AIR FORCE LEGENDS 207 NORTH AMERICAN SABRE DOG - PART TWO - USAF F-86D-L SABRE.pdf

(106538 KB) Pobierz
INTRODUCTION:
Air Force Legends Number 207 is
the second volume in the North
American F-86D/K/L Sabre Dog
series and covers the United States
Air Force usage of the F-86D/Ls.
Volume three will cover Air National
Guard operators of F-86D/Ls and
Foreign service of the F-86D/KiL.
Volume one chronicaled the aircraft's
design, structures and testing.
Duncan Curtis has taken on the
task of documenting the Air Force's
operational history of the F-86D/L in
this volume. He previously authored
Naval Fighters Number 58, North
American QF-86 Sabre Drones, and
F-86 Sabre from Crowood Press. Mr.
Curtis specializes in the North
American Sabre and maintains an F-
86 website at f-86
.tripod.com
Don
'Goody'
Goodrich, Tom Hail,
Frederick Hitchcock, Pete Hutting,
John Irwin, Marty Isham, Maj E. B.
J0rgensen
,
Michael P. Jungers, Craig
Kaston
,
Dean Krueger, John Lewis,
Otto Loorents, David R. McLaren,
Dave Menard
,
Chuck Metz, National
Archives, Stephane Nicolaou, Bud
Norris, Masato Ota, Bill Piper, Jared
Potvin, Ron Regan
,
Jim Roquemore,
Fred Roos, Dick Schneider, Larry
Smalley, Bob Stollof. Elliott P. Smith
,
Willaim Swisher, Norm Taylor, Joe
Watkins, Nick Williams and Robert
Zbornak.
Finally, to my brother Howard
,
whose help through the years has
been immeasurable.
FRONT COVER:
4th FIS Sabre Oog 52-4024 was
the
squadron commander's aircraft and
is
seen at Misawa AB in Japan.
A
Japanese Ground Self Oefense
Force
soldier guards the aircraft. '024
was
passed on to the Japanese in 1961
and
is now displayed at Matsushima. (Otto
Loorents)
BACK COVER:
Left side top to boUom, 97th FIS
with
famous red Oevil Cat markings.
(Ron
Picciani) 512th FIS Sabre Oog 52-41
85
during 1957. (Jack Friell) 525th FIS
51-
8377 belonged to the 86th FIW in 1957.
(R. Anderson via Isham) 513th FIS
52-
4140 while assigned to the 86th FIW
in
1958. (Jack Friell) 329th FIS F-860
53-
677. (J. Michaels via Isham) 526th
F-
860-36 was painted in the markings
of
squadron commander LtCol William
Brierty. (Jerome P. Burton)
Right side top to boUom, 1955 mark-
ings on 13th FIS Sabre Oog. (LtCol
Edgar
M.
Lewis)
86th
FIW
Headquarters Flight in May 1959.
(Jerry Kishpaugh via Kaston) 15th
FIS
F-860-41 52-3722. (R. WaddelI
via
Isham) 496th FIS F-860-45 52-3944
in
early squadron markings. (via Larry
Oavis, Isham collection) 332nd
FIS
Sabre in flight. (USAF) 498th FIS F-860
53-866 in 1956. (K. Lotz via Isham)
©
2003 by Steve Ginter
ISBN
0-942612-94-9
Steve Ginter, 1754 Warfield Cir., Simi
Valley, California, 93063
Author's ACknowledgements
The assistance of the following is
greatly appreciated:
Charlie Arnet, Sam Ballard
,
Ken
Benner, Hans Berfelo, Scott Bloome,
Peter Bowers, Gerald J. Buchko
,
Jerome P. Burton
,
John J. Carter,
Fernando Daleccio, Oluf Eriksen,
All rights reserved. No part of this
publication may be reproduced,
stored in
a
retrieval system, or trans-
mitted in any form by any means elec-
tronic, mechanical, or otherwise with-
out the written permission of the pub-
lisher.
