Could You Fly a Sabre?
The challenge of handling a 1950s MiG killer.
- By Paul Hoversten
- Air & Space magazine, November 2011
At the 2002 Nellis Air Show near Las Vegas, a Sabre heads up an A team in a USAF Heritage Flight: (from left) P-51 Mustang, P-47 Thunderbolt, F-15 Eagle, P-38 Lightning, and TF-51.
Erik Hildebrandt
(Page 2 of 2)
For most U.S. civilian owners and pilots, the first available Sabres arrived in a group from Canada in the 1970s, along with several CT-33 Silver Star trainers. Both fighters and trainers had been manufactured by Canadair under license and flown by the Royal Canadian Air Force. (Almost all of the 1,000 privately owned military jets in the United States have been imported from other countries, which flew them in their air forces. Sabres, for example, were flown by 31 countries besides the United States and Canada, including Britain, Germany, Italy, Iran, and Pakistan.)
Dale “Snort” Snodgrass, the U.S. Navy’s highest-time F-14 Tomcat pilot, has flown both an F-86F and the Canadair CL-13 Mark 6 at airshows. “The Canadair Mark 6 is the ultimate version of the F-86,” he says. “It has a slightly shorter wing, so it rolls a little faster. But with the shorter wing, it also turns a little slower.” He adds: “It also has a much more powerful engine.”
The first Sabres North American built in the late 1940s flew with a General Electric J47-GE-13. Though it was a step up from the piston engines of World War II-era fighters, the J47 was rated at just 5,200 pounds of thrust. On its Mark 6 variant, Canadair installed the Orenda 14 engine, giving the Sabre 7,200 pounds of thrust. “Quite a margin there,” says Penney.
At transonic cruise, the pilot of either model will need to be mindful of the slightest control inputs, says Sugden. “Little tiny changes in pitch and roll produce rapid changes in altitude and bank angle. The F-86 is pretty stable, but at high speed it’s very sensitive,” he says.
Which makes it all the more jaw-dropping that a young Air Force mechanic, who’d barely flown in a small propeller aircraft, would take one up and live to tell the tale. “It would not be unbelievable, but I wouldn’t recommend it,” says Penney. His advice: If you don’t have the training, leave the flying to those who do.
Paul Hoversten is the executive editor of Air & Space. He also wrote “D’oh! 10 Goofs in Space.”
Comments (6)
I realize this was a fairly short article intended first for print, but I am surprised that it does not mention the September, 1972 crash of an F-86 into a shopping center ice cream parlor. The history of number 1054 encapsulates many of the points touched on in this article - built in 1954, flown some 300 hours, then placed in storage for some ten years before being refurbished and relicensed as a civilian craft - one that obviously was not well-enough refurbished and whose pilot obviously did not have command of its quirks.
The crash killed 22 people, 12 of them children... three of them classmates of mine, one of whom was the object of my first serious crush. Many may have forgotten this horrific event, but I haven't - and I don't think Mr. Hoversten should have omitted it, either.
Posted by James Gifford on September 24,2011 | 07:56 PM
About your statement that "U.S. and Royal Air Force pilots have called the F-86 the best-handling fighter of its time." Undoubtedly true for U.S. pilots, but a majority of the RAF pilots would probably prefer the Hawker Hunter, considered by many to be the most graceful jet ever made, and the plane that took the absolute speed limit away from the F-86.
Posted by Jeff Tonn on September 30,2011 | 10:22 PM
I understand the Australian-built RR Avon Sabre had considerable more performance than the later US variants.
Posted by Brett Lewis on October 27,2011 | 06:43 PM
The story of the crew chief who took the Sabre flying one evening from Williams AFB back in the 1956 is great. I was a crew chief once or twice and wondered if it was possible... George Johnson lives East of me; not very far.
Posted by GregG on October 29,2011 | 01:36 PM
Flew several models of the Sabre and it was pure joy. The D/L was like a computer game. Lock on and fly the attack. Wish someone would invent a
game where you could lock onto a bogie and fly the attack through. Would buy one today.
Posted by LtColRichard O. Miller USAF(Ret.) on November 7,2011 | 12:17 PM
A shipmate and I in USN Attack Squadron 147 were driving through Sacramento on our way from NAS Lemoore to NAAS Fallon for exercises and we heard the crash, then the sounds of a multitude of emegency vehicles. Saw the smoke. No, I won't forget that. As a former member of the Military Air Services and always an airshow fan, I am disturbed each time I learn of such a tragedy. We worked very hard to keep our planes in the air and their pilots safe. When one or more fall, it still "hits home".
Posted by Rich Paton on March 22,2013 | 05:19 PM