F-86F-25
| This page is about the American jet fighter F-86F-25. For other variants, see F-86 (Family). |
Contents
Description
The F-86F-25 Sabre is a rank V American jet fighter with a battle rating of 7.7 (AB), 8.3 (RB), and 8.7 (SB). It was introduced in Update 1.35.
General info
Flight performance
| Characteristics | Max Speed (km/h at 0 m - sea level) |
Max altitude (metres) |
Turn time (seconds) |
Rate of climb (metres/second) |
Take-off run (metres) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AB | RB | AB | RB | AB | RB | |||
| Stock | 1,095 | 1,089 | 14700 | 24.7 | 25.9 | 38.8 | 35.9 | 750 |
| Upgraded | 1,115 | 1,106 | 23.6 | 24.0 | 56.5 | 46.7 | ||
Details
| Features | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Combat flaps | Take-off flaps | Landing flaps | Air brakes | Arrestor gear | Drogue chute |
| ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | X | X |
| Limits | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wings (km/h) | Gear (km/h) | Flaps (km/h) | Max Static G | |||
| Combat | Take-off | Landing | + | - | ||
| 0 | 350 | 590 | 550 | 350 | ~11 | ~6 |
| Optimal velocities (km/h) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Ailerons | Rudder | Elevators | Radiator |
| < 850 | < 600 | < 650 | N/A |
Engine performance
| Engine | Aircraft mass | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Engine name | Number | Empty mass | Wing loading (full fuel) | |||
| General Electric J47-GE-27 | 1 | 5,430 kg | 239 kg/m2 | |||
| Engine characteristics | Mass with fuel (no weapons load) | Max Takeoff Weight | ||||
| Weight (each) | Type | 7m fuel | 20m fuel | 26m fuel | ||
| 1,150 kg | Axial-flow turbojet | 5,787 kg | 6,429 kg | 6,726 kg | 9,530 kg | |
| Maximum engine thrust @ 0 m (RB / SB) | Thrust to weight ratio @ 0 m (100%) | |||||
| Condition | 100% | WEP | 7m fuel | 20m fuel | 26m fuel | MTOW |
| Stationary | 2,626 kgf | N/A | 0.45 | 0.41 | 0.39 | 0.28 |
| Optimal | 2,626 kgf (0 km/h) |
N/A | 0.45 | 0.41 | 0.39 | 0.28 |
Survivability and armour
- 6.35 mm steel - in front of cockpit
- 12.7 mm steel - behind pilot
- 38 mm steel - armoured windscreen
- 20 mm steel pilot's headrest
Modifications and economy
| Flight performance | Survivability | Weaponry | ||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|
Armaments
Offensive armament
The F-86F-25 is armed with:
- 6 x 12.7 mm M3 Browning machine guns, nose-mounted (300 rpg = 1,800 total)
Suspended armament
The F-86F-25 can be outfitted with the following ordnance:
- Without load
- 16 x HVAR rockets
- 2 x 1,000 lb AN-M65A1 Fin M129 bombs (2,000 lb total)
Usage in battles
The F-86 F-25 differs greatly from its A-5 predecessor as it no longer has leading edge slats on the wings which increase low speed manoeuvrability. This was removed from the F model Sabres as North American Aviation (the maker of the Sabre) saw that low speed dogfights were a rare occasion (although a slatted wing made a comeback in the -40 block). A more powerful engine was also installed inside the F-86 giving it a better rate of climb, acceleration and top speed. In the F model the biggest difference between was the addition of the "all flying tail" which allowed for high speed manoeuvring. Where the Sabre excels is in high-speed manoeuvring. Its main opponent—the MiG-15bis—doesn't have an 'all flying tail,' so its control surfaces lock up at speeds exceeding 500 mph (800 kph). Inexperienced pilots new to the aircraft must be careful of the Sabre's manoeuvrability, as it's quite easy to pull too many Gs and tear off the wings. Once the new engine is installed, the Sabre gets a much-improved rate of climb. Although not quite capable of out-climbing the MiG-15bis, the Sabre can handily out-climb (and out-dive) the MiG-15.
