-86Fs
was approved on April 11, 1951, which was increased to 360 by
June 30.
There were serious delays in the deliveries of the J47-GE-27 engines
from General Electric, and the first 132 aircraft on the NA-172
contract had to be delivered with the less powerful -13 engine
of the F-86E. Since this made them essentially F-86Es rather than
F-86Fs, they were given the designation F-86E-10-NA. They were
delivered between September 1951 and April 1952.
The J47-GE-27 engine finally became available in the early spring
of 1952, and the first of 78 F-86F-1-NA aircraft (51-2850) took
to the air on March 19, 1952. By June, they were in service with
the 84th Squadron at Hamilton Field and with the 51st Wing in
Korea. The F-86F joined the 4th Wing in September.
The F-86F-5-NA appeared in June of 1952. It differed in having
underwing shackles capable of handling 200-gallon drop tanks instead
of the earlier 120-gallon tanks. These increased the combat radius
from 330 to 463 miles. Sixteen of these were built.
The F-86F-10-NA introduced a new gunsight, the A-4. Most of the
F-86As in Korea used the Mark 18 optical gyrosight. The Mark 18's
ranging control had to be operated manually, an awkward and potentially
dangerous task in the midst of high-speed combat. Late F-86As
and all Es mounted the A-1CM radar ranger which relieved the pilot
of the task of the ranging task. The A-1CM, however, was complicated,
prone to frequent breakdowns, and difficult to service and maintain.
The F-86F-10-NA and later aircraft introduced the A-4 ranging
system, which operated in a similar manner as the A-1CM, but was
simpler to service and maintain.
The last 100 aircraft on the NA-172 contract were to have been
F-86F-15-NAs with re-positioned control systems. However, in April
1952, additional delays in deliveries of the J47-GE-27 engines
forced another substitution of the earlier -13 engine in all but
the first seven aircraft in this block. The 93 re-engined aircraft
were then re-designated F-86E-15-NA
and were issued to training units rather than to combat Wings.
This is the block from which the 149th's Sabre Jets came.
Of the 2,540 F-86F's built, the early block production was:
78 F-86F-1-NA
16 F-86F-5-NA
34 F-86F-10-NA
7 F-86F-15-NA
Serials of the F-86F-15-NA
51-12970 through 51-12976