[
OPERATIONAL HISTORV OF USAF F-86D/L BV DUNCAN
CURTIS
INTRODUCTION
F-86D
Deliveries to USAF units
Though it was accepted by the
USAF in March 1951,
the
initial F-
86D-1, 50-455, did not make its first
flight
until 8 June 1951, and many of
this initial batch of Sabre Dogs were
immediately slated for test work. In
order to
commence
training of F-86D
crews,
the 3625 th Flying Training
Wing at
Tyndall
AFB
in
Florida began
to
gear up, accepting its first F-86D in
June 1952,
and
by the end of the
year, the unit had been
assigned
six-
teen
F-86D-1s under Project TRC-
1PF-869. Ground
training
units also
received
F-86D-1 s at this time,
including the 3345 th
Technical
Training Wing at Chanute AFB
,
IIlinois.
The next block of aircraft on
the
production line was the F-86D-5
,
and
again
,
the first deliveries were bailed
back to NAA for testing
;
remaining
-5s were assigned to 3200 th Proof
Test Group at Eglin and 3625 th FTW
at Tyndall. The final F-86D-5s were
delivered in January 1953, despite
having been available since July the
previous year.
The F-86D-10 block comprised
thirty-six aircraft, and starting in
February 1953, 3555 th Flying
Training Wing at Perrin AFB Texas
beg an to receive
aircraft
from this
batch. It was assigned the first pair of
new-build D-10s on 4 February, with
further aircraft arriving at Perrin
through June.
Starting with 50-554, the fifty-four
F-86D-15s were mainly assigned
straight to flying training units, though
at last, with the D-15, active USAF
squadrons began to receive the F-
86D
.
On paper, the 94 th Fighter
Interceptor Squadron (FIS) at George
AFB in California was the first unit to
receive the F-86D, having been
assigned eighteen under ADC Project
3F213 during February 1953 for
accelerated service testing. However,
with completion of testing, most of
these Sabres were reassigned to
other units within a couple of weeks.
Thus
,
it fell to 323 rd FIS at Larson
AFB in Washington State to bring the
type into service, and the unit gained
two F-86D-15s on 15 April 1953.
NAA
then
began to come up to
speed in the delivery of the backlog of
early-model F-86Ds; this coincided
with the completion of deliveries to
3625th CCTW at Tyndall. For the first
few months, each new squadron to
receive the F-86D was assigned 12 to
14 aircraft before a further unit
received
the
next dozen or so.
Therefore, the third USAF unit to
receive The F-86D, the 95 th FIS at
Andrews AFB, Maryland, received its
first aircraft in early May 1953, the
day after the 323 rd FIS had been
assigned its twelfth machine. This
system continued for successive
squadrons, and after the 95th FIS, the
62 nd FIS received Sabre Dogs in
1
Above, the 3625th FTW at Tyndall AFB
was the first USAF unit to receive F-
86Ds for the flight training mission.
Initial deliveries began in June 1952
and 50-503, an F-86D-5, was assigned
on 26 August.
"TyndalI"
was painted
on the tail on 3625th aircraft above the
Air Training Command (ATC) badge.
(USAF)
mid-May, followed by 71 st FIS (Iate
May), 60 th FIS
(early
June), 97 th FIS
(mid-June)
,
432 nd FIS (mid-June)
,
42 nd FIS (mid-June) and 465th FIS
(Iate
June).
The first 51-Fiscal Year F-86D-
20s had been accepted by the Air
Force back in December 1952, and
many were assigned to the still
expanding flying training commit-
ment. Further examples did start to
trickle out to the active squadrons,
beginning with the
2
nd FIS at
McGuire AFB, New Jersey, in mid-
1953.
The F-86D-25 was
the
first model
to have provision for jettisonable drop
tanks, and first deliveries were made
to the 323 rd FIS from 1 May 1953, fol-
lowed by the 4750th Training Group
at Yuma and other ADC units such as
the 62 nd FIS and the 95 th FIS.