Radars
The F-86F-25 is equipped with an AN/APG-30 rangefinding radar, located in the nose of the aircraft. It will automatically detect other planes within the scanning area and display the range to the closest target. It is linked with a gyro gunsight and can help with aiming at close range.
| AN/APG-30 - Rangefinding radar | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Maximum Tracking Range |
Minimum Tracking Range |
Azimuth Tracking Angle |
Elevation Tracking Angle |
| 2,750 m | 300 m | ±9° | ±9° |
Pros and cons
Pros:
- High roll rate
- Good performance below 8 km altitude
- Nose mounted weaponry
- Good zooming ability
- Very good diving acceleration
- Very effective aerodynamic brake
- Very good manoeuvrability at high speeds and in horizontal
Cons:
- Moderate acceleration
- Poor climb rate in a sustained climb
- Poor manoeuvrability at low speeds and in vertical
History
In order to improve the overall flight performance and air-to-ground ability of the current F-86F Sabre fighter, the North American Aviation company decided to start a new fighter program on October 26th, 1951, code name NA-191. The first improvement was adding a pair of additional pylons under the wings, so that the new Sabre fighter could carry two 120 gal external drop tanks and bombs at the same time.
On the other hand, because of the introduction of the fully irreversible hydraulic powered flying tail unit design on the standard production model of F-86D Sabre Dog interceptor and F-86E Sabre fighter, it was found that in high-angles of attack condition, unexplained vortices were observed on the leading edge which neatly and repeatedly peeled off and swept back over the outboard section of the wing. As angle of attack increased, the span station where the vortex peeled off moved inboard. Further investigation showed that the sharper the leading edge radius, the more pronounced this effect became. Although surface tufts suggested the wing was stalled, the wing tunnel force balance measurements showed that lift continuing to increase.
Based on the previous research data collected from the wind-tunnel test, the engineers of North American Aviation Company decided to introduce a new wing design on the new F-86F Sabre fighter to solve these problems. One of the basic improvements was removing the original leading-edge slats and extending the wing root length by 6 inches, and the wing tip length was increased by 3 inches, these technical improvements increase the taper ratio of the wings which could also help to improve the rate of climb of the Sabre fighter.
The new wing design was called 6-3 wing. Because the wing area was increased, the engineer decided to add 130 gal fuel to increase the combat range of the Sabre fighter, also they added two wing fences to solve the problem of increasing the loss rate of span-wise airflow. According to the final test report, the new 6-3 wing design doubled the combat manoeuvrability by adding at least one and half g to the already good manoeuvrability of the F-86 at 35,000 feet, and both the boundary at which buffeting became noticeable and the maximum manoeuvring limit were improved by this amount.
The final flight test report of the new 6-3 wing design was finished in August, 1952, which confirmed that the maximum level flight speed of the new F-86F Sabre fighter with 6-3 wing design was increased to 608 mph compared to 604 mph of the original version without 6-3 wing design, the minimum stall speed was increased from 128 mph to 144 mph.
On August 5th, 1952, the US Air Force officially placed a production order for 907 mass-produced NA-191 aircraft to North American Aviation company's Inglewood Factory in California, then they decided to introduce new design to the production order for 341 NA-171 aircraft (it was called F-86F-20) of the Oregon Factory which was renamed NA-193 aircraft, and the number of this order also increased by 259.
The military designation of the NA-191 program was F-86F-30 while the NA-193's military designation was F-86F-25, the only difference between them is the production factory. Started in the 171st F-86F-25 Sabre fighter (series number 51-13341) and the 200th F-86F-30 Sabre fighters (series number 52-4505), the new 6-3 wing design was introduced into the production line.
In October 1952, the first production model of the F-86F-30 Sabre fighter came off the production line of the Inglewood Factory, and these aircraft were rapidly transported to South Korea to equip those American fighter wings, while the first production model of the F-86F-25 Sabre fighter came off the production line of the Oregon Factory on January 1953.
The fighter wings in Europe started to equip new F-86F Sabre fighters in April 1953, the first combat unit in Europe to receive new Sabre fighters was 86th FBW which replaced the F-84 Thunderjet fighters , while the 36th and 406th FBW started to equip new F-86F Sabre fighters in August 1953 which replaced the F-84 Thunderjet fighters too.
In January 1953, 18th FBW in South Korea replace their F-51D Mustang fighter to the new F-86F-30 fighter while the 8th FBW in South Korea also replace their F-80C Shooting Star to the new F-86F-30 fighter in April 1953 too. Except the production model, North American Aviation company also produced many modification kits for the old version of F-86F Sabre fighters, and the first fifty 6-3 wing modification kits were quickly retrofit to those old version of F-86F Sabre fighters which was flew by Aces in South Korea even before the production model of new Sabre fighter was delivered. In the second half of 1953, all F-86F fighters in Korea were equipped with new 6-3 wing.
