Overview North American F-86 Sabre

sabre @ nasm in livery of 4th fighter-interceptor wing

the f-86 produced both fighter-interceptor , fighter-bomber. several variants introduced on production life, improvements , different armament implemented (see below). xp-86 fitted general electric j35-c-3 jet engine produced 4,000 lbf (18 kn) of thrust. engine built gm s chevrolet division until production turned on allison. general electric j47-ge-7 engine used in f-86a-1 producing thrust of 5,200 lbf (23 kn) while general electric j73-ge-3 engine of f-86h produced 9,250 lbf (41 kn) of thrust.

the fighter-bomber version (f-86h) carry 2,000 lb (907 kg) of bombs, including external fuel-type tank carry napalm. unguided 2.75 in (70 mm) rockets used on fighters on training missions, 5-inch (127 mm) rockets later carried on combat operations. f-86 fitted pair of external jettisonable jet fuel tanks (four on f-86f beginning in 1953) extended range of aircraft. both interceptor , fighter-bomber versions carried 6 0.50 in (12.7 mm) m3 browning machine guns electrically boosted feed in nose (later versions of f-86h carried 4 20 mm (0.79 in) cannon instead of machine guns). firing @ rate of 1,200 rounds per minute, 0.50 in guns harmonized converge @ 1,000 ft (305 m) in front of aircraft, using armor-piercing (ap) , armor-piercing incendiary (api) rounds, 1 armor-piercing incendiary tracer (apit) every 5 ap or api rounds. api rounds used during korean war contained magnesium, designed ignite upon impact burned poorly above 35,000 ft (11,000 m) oxygen levels insufficient sustain combustion @ height. initial planes fitted mark 18 manual-ranging computing gun sight. last 24 f-86a-5-nas , f-86e equipped a-1cm gunsight-an/apg-30 radar, used radar automatically compute target s range, later proved advantageous against mig opponents on korea.