Saturday, December 23, 2017

The local F-86 Sabre Jet

Since I have nearly a full quorum here at the house, everyone loaded up in the big Dodge and drove up to Jackson for breakfast at a nice little cafe that's up there.  

On the way back, I had them swing by the local airport to see a cool old Sabre jet that they have sitting next to the parking lot.


Looks fast just sitting still.


I wonder what stories the old girl could tell, if she could talk.  How many sorties over Vietnam or Korea?  It's a Navy jet, so does that mean it launched off a carrier?

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Glad to know it's up there in the foothills, a sleek relic of a nearly bygone age of flight.


10 comments:

  1. If you had the choice between a fully functioning F-86 and a Beaver Float Plane?

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    Replies
    1. Float plane. I have no chance of affording to keep the jet flying. I might be able to earn enough with the Beaver to keep it flying.

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  2. There's a well-maintained United States Air Force F-86 "Sabre Jet" parked on the lawn beneath shade trees behind the Sheridan Building at the Armed Forces Retirement Home in Washington, D.C., and nearby, is an equally well-maintained United States Army M-48 "Patton" tank, visible to motorists driving past on North Capitol Street.

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    Replies
    1. Here are the URLs to some photographs that I took.

      Be sure and click on them, in order to see the enlarged versions.

      https://www.flickr.com/photos/writesong/4694173222/in/album-72157600591050552/

      https://www.flickr.com/photos/writesong/4694173574/in/album-72157600591050552/

      https://www.flickr.com/photos/writesong/4693538425/in/album-72157600591050552/

      https://www.flickr.com/photos/writesong/4693538795/in/album-72157600591050552/

      https://www.flickr.com/photos/writesong/4693539099/in/album-72157600591050552/

      https://www.flickr.com/photos/writesong/4693539391/in/album-72157600591050552/

      https://www.flickr.com/photos/writesong/4694175422/in/album-72157600591050552/

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    2. Looks like that one has four guns while the naval version has six. Much better maintained as well.

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    3. The F86H variant had 4 20mm cannon.

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  3. A little grainy but my hero Bob Hoover puts an F-86 through its paces:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFezNQtuH5k

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  4. Very interesting. The sign says it's on loan from the US Navy's National Museum of Aviation. I looked at it and I've been to the Navy's Aviation Museum in Pensacola and I knew this jet was not part of that collection. Looking online, I see it's a different US Navy museum. The airplanes at Pensacola look more like a classic car collection. Everything is "Perfect". And you can touch, they encourage it. I wonder how many US Navy museums there are?

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  5. It's a F-86F. The weathered version.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_surviving_North_American_F-86_Sabres

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  6. iIRC, there was a junker F86 behind the fence on the bike path leading to Grgich Winery. Whoever owned the property collected a few relics of the jet age in his back yard.

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