The F-86F-35 was a version based on the previous F-25/F-30 Sabre fighter, but equip with a M1 Low-altitude-bombing-system (LABS) for nuclear weapon delivery missions. It can carry one MK12 nuclear bomb on the inner pylon under the left wing. The first F-86F-35 was delivered to the USAF on October, 1952, they were assigned to 48th and 388th FBW in Europe.
Media
Excellent additions to the article would be video guides, screenshots from the game, and photos.
See also
- Related development
- Canadair Sabre (those Sabres manufactured with the designator "CL")
- North American F-86D Sabre
- North American F-100 Super Sabre
- North American FJ-4 Fury
- Aircraft of comparable role, configuration and era
- Dassault Super Mystère
- Grumman F-9 Cougar
- Hawker Hunter
- Lavochkin La-15
- Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15
- Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-17
- Saab J29 Tunnan
External links
| North American Aviation | |
|---|---|
| Fighters | |
| P-51A | P-51 · P-51A |
| P-51C | P-51C-10 |
| P-51D | P-51D-5 · P-51D-10 · P-51D-20-NA · P-51D-30 |
| P-51H | P-51H-5-NA |
| Twin-engine fighters | F-82E |
| Jet fighters | F-86A-5 · F-86F-2 · F-86F-25 · F-86F-35 · F-100D |
| Strike aircraft | A-36 · PBJ-1H · PBJ-1J |
| FJ-4B · FJ-4B VMF-232 | |
| Bombers | B-25J-1 · B-25J-20 |
| Export/Licence | ▂B-25J-30 · ␗B-25J-30 |
| ▄Mustang Mk IA · F-6C-10-NA · ␗P-51C-11-NT · ␗P-51D-20 · J26 David · J26 · P-51D-20-NA · ␗P-51K | |
| F-86F-30 ▅ · ␗F-86F-30 · F-86F-40 ▅ · F-86F-40 JASDF▅ · ␗F-86F-40 | |
| ◄F-86K · ▄F-86K (Italy) · ▄F-86K (France) | |
| ␗F-100A · ▄F-100D · ␗F-100F | |
| Captured | ▅P-51C-11-NT |
| Canadair Limited license-built the F-86 as the CL-13 for use in Canada and export to Europe. | |
| Fiat license-built the F-86K for the Italian Air Force though another 120 NAA built F-86Ks were also sold to the Italians. | |
| See Also | Mitsubishi Heavy Industries · Canadair Limited · Fiat Aviation |
| USA jet aircraft | |
|---|---|
| Fighters | |
| F9F | F9F-2 · F9F-5 · F9F-8 |
| F-80 | F-80A-5 · F-80C-10 |
| F-84 | F-84B-26 · F-84F · F-84G-21-RE |
| F-86 | F-86A-5 · F-86F-25 · F-86F-2 · F-86F-35 |
| F-89 | F-89B · F-89D |
| F-100 | F-100D |
| F-104 | F-104A · F-104C |
| F-4 | F-4C Phantom II · F-4E Phantom II · F-4J Phantom II · F-4S Phantom II |
| F-5 | F-5A · F-5C · F-5E · F-20A |
| F-8 | F8U-2 · F-8E |
| F-14 | F-14A Early · ▄F-14A IRIAF · F-14B |
| F-15 | F-15A · F-15C MSIP II · F-15E |
| F-16 | F-16A · F-16A ADF · F-16C |
| Other | P-59A · F2H-2 · F3D-1 · F3H-2 · F4D-1 · F11F-1 |
| Strike Aircraft | |
| FJ-4 | FJ-4B · FJ-4B VMF-232 |
| A-4 | A-4B · A-4E Early |
| A-7 | A-7D · A-7E · A-7K |
| AV-8 | AV-8A · AV-8C · AV-8B Plus · AV-8B (NA) |
| A-10 | A-10A · A-10A Late · A-10C |
| F-111 | F-111A · F-111F |
| Other | A-6E TRAM · F-105D · F-117 |
| Bombers | |
| B-57 | B-57A · B-57B |
