WHAT? AN F-86 AT 70,000 FEET!
by TOM GILL
In 1959, I was a really `wet behind the ears" Flight Test engineer working for North American. I'd just jumped the fence from Lockheed because NAA had all kinds of aircraft and missile work that looked like it would stretch on forever.
NAA decided to make an attempt to sell the F-86 to Japan as an interceptor. However, at that time there were many more advanced aircraft available like the F-100, F-104, and F-4, which was almost ready to be-come operational. The F-86 would need a little help to play with the big boys.
So, a Rocketdyne AR-2 engine was fitted to the under-side of an F-86F. The installation didn't appear to be a `clean' assembly. In fact, one of the engineers likened it to a 1912 bathtub! Wing tanks were added to carry hydrogen peroxide as an oxidizer for JP-4. The airplane was delivered to NAA Flight Test at Palmdale.
The rocket was small. I couldn't get my hand inside the nozzle. I don't recall the weight of the rocket, but it wasn't much. The rocket was about 2 1/2 feet long, and less than 1 1/2 feet high. But WOW! Over 5000 lbs. of thrust at any altitude!
We were trained on handling the hydrogen peroxide. It wasn't the kind you find at the drug store. The concentration was 90%, and very unstable. All of the plumbing, including the drop tanks, was passivated stainless steel, with Teflon seals. Several demonstrations were made to illustrate the instability. The instructor put two drops on a man's boot, then went on with the training session. After a few moments, the boot was on fire!
Another demonstration was made after dark on the flight line. The wind was coming in off the snowy Tehachapi's at about 25 knots. And the temperature was about 40° - not exactly the best conditions to light a fire without a match. About an inch of JP-4 was placed in a drip pan. Then a shot glass full of peroxide was placed on a board over the pan. A long string was used to upset the shot glass into the JP. But when the string was pulled nothing happened.
Someone suggested they repeat the demo except use a PINT of peroxide instead of a shot glass full. The instructors limited the demo to no more than 2 ounces. The string was pulled and literally everything disappeared, including the board, in a cloud of smoke and debris.
A special ground run-up area was prepared which included all the necessary tie downs as well as safety equipment to handle the fuel mix. Lots of water was available for washing down the area as well as a personel shower that was something to behold.
Engine runs were conducted and the airplane was readied for testing. During the engine run-ups, it was possible to see "mach diamonds" in the rocket exhaust. I counted as many as 7 diamonds during one of the runs. And plenty of noise too! Jim Brooks was assigned to the project as test pilot. During the initial flights, we tried to determine the best climb schedule so the design flight profile could be con-firmed. Brooks' comments - "You could sure surprise an enemy by falling out of the sky from above them in an F-86!" Apparently, the flight profile after burnout was pretty much ballistic. Service ceiling on the J47 engine was limited to about 28,000 feet. (Hydrogen Per-oxide is much heavier than JP-4, so our gross weight was way up, as was the drag due to the `1912 bath tub'.
Typical flight profile was to climb near the service ceiling on jet power, then light the rocket. There was enough fuel in the wing tanks to burn the rocket for 3 minutes. But in those 3 minutes, you went from 28,000 to 70,000 feet. Beyond that, it was pretty much a free fall.
A group of four Japanese Air Self Defense Force colonels visited the plant for the demo flights. The one that flew the test flight was almost able to match the Jim Brooks' efforts, and if I recall correctly, he actually did better the best flight profile on one run.
The maintenance officer was one of the most curious men I have ever known. He carried a note pad all of the time, sketching everything he saw - door hinges, latches, components, and anything else he saw. He did create amusement for all of us one day. In the engine run-up area, the personnel shower became a focus of his attention. This was a good shower with at least four speay nozzles in the top. In the center was a prominent break-over bar. When it was pushed aside, lots of water came from every direction.
The Japanese officer became very interested in the shower and began examining it very closely, too closely. Upon noting his interest in the device, the other officers were alerted to his actions. He disappointed no one, especially the other Japanese who laughed the loudest when he was the wettest.
Despite the increase in performance, the Japanese did not buy the rocket Sabre, opting instead for the Lockheed F-104J. But without a doubt, that Sabre was impressive!
