Warbird Information Exchange

This photo shows one of the Colorado ANG Minute Men F-86F-2-NA 51-2826 Sabres being prepared for static display by flushing the fuel tanks. This F-86 Sabre was located at the Casper, WY airport until the early 70s. It is now located in another state.




There is one other Gunval F86F-2-NA Sabre 51-2884 in a museum in Colorado.

http://www.cong.army.mil/highground/new ... MenF16.asp

List of F-86F Sabres flown by the Colorado ANG Minute Men aerial demonstration team and location.

S/N 51-2819 ?
S/N 51-2826 ID
S/N 51-2855 ?
S/N 51-2867 ?
S/N 51-2868 ?
S/N 51-2884 CO
S/N 51-2900 ?

One F-86F Sabre was lost with its pilot in an airshow at Wright-Patterson AFB. What is the serial number of the F-86?

Are there any other Gunval F86F-2-NA Sabres that exist today of the seven that returned to the states in 1953?

I find mention of 51-2819 being at McClellan AFB prior to the base closure, but it is not there now.

Has anyone seen it or have any additional pictures to add?

two shots of 51-2884 in August 1983






Martin

_________________
Flying is easy: just learn how to throw yourself at the ground and miss

Martin,

Those are great photos, something about a red and silver F-86 with a blue sky.

Thanks...

Larry

A few more notes on the Gunval F-86 Sabres gleaned from multiple sources.

Ten F-86s were modified and designated as F-86F-2 Sabres.

Serial numbers of Gunval F-86s include the following:
51-2803
51-2819
51-2826
51-2836
51-2855
51-2861
51-2867
51-2868
51-2884
51-2900

Eight of the F-86s were deployed to Korea in December 1952. Seven were assigned to 335th FIS. One must have been assigned to the 336th FIS. The Gunval F86s were intermixed with other F86s in operational missions.

Two of the Gunval F-86s were lost due to engine flameouts from ingestion of gun exhaust. The pilots ejected and were safely recovered by H-19 helos.

The Gunval F-86s were grounded and a modification was made to vent the gun exhaust outboard away from the inlet of the engine.

A total of 282 missions were flown during the evaluation, 41 MIGs were fired at, 6 MIGs destroyed, 3 probably destroyed and 13 damaged.

The majority of the Gunval F-86 Sabres were withdrawn from Korea in May 1953.

One of the F-86s that was part of the Gunval test, serial number 51-2836 was shot down by a MIG 15 on July 20, 1953. Information is not clear on if the F-86 was still configured with the T160 20mm cannon, it is not counted as a loss to the Gunval evaluation. The pilot Major Stephen L. Bettinger ejected, became a POW and was returned at the end of the conflict.

It is interesting to note that the T160 20mm cannon installed on the Gunval F86 Sabres was manufactured by Ford, and the design was followed by the Pontiac M39A3 20mm revolving cannon that was installed on the F-86H, F-100 and F-101 fighters.

Brief details on the T160 and M39A3 are at:
http://www.hill.af.mil/library/factshee ... sp?id=5700

A PDF copy of the released report on testing the T160 20mm cannon is available at:
http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/031528.pdf

Further information on the various versions of the F-86 with serial numbers can be found at:
http://www.millionmonkeytheater.com/F-86.html

I hope the details are of interest to others. I have always had a liking for the F-86 Sabre. I know there are other sites on the internet, but have not found many that have photos of the F-86F-2 that show them in operation. I have yet to go through a collection of slides, and will add more photos when I find them.

Greetings:

My name is Bill, and I learned yesterday of this WIX post on F-86 51-2826, and have words and pics to update. Our Idaho Military Museum in Boise recently acquired 826. The pic shows her after unloading from her 60-mile truck trip from Ontario OR. Our plan is to put the original markings of the 190th Fighter Interceptor Squadron, Idaho Air Guard, as from 1954 to 1956. In a word, she will become a replica of one of our Sabres.

However, we do not intend to detract from her earned history as presented here, but believe the replica can do much to educate our visitors, especially youth, of the role of the citizen soldier, er, flyer in our national defense. Perhaps most of you will understand.

For more history on the award-winning Idaho Air Guard from its founding in 1946 through Air Defense days, which ended in 1975, see "First Class or Not at All--Idaho Air National Guard 1946 to 1975"[/color] One chapter is devoted to the Sabres serving in Idaho. Here are website links explaining the book ( http://sites.google.com/site/firstclass190thorg/ ) and purchase location ( http://www.amazon.com/First-Class-Not-A ... 575&sr=1-1 ).

Bill Miller
Idaho Military History Museum
millerwilliamc@msn.com

Please post more pictures of your restoration and display of F-86F-2-NA Sabre 51-2826.

cadet77

SABRE LOVERS:

Thanks for request, Cadet 77.

I will post occasional pics & words as our restore continues; possibly completed by 1 NOV 12. Right now I need to find a source for all 3 nose landing gear doors. At some earlier date they were reportedly destroyed by a nosegear collapse.

