North American F-86 Sabre: Books - History and Deployment

North American F-86F Sabre - The Birth of a Modern Air Force

The XP-86F took to the skies for the first time in October 1947. Essentially, it was the result of incorporating swept wings into North American Aviations design for the NA-140. This is a detailed look at the Sabre and its use by the Spanish Air Force over its lifetime.

North American F-86 Sabre

Built as both a fighter-interceptor and fighter-bomber, the F-86 Sabre (sometimes called the Sabrejet) was one of the most widely-produced fighters of the Cold War.

In December of 1950, three squadrons of Sabres were rushed into combat in Korea, where they dueled North Korean, Chinese and Russian pilots flying the MiG-15. By the time the war was over, F-86 pilots achieved a stunning victory ratio - destroying nearly 800 enemy aircraft with a loss of only 76 Sabres.
The nimble jet also saw combat in the Taiwan Straight Crisis and the Indo-Pakistan Wars of 1965 and 1971.

Originally printed by North American and the U.S. Air Force, this F-86 Flight Operating Manual taught pilots everything they needed to know before entering the cockpit. The manual was recently declassified and is here reprinted in book form.

F-86A Sabre - Korea 1950-51

The F-86A Sabre had entered USAF service in 1949, and in December 1950 three squadrons were sent to South Korea. Despite primitive basing conditions and overwhelming Chinese opposition, the Sabre pilots stopped communist air forces from attacking UN ground troops and allowed Allied fighter-bombers to operate without threat of interception.

The ensuing air battles between Sabres and MiG-15s were the first since World War II, and the last in recent times to involve large numbers of jet fighters in direct confrontation.
In all of them the victorious F-86 pilots demonstrated the superiority of their training and tactics and the outstanding qualities of their Sabres.

Contemporary photographs and specially commissioned artwork, including a dramatic battlescene, armament views, technical diagrams and ribbon diagrams illustrating step-by-step each main dogfight explored in the book, bring the experiences of the Sabre pilots and their battle tactics vividly to life.

F-86 Sabre vs MiG-15 - Korea, 1950-53

As the routed North Korean People's Army (NKPA) withdrew into the mountainous reaches of their country and the People's Republic of China (PRC) funneled in its massive infantry formations in preparation for a momentous counter-offensive, both lacked adequate air power to challenge US and UN.
Reluctantly, Josef Stalin agreed to provide the requisite air cover, introducing the superior swept-wing MiG-15 to counter the American's straight-wing F-80 jets. This in turn prompted the USAF to deploy its very best - the F-86A Sabre - to counter this threat. Thus began a two-and-a-half-year struggle in the skies known as "MiG Alley." In this period, the unrelenting campaign for aerial superiority witnessed the introduction of successive models of these two revolutionary jets into combat.
This meticulously researched study not only provides technical descriptions of the two types and their improved variants, complete with a "fighter pilot's assessment" of these aircraft, but also chronicles the entire scope of their aerial duel in "MiG Alley" by employing the recollections of the surviving combatants - including Russian, Chinese, and North Korean pilots - who participated.

Contents: Introduction - Chronology - Design and Development - Technical Specifications - The Strategic Situation - The Combatants - Combat - Statistics and Analysis - Aftermath - Bibliography - Index.