Delivery of F-86D-30s, which
introduced an automatic approach
control system, began on 1 May
1953, again with the 323 rd FIS. ADC
deliveries of this batch continued
At left, the 94th FIS at George AFB was
the first operational Air Force unit to
receive the F-86D. Seen here is F-86D-
50 serial number 52-10094. (via Burger)
Below left, these two F-86Ds are under-
going IRAN maintenance at Clark AB in
the Philippines during July 1957. Clark
undertook a lot of such maintenance
for FEAF F-86Ds, along with similar
units at Kisarazu in Japan. Following
overhaul, 52-3971 in back returned to
51 st FIW, 51-6251 in the foreground
was assigned to 35th FIW (Merle
Olmsted via McLaren)
through October 1953, though other
blocks had supplemented the -30s by
that time.
Beginning with the F-86D-35
,
an
AN/ ARN-14 omni-directional range
set was installed
,
as weil as an exter-
nal receptacle for inverter ground
power in the right-hand nose area.
Additionally, the rudder trim tab sys-
tem was reintroduced
in
favor of the
power boost of the D-10 to 30 pro-
duction blocks. First deliveries of
-35s were made to the 13th and the
496
th FIS on 10 July 1953.
On the F-86D-40
,
a fuel flow
meter replaced the earlier engine fuel
pressure gauge, and further cockpit
refinements included the addition of
an electrical face mask defrost. All D-
40s except 52-3598 to -3847 deleted
the wing-root gun camera, and the
model introduced the AN/ARN-18
glide path receiver in place of the ear-
lier AN/ARN-5B item. Assignment of
these ai rc raft began in early
December 1953 with the 37 th FIS and
the 87 th FIS
.
These
relatively
small batches of
aircraft marked continuing
refine-
ments to the basic F-86D design
,
but
it was not until the arrival of the F-
86D-45 that a definitive
'Dog'
rolled
off North American's production line.
Testing led to the installation of drag
parachutes to all aircraft beginning
with the F-86D-45 bateh
,
and exter-
nally these could be recognized by a
flattened drag chute housing at the
base of the rudder. Engine improve-
ments were also slotted into D-45
production
,
the first 238 D-45s intro-
ducing the J47-GE-17B with 7,500-lb.
thrust, while remaining F-86D-45 and
subsequent models were equipped
with the J47-GE-33 with a dry thrust
of 5500 pounds and 7650 pounds
with afterburner. The first D-45s were
delivered in April 1954 and were
flown straight to McClellan AFB in
preparation for overseas shipment.
Most aircraft in this block were initial-
Iy assigned to USAF Europe
(USAFE) and to Far East Air Forces
(FEAF).
The F-86D-50 model differed only
slightly from the previous model:
modified engine oil drains
,
brake
chute (52-10026 and on) and addition
of aceramie aspirator liner (52-4198
to
-10025)
setting them apart.
Delivery started in August 1954 with
many going to USAFE and FEAF;
others did however pass straight to
ADC units.
Thus, by the end of 1953, there
were a number of different production
blocks of F-86Ds in service, each dif-
fering from each other in respect of
spare parts, instruction manuals, and
maintenance procedu
res.
This made
maintenance and repair of the F-86D
a logistics nightmare and Air Defense
Command initiated Project Lock On
to verify the effectiveness of ADC's
various weapons systems
,
including
the F-86D. In order to make the vari-
ous production blocks of the F-86D
standard throughout the USAF, a
decision was made to initiate Project
Pul I-Out, which withdrew all pre-F-
86D-45 models from service and
upgraded them to F-86D-45 stan-
dard. Work was centered at North
American
's
Fresno, California, plant,
with other conversions carried out at
the McClellan AFB Sacramento Air
Material Area. The pre-D-45 models
were fitted with braking parachutes
(standard on the F-86D-45)
,
and all
models had uncompleted Technical
Orders and modifications completed
prior to dispatch to operational units.
In total 1,128 F-86Ds went through
'Pull-Out' ,
which was completed in
September 1955. In order to differen-
tiate the modified aircraft, their block
numbers were changed, so that D-10
to D-40 airframes became dash-11,
16, 21
,
26,31,36, and 41 machines,
respectively. Few, if any, F-86D-1 or
-5 Sabres were subjected to Project
2
At
right, at least two F-86Ds were
assigned
to the 86th FIW HO Flight at
Ramstein,
Germany; these were 52-
4151
seen here and 52-4140. They were
painted
in dark blue and yellow-orange
trim.
