North American F-86 Sabre

The video features one of the most outstanding jet fighters of the jet age - the North American F-86 Sabre. This sleek aircraft with a swept wing became a true aviation legend, earning the status of the most mass-produced Western jet fighter with a record production volume of nearly 9,000 units.

The creation story began in 1944 with an order from the US Air Force to North American Aviation for the development of a high-altitude single-seat fighter. The project designers, having studied captured German aerodynamic research, settled on a wing sweep angle of 35 degrees, which drastically improved the flight characteristics of the future aircraft compared to the originally planned straight wing.

The first prototype XP-86 took to the skies on October 1, 1947, and by September 15, 1948, the serial F-86A set a new speed record of 1080 km/h, which stood for a full four years.

With the start of the Korean War in 1950, American pilots faced a formidable opponent - the Soviet MiG-15. The "Sabres" deployed to Korea became the backbone of the US Air Force. According to American data, in air battles the F-86 outperformed the MiG-15 with a kill ratio from 5:1 to 10:1. However, Soviet statistics give a different result - the ratio was 1.17:1 in favor of the MiG-15. 🤔

The scale of production was impressive. North American Aviation produced over 6,000 fighters, and about 2,500 more were assembled under license in Canada, Italy, Japan, and Australia.

Despite all its outstanding qualities, the aircraft was prone to accidents, and in the early 1950s, one F-86 was lost weekly in various countries around the world. Nevertheless, the "Sabre" continued service in the air forces of different countries until the 1990s. The last operating country was Bolivia, which retired these fighters only in 1994.

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Beautiful Airplanes ✈️