There were other rocket-assisted F-86s. During the Korean War, at least three Sabres had triple RATO bottles mounted internally under the J47. They were combat tested by the pilots of the 4th FIG in 1952. Cliff Jolley and Karl Dittmer both flew the modified Sabres in combat. Both said the installation worked well for acceleration against the MiG, but then you were hauling around about 600 extra pounds after the rockets burned out, which threw the aircraft CG out of whack.
In June 1956, Air Force authorized North American to install an Aerojet rocket engine in a large pod under the fuselage. At this time we know very little about the flight tests of this airplane.
RECORD BREAKERS
by Larry Davis
Throughout the history of manned flight on this wonderful little planet of ours, there have always been attempts to set a new record and put the pilots name in the record books. The most often heard about records were World Speed and/or Altitude records. But there were many others of lesser fame involving cross-country flights, distance records, round the world records, etc..
The F-86 Sabre in all its many models, and the pilots that flew them, were involved in setting or resetting many such records. The first one was of course, the breaking of the speed of sound by George Welch while test flying the XP-86 Sabre. Was it done before Chuck Yeager's famous flight in the Bell X-1 rocket plane? Some people say yes, Welch broke the speed of sound on the very first test flight in the XP-86 on 1 October 1947. Others say no, Welch did not break the sound barrier until later that month AFTER Yeager did it in the X-1. Whatever the date, it was the first time that a jet aircraft had done it during a normal flight.
However, on 5 September 1948, an F-86A Sabre would break the World Speed Record, albeit unofficially. On that date, Major Robert L. Johnson flew F-86A-1 #47-608, a production F-86A, over a closed course set up at the 1948 National Air Races that were held in Cleveland, Ohio. The previous record was 650.796 mph held by the Douglas D-558-1 Skystreak, a Navy experimental aircraft, set on 25 August 1947.
The rules specified that the record attempt would be flown over a closed course, 3 km. in length, at an altitude no greater than 165 feet. The pilot had to cover the course twice in each direction during one continuous flight. But problems prevented Major Johnson from officially setting a new record. Only three of the runs were timed, as other aircraft kept breaking into the closed course. But the average speed was 669.480 mph, easily breaking the record. It just wasn't official.
The Air Force knew they had the record in hand so they immediately set up another attempt. This time it would be over the desert test base at Muroc Dry Lake, later known as Edwards AFB. On 15 September 1948, Major Johnson took off in another production F-86A-1, #47-611. Flying at an altitude ranging from 75 to 125 feet, Major Johnson made the required number of timed runs. The slowest run was 669.830 mph, while the fastest was 672.762 mph. Major Robert Johnson and the F-86A Sabre held the new World Speed Record at an average of 670.97 mph - with a production aircraft.
Next in the line of Sabre record breakers would be Colonel Fred Ascani and the F-86E, specifically F-86E-10 #51-2721. Col. Ascani was assigned to the 6510th Air Base Wing at Edwards AFB, California in 1951, the same year that the F-86E was introduced into the Air Force inventory. The F-86E-10 used the -13 engine rated at 5200 lbs of thrust and had the "all-flying tail" that kept the Sabre under control at transonic speeds.
In the Summer of 1951 Air Force wanted to show off the newest in the Sabre linage. Col. Ascani was ordered to take two F-86E-10s, #51-2721 and -2724, to the National Air Races, held on 17 August 1951 in Detroit, Michigan, and attempt to set a new closed course record. The 100 km. closed course was set up and the timers installed.
Col. Ascani used -2721 for the record attempt. At the end of the day, Col. Ascani and -2721 owned the new record with a speed of 635.686 mph. Again the record was set in a production F-86E Sabre. And just to prove it, Air Force included #51-2721 in the next shipment of Sabres that were sent to Korea, where it was assigned to the veteran 51st Fighter Intereceptor Group at Suwon AB.
The F-86D all-weather interceptor Sabre was the first to have an afterburner installed, giving this version of the Sabre much more thrust than any previous variant. The F-86D used the J47-33 with afterburner, which produced 7650 lbs of thrust in AB. The F-86D would become the primary air defense interceptor for well over a decade. In the Fall of 1952 Air Force put on a public demonstration (read that `for the benefit of the Soviet's) of the much greater speed their new interceptor possessed.