Aircraft was parked at Athens,
Greece,
in May 1959. (Jerry
Kishpau~h
via
Kaston) Bottom, F-86L 53-0792
In
August
1958. The 94th FIS at Selfridge
AFB
was among the first USAF
squadrons
to receive the F-86L. (A.
Bruder
via Isham)
Puli-Out.
North American produced two
fu
rther
F-86D blocks; the F-86D-55
and
-60. These blocks: were primari-
Iy
purchased
to equip and upgrade
Ai
r
Defense Command wings in the
Continental
United States. The F-
86D-55
introduced an Alternate
Hydraulic
System accumulator dump
valve
(53-707 and on)
,
the inverter
external
power receptacle was relo-
cated
to the right-hand aft fuselage
area,
AN/ARC-34 UHF command
radio
replaced the AN/ARC-27, and
lap
belts were fitted that opened auto-
matically
after ejection. The first F-
86D-55s
were delivered in November
1954
and the first aircraft were
assigned
to the 60 th FIS at Westover
AFB
the 83 rd FIS at Paine AFB and
th
e
97 th FIS at Wright-Patterson.
The F-86D-60 beg an delivery in
March
1955 and further relocated the
inverter
external power receptacle
,
th
is
time to the underside of the fuse-
lage
from 53-857 onwards. All D-60s
featured
modified wing attachment fit-
tings,
and incorporated provision for
an
AN/APX-25 identification radar
(IFF)
set. These machines went to
squadrons
including the 94 th FIS at
George
AFB and the 325 th FIS at
Hamilton
AFB. The final F-86D, 53-
4090,
was delivered to the Air Force
in
September
1955.
PROJECT ARROW
In 1955, the United States Air
Force
initiated Project Arrow, a major
real
ignment
under which dispersed
squadrons
would be returned to the
traditional
parent Groups or Wings to
which
they were assigned during
WWII
and before. This immense pro-
ject
was considerably simplified by
transferring these units
'Iess
person-
nel and equipment'. Thus, instead of
moving a squadron bodily to the
ho me base of its traditional parent
wing, in most cases, a squadron on
that particular base would change its
designation. Most squadrons affected
were in Air Defense Command
,
and
of the Sabre squadrons involved, all
were US-based F-86D units. The
date chosen was 18 August 1955,
and overnight, tens of squadrons
gained new identities. In some cases,
units were inactivated to make way
for historically important organiza-
tions to be concurrently reactivated.
Thus in the squadron listings, 18
August 1955 crops up many times as
a
'reassignment'
,
'i
nactivation
'
or
'activation'
date.
F-86L Deliveries to USAF Units
Development of the F-86L is
detailed in Vol. 1, conversion of F-
86Ds under Project Follow-On (Air
Materiel Command Project 6F375)
centering on North American's
Inglewood and Fresno plants as weil
as at Sacramento Air Materiel Area,
McClellan AFB. The first F-86Ls were
assigned to the
49th
FIS at Hanscom
AFB
in
October 1956 to begin testing
the systems alongside the Lincoln
Laboratory's Cambridge Research
Center. By the end of that year, fur-
ther squadrons had also received F-
86Ls
,
including the 62 nd FIS at
O'Hare International Airport, the 94 th
FIS at Selfridge AFB and the 331 st
FIS at Stewart AFB.
In
line
with the active duty units,
the flying training squadrons also
began to re-equip with the F-86L,
under Air Training Command Project
7F205
,
starting with the 3625 th
Combat Crew Training Wing (CCTW)
at Tyndall AFB in July 1957. The
other two main F-86D/L training units,
the 3550 th CCTW at Moody AFB and
the 3555 th CCTW at Perrin AFB,
received their first F-86Ls in
December 1957. Tyndall
's
F-86L
training ceased in late 1957, and dur-
ing August 1958, the remaining
CCTW's became Flying Training
Wings (FTW). With the drawdown in
F-86L operations, the remaining train-
ing units relinquished their Sabres in
1960: the 3555 th FTW in April and
the 3550 th FTW in November of that
year.
3

Plik z chomika:

Inne pliki z tego folderu:

Inne foldery tego chomika:

Zgłoś jeśli naruszono regulamin