AIRCRAFT
F-86K Sabre
SCALE & KIT
1/48, Musthave Models
MODELER
Erik Leijdens
HISTORY
The North American F-86D/K/L Sabre, initially known as the YF-95, and widely known informally as the “Sabre Dog”, was an American transonic jet fighter aircraft. Developed for the United States Air Force in the late 1940s, it was an interceptor derivative of the North American F-86 Sabre. While the original F-86 Sabre was conceived as a day fighter, the F-86D was specifically developed as an all-weather interceptor. Originally designated as the YF-95 during development and testing, it was re-designated the F-86D before production began, despite only sharing 25% commonality of parts with the original F-86. Production models of the F-86D/K/L differed from other Sabres in that they had a larger fuselage, a larger afterburning engine, and a distinctive nose radome. The most-produced Sabre Dog variants (the ‘D’ and ‘G’ models) also mounted no guns, unlike the Sabre with its six M3 Browning .50 caliber machine guns, instead mounting air-to-air rockets (the ‘K’ and ‘L’ Sabre Dog variants mounted four 20mm M24A1 cannons).
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