On 19 November Captain J. Slade Nash, flying F-86D-20 #51-2945 that was assigned to Edwards AFB, took off from El Centro NAS and headed for the Salton Sea, another dry lake bed, where a 3 km course had been set up. Capt. Nash took the F-86D up to 1000 feet, then nosed down and crossed the entry point of the 3 km. course at 100 feet! 9.6 seconds later Capt. Nash exited the course and made a tight 3G turn and headed back for the second run.
The Federation Aeronautique Internationale rules called for four consecutive passes on the record attempt. After the four passes were made and verified, Capt. Nash and the F-86D held a new World Absolute Speed Record with an average speed of 698.505 mph, breaking the old record held by Maj. Richard Johnson and the F-86A back in 1948.. When the day was finished, Capt. Nash and the Sabre Dog went back to Edwards AFB and continued their daily routine of testing the new interceptor.
Capt. Nash's record didn't stand long. On 16 July 1953, Lt. Colonel William Barnes, Air Material Command pilot representative at the North American Aviation Los Angeles plant, would make a record attempt. Again using the 3 km closed course set up over the Salton Sea dry lake bed, Lt. Col. Barnes made the FAI required four passes in F-86D-35 #51-6145, breaking the sonic barrier on each pass. His four passes were timed at 720.574, 710.515, 721.351, and 710.350 - an average of 715.697 mph - over 17 mph faster than Capt. Nash's record flights. Not only was Lt. Col. Barnes' F-86D a production airplane, he flew the record course with full combat loading including twenty-four 2.75" rockets in the tray!
Over the life span of the Sabre, from 1947 thru 1972, Sabres' held a number of other records. In January 1954. Colonel Willard Millikan, Commander of the DC Air National Guard, set a coast to coast speed mark in a standard F-86F. The story of Col. Millikan's flight can be found in SabreJet Classics, vol. 6, no. 3. Another coast to coast record was set by a California Air National Guard
F-86A under the code name "Boomerang". The story of that flight will be forthcoming in SabreJet Classics.Records are made to be broken and within a few years all Sabre records had been broken. Technology had put other airplanes into the supersonic speed range and it wasn't long before the World Record was well over 1000 mph. However, for a least eight years, the F86 Sabre was the world's fastest production airplane.
SABRES IN THE "REEL WAR"
Over the years the F-86 Sabre has starred, co-starred, and played bits part in many a motion picture. Hollywood films included Howard Hawks' Sabre Jet, which starred Robert Stack. In that movie, Sabres both played themselves and were the "MiGs". The film was shot at Nellis AFB in the early 1950s. It documented the story of both the fighter pilots in Korea and the wives they left behind. I was a little puzzled about the unit that flew F-80 Shooting Stars one day and F-86 Sabres the next, with a few RF-80s thrown in.
And who can forget Jet Pilot, which starred John Wayne and a very luscious Janet Leight, who even made a flight suit look sexy. Oh yes, and the men and aircraft of the 1st Fighter Group at March AFB. Janet Leigh could ALMOST make you forget about flying and the Sabres. I sure would like to know how the Russkies got a T-33 to fly all the way from Siberia to March AFB, California, non-stop!
The Hunters, starring Robert Mitchum as Cleve `Iceman' Saville, and Robert Wagner as Ed Pell, with an assortment of Orientals flying F-84F 'MiGs'. The Hunters was also shot at Nellis in 1957. Loosely based on the novel written by James Salter, who actually did fly with the 4th FIG in Korea. The movie had some incredible aerial scenes. My favorite is when Saville is about ten feet behind Monkey Moncavage in a mock dogfight - "Major Saville, this is Colonel Moncavage! Now Break Off!"
And of course, we had The McConnell Story, which starred Alan Ladd as Joe McConnell, and June Allyson as his wife "Butch" McConnell. In this movie, the Sabres came from Nellis, while the "MiGs" were 366th FBW F-84Fs out of Alexandria AFB.
The star of Bombers B-52 was the big BUFF of course. But Efrem Zimbalist Jr. flew an F-86 named "Lucky Lady" at the beginning of the film. The film also starred Karl Malden as his mechanic and Line Chief; and Natalie Wood, who was stunning as Malden's daughter and Zimbalist's girl friend.
Air Force pilots and crews flew all the airplanes in these movies. Does anyone have any photos of the Sabres or "MiGs", or any of the stars from these movies that they'd like to share with our readers. Contact the editor to make arrangements. There will be a feature article on the filing of The Hunters in a future issue.