It is very likely that the world's first supersonic aircraft was not the Bell X-1 research aircraft, but rather the North American XF-86A. The first prototype, 45-59597, had been completed in August 1947, powered by a Chevrolet-build J-35-C-3, producing 4,000 lbs. thrust.  It was trucked from North American's Inglewood factory at Los Angeles airport to Muroc on September 10, 1947. North American's test pilot, George Welch, took the airplane for a first flight on October 1, 1947, during which time he had trouble getting the nose wheel to lock down for landing; after 40 minutes spent trying unsuccessfully to get the nose wheel to lock down, Welch landed nose high and the impact of landing jogged the nose wheel into place. According to the official history books, that was the only flight undertaken that day.

      Rumors abounded for years that the XP-86 had flown a second time that day, and that Welch had exceeded the speed of sound in a 5,000 foot dive.  The Air Force has always stuck to the official story, given their attachment to the history that says an Air Force test pilot named Chuck Yeager was the first man to fly faster than the speed of sound, but nearly everyone involved with North American at the time - several of whom I met out at Planes of Fame during the 1980s - stated flatly that Welch did fly a second time and that a sonic boom was heard.  Given that the Sabre was definitely capable of exceeding Mach 1 in a dive, and did it on numerous occasions over MiG Alley in later years, this could well be true.  Welch was certainly a pilot who would take a prototype to maximum performance quickly; when he took the first XF-100 up on its first flight, he went supersonic within 20 minutes of takeoff.

      At any rate, the Sabre does not need to add this to the very long list of achievements that made it the finest fighter of its generation and one of the great combat aircraft of history.

      The Sabre almost didn't happen. Had the Air Force not been willing to delay the F-86 program while North American undertook to study the swept wing research done by Messerschmitt during World War II, the F-86 would have been a straight-winged airplane with a performance approximating the F-84 Thunderjet, and history would have been very different had that F-86 entered combat against the MiG-15 over Korea.  Development of the Sabre was "just right," with its first flight in 1947 coming within months of the unknown Russian prototype it would meet a few years later, there were no major "bugs" to be worked out for production, and the airplane entered squadron service a year before the outbreak of the Korean War.

      With the entry of the MiG-15 into combat over Korea in November 1950, it became imperative that the F-86 be sent to Korea since the MiG was vastly superior to everything else the Air Force had in-theater.  The veteran Fourth Fighter Group was sent to Korea, and flew its first combat mission by the middle of the month. That December of 1950, the 4th Fighter Interceptor Wing - descendants of the American Eagles of the RAF and the top-scoring U.S. fighter group of World War II - arrived in-theater, equipped with the most advanced U.S. fighter, the superb North American F-86A "Sabre." By the middle of the month, it had been established that the Sabre could take on the MiG-15 with confidence both from equipment and flying ability of the pilot. The next two and a half years would see air battles between outnumbered Sabres and MiG-15s over "Mig Alley," which was basically the northeastern quarter of North Korea from just north of the capital at Pyongyang to the Yalu River.

      While the Sabres proved their superiority over the MiG when it was flown by Chinese and North Korean pilots, when the U.S. fighter went up against MiGs manned by Russians who were also veteran aces of the Second World War - as were many U.S. Sabre pilots - it was a different kettle of fish. The Russians of the 324th IAD (the first unit to enter combat) were commanded by no less that COL GEN Ivan Kozhedub, with 62 victories the Allied Ace of Aces of the Second World War; in fact, we now know that the Ace of Aces of the Korean War was not 16-victory ace Captain Joseph McConnell of the 51st FIW, but rather COL Yevgeny Pepelyaev, CO of the 196th Guards Fighter Regiment, a fierce believer in the adage "train hard, fight easy" who strove "to meet the American standard" with his pilots. During his 6-month tour in 1951, Peplyaev claimed 23 of the 104 victories scored by the 196th IAP.

      The F-86A and the MiG-15 were similar in performance, but quite different in details.  The MiG excelled at high altitude combat, with a combat ceiling of 50,000 feet, while the Sabre's best combat altitude was below 35,000 feet, and it was wallowing to get over 40,000 feet.  Thus, many combats began with the MiG-15 pilots deciding to attack with a dive on the Sabres below.  Sergei Karamenko, a 13-victory MiG ace (on top of 12 WW2 victories), described combat between Sabres and MiGs thus: "The Sabre was the most dangerous threat to my friends and I in Korean skies. Our MiG-15 and the F-86 Sabre belonged in the same class, similar types with similar performance. They differed only in that the MiG had an advantage in rate of climb at altitude, while the Sabre was superior in maneuvering, especially at low level. These advantages could not always be used, however. The fight, as a rule, was decided in the first attack. After the first pass, we reached for altitude, while the Sabres rushed for the ground. Each tried to reach the altitude where it held a distinct advantage, and thus the battle faded."

      Many World War II aces flew Sabres during the Korean War and added to their scores.  One of these was Lt. Col. Glenn T. Eagleston, the top-scoring ace of the 354th "Pioneer Mustang" Fighter Group in the ETO, who added 3.5 victories during his tour with the 4th FIW in the Spring of 1951.

     There is no model of the F-86A or F-86E in 1/48, manufacturers having decided to concentrate on the "definitive" Sabre (at least in USAF service), the F-86F series.  The major difference between the early Sabres and the F-86F is that the latter aircraft has the "hard" 6-3 wing, an extended leading edge that does not have the slats of the early versions, which improved its high altitude capabilities against the MiG-15. 

      I then attached the drop tanks.  Drop tanks made at Misawa in Japan had a different separation trajectory than those made in the States, and if the pilot was not flying "unloaded" and straight and level when he punched the tanks off, they could somersault over the leading edge of the wing and damage the fuselage or the horizontal stabilizers.  So that pilots were aware of which tanks they were carrying, Misawa tanks were painted Olive Drab, which I did for this model to make it look visually different from the other Sabres in my collection.

     I now have at least one of the major sub-types of Sabre in my collection. It's too bad someone like ProModeler doesn't do an early Sabre, but till something like that happens, the Cutting Edge set is easy to use and results in a good-looking model.

Editor's Notes: According to pilots, whose stories are in the new book 'Mig Alley', the Japanese made tanks held 10 gallons less fuel than the US made ones. That is the reason for them being painted matte olive drab. I had originally thought it was because they were made of thicker aluminum, but apparently that is not the case. Interestingly, they were also much less expensive with US tanks costing at least three times as much.

A couple of things that one needs to consider when doing this conversion. First of all, the F-86A-1 (47-605 to -637 and 48-129 to -319) had a curved windscreen and not the peaked one in the conversion set. Secondly, with the F-86A-5 version (49-1007 to -1339), the peaked windscreen was adopted and the gun doors removed and replaced with the 'normal' gun troughs. Be sure to check your serials for according to my reference (The North American Sabre, by Ray Wagner), you would not have the gun doors and a peaked or triangular windscreen together. The only reason I bring it up (other than being anal) is that I was looking for a picture of the plane in Tom's review (finally found one - 2012) and saw very few photos of Korean War F-86As with the gun doors, so started snooping as to why.