Canadair F-86 Sabre - History

In 1948 the Canadian government decided to re-equip the RCAF with the F-86 Sabre fighter. Canadair was given a contract to produce them. An initial batch of ten aircraft was ordered for tool verification. The Korean War changed this to a production batch of 100 aircraft. Due to difficulties in obtaining parts & equipment from the USA, Canadair slowly built up its production facility to make all parts, and equipment was obtained from Canadian suppliers. Canadair gave the Sabre the project number CL-13, but this was seldomly used, even internally. The Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) was the air force of Canada from 1924 until 1968 when the three branches of the Canadian military were merged into the Canadian Armed Forces. ... F-86 Sabre at Oshkosh Airshow, 2003 The F-86 Sabre was a subsonic combat aircraft developed for the US Air Force. ...

Production

There were seven types of Sabre produced at Canadair. The Sabre 1 was the same as the North American Sabre F-86A. It had a General Electric J47-GE-13 turbo jet of 5200 lbf thrust. The Sabre 2, which was started after about twenty aircraft had been finished, had the same engine, but had power-assissed controls and an "all-flying" tailplane. The Sabre 3 was the start of the Canadian Sabres having an Avro-Canada Orenda 3 turbo-jet with 6000 lbf thrust. The Sabre 4 reverted to the General Electric engine and were destined for the RAF and other overseas Air Forces. Canada donated the fuselage, while the engine was supplied by the USA. The Sabre 5 was the main production version, each with an Orenda 10 (6500 lbf thrust). A change to the Orenda 14 (7440 lbf) powered the Sabre 6. The designation Sabre 7 was mainly experimental. Political highlights of North America North America is the third largest continent in area and the fourth ranked in population. ... The General Electric Company, or GE (NYSE: GE) is a multinational technology and services company. ... The Royal Air Force (often abbreviated to RAF) is the air force branch of the British Armed Forces. ...

In all, 1815 Sabres were built at Canadair, the first in August 1949 and the final one in February 1969.

Women's Speed Records

In 1952, Jacqueline Cochran, aged then 47, decided to challenge the World Speed Record for Women, then held by Jacqueline Auriol. She tried to borrow an F-86 from the USAF, but was refused. She was introduced to a Vice Air Marshal of the RCAF who, with the permission of the Canadian Minister of Defence, arrange for her to borrow a Sabre 3. Canadair sent a 16 man support team to California for the attempt. On 18 May 1953 Ms. Cochran set a new 100 km speed record of 1050.15 km/h (652.5 mph). Later on 3 June she set a new 15 km closed circuit record of 1078 km/h (670 mph). While she was in California, she exceeded 1270 km/h in a dive, and thus became the first woman to exceed the speed of sound. Jacqueline Cochran, born Bessie Lee Pittman (May 11, 1906 - August 7, 1980) was a pioneer American aviatrix. ... Seal of the Air Force. ... May 18 is the 138th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (139th in leap years). ... 1953 (MCMLIII) is a common year starting on Thursday. ... June 3 is the 154th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (155th in leap years), with 211 days remaining. ...

Specification (for the Sabre 5)

• Span - 37 ft 1½ in (11.32 m)
• Length - 37 ft 6 in (11.34 m)
• Height - 14 ft 9 in (4.49 m)
• Empty Wt - 10,638 lb (4,825 kg)
• Max Wt - 17,560 lb (7,965 kg)
• Max Speed - 696 mph (1120 km/h)
• Ceiling - 50,700 ft (15,450 m)

Reference

Canadair - the First 50 Years by Picker & Milberry - pub CaNav Books - ISBN 0 921022 07 7