F-86D Sabre Dog

Video from the channel Dark Skies about North American F-86 Sabre, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 11:46. Language: English. Video type: Documentary.

Documentary about the North American F-86 Sabre and, especially, about its interceptor variant, the F-86D, known as the Sabre Dog.

North American proposed a jet fighter in 1944 and, after the war, revived the XP-86 design, which it redesigned with swept wings and tail surfaces. The prototype flew in 1947, and by March 1949 the F-86 already equipped several US Air Force fighter groups. In Korea, from December 1950, the 4th Fighter-Interceptor Wing pitted it against the MiG-15. The Sabre could not turn as tightly as the MiG, but it dived better, and the fighting concentrated in the so-called MiG Alley, along the Yalu River. The figures remain disputed: American pilots claimed more than 790 MiG-15s for 78 Sabres, while Soviet and Chinese sources speak of more than 600 Sabres shot down. 39 of the war's 40 UN aces flew at the controls of the F-86.

The F-86D, initially designated YF-95, was born as an all-weather interceptor with radar in the nose and shared only about 25% of its parts with the other Sabres. It replaced the cannons with a retractable tray holding up to 24 Mighty Mouse rockets and mounted a J47-GE-17B turbojet with afterburner and more than 7,500 pounds of thrust. The prototype flew in December 1949 with George Welch at the controls. It entered service in April 1953, and in July of that year William F. Barns reached 715 mph in it over the Salton Sea. More than 2,500 units were built, serving in the United States until 1961 and in several NATO air forces for longer.