Also regarding posts here, 'just gotta figure out how to enable full size pics in this site. I put photos into a Google album site, then posted herein, but they appear as thumbnails! Hmmm.... I will accept any competent technical advice--hey, I'm only a pilot!!

Bill

Another photo of one of the Minute Men Sabres.



cadet77

I'm kind of late to the party but have some info on the GunVal F-86F-2s as I'm still in search of 51-2819...

Here are the GunVal numbers
51-2803, 51-2819, 51-2826, 51-2836, 51-2855, 51-2861, 51-2867, 51-2868, 51-2884, 51-2900

51-2803 Lost 30Apr53 over Yellow Sea after cannon firing caused engine stall. Pilot (Lonnie Moore) ejected and picked up by rescue helicopter.

51-2819 3515 Trng Squadron at Randolph TX, to SAAMA McClellan (Sacramento Air Materiel Area) 21May57 where it was Struck off Charge (SOC) (or deleted from the Active Inventory to be slightly more accurate) on 12Jul57 to “Class26” which normally means Ground Instruction. Nothing further known on this one. This is the one I'm trying to find. There are lots of pieces of wrong information within the AF on it. I have photos of it in Wisconsin in late 1958 at the state fair. It has never been officially written off.

51-2826 To SAAMA McClellan (Sacramento Air Materiel Area) 31May57. To 120FIS Denver 20Feb58. To 155CLMSq Cheyenne, WY where it was SOC for reclamation & scrapping 05Nov59 HOWEVER this is still in existence at the Military Museum in Boise, Idaho which acquired it from Ontario Airport in Oregon from a private owner, Merle H. Maine, ex Paris TX and Casper WY – which would tie in with it being SOC at Cheyenne. Is currently being restored and is in pretty good condition. Repainted to Korean War colors; gun ports have been restored to the nose. Would love to see it get Minute Men theme and Walt Williams name attached -- he created and lead the Minute Men in the early '50s.

51-2836 336FIS/4FIG. Lost 20Jul53, shot down by Mig, Pilot baled out. HOWEVER there are official record cards which show ths aircraft as being with the 3320 TTAWg (Technical Training Wing I would guess), at Amarillo, TX (these days it is Sheppard AFB) where it was SOC for reclamation & scrapping 16Aug57. A bit of a problem here, perhaps the Record Card has an erroneous aircraft serial number. Another mystery but in either case, this one was lost or scrapped. Not available

51-2855 SAAMA McClellan. To 120FIS Denver 14Feb58. To AASBR (Arizona Aircraft Storage Branch, Now AMARC) at Davis Monthan 14Jul59 where it was SOC for reclamation & scrapping 10Mar60 Turned to beer cans

51-2861 336FIS/4FIG. Lost 25Jan53. Engine stalled after cannon firing at Mig. Pilot (Murray Winslow) ejected over sea.

51-2867 SAAMA McClellan. To 120FIS Denver 20Mar58. To AASBR (Arizona Aircraft Storage Branch, Now AMARC) at Davis Monthan 14Jul59 where it was SOC for reclamation & scrapping 10Mar60. Turned to beer cans

51-2868 SAAMA McClellan. To 120FIS Denver 10Feb58. To AASBR (Arizona Aircraft Storage Branch, Now AMARC) at Davis Monthan 14Jul59 where it was SOC for reclamation & scrapping 05Mar60. Turned to beer cans. This was my dad's plane.

51-2884 120FIS Denver. SOC 08Feb60 as Donated. To Seattle initially I believe. Nicely restored; not flyable

51-2900 SAAMA McClellan. To 120FIS Denver 22Feb58. Lost 07Jun58. Crashed at/near Wright Patterson AFB, OH where it was SOC for reclamation & scrapping 10Aug58. Turned to beer cans however a reconstruction of this plane has been restored to flight ready status!! Yes!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsurL3uxmYA
Story on the refurb is here...
http://www.classicjets.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=1154&hilit=2900

You missed two Gun-Val F-86Fs:

F-86F-3s s/n 51-2916 and 51-2926 (4 x 20 mm Oerlikon 206RK cannon).

It's often erroneously assumed that Project Gun-Val was just about Sabre trials in Korea. This implication is far from the truth, since Gun-Val was not restricted to Korea or to the F-86 Sabre either.

In fact, Project Gun-Val, which was initiated under directive AFMPE-EN/2/11 on 3rd April 1951 “Evaluation of Aircraft Armament”, involved a number of fighter types. The directive was issued to evaluate weapons for use in both current and future (mainly the Century-series) fighters. Fighter-to-fighter, fighter-to-bomber and fighter-to-ground modes were to be evaluated, and aircraft involved were the Republic F-84F Thunderstreak, North American F-86F Sabre, Northrop F-89C Scorpion and Lockheed F-94B Starfire.

Great information on GunEval F-86s. This was obviously a slot aircraft on the Minute Men. Check out the staining on the vertical stabilizer.

Chappie

_________________
Brrring. Dispersal? TWO SECTIONS SCRAMBLE!!

Cool old Air Force footage of the evaluation:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ypzo84wC_Tc

_________________
Always looking for P-51D parts.

Here they are flying...
http://www.TheMinuteMen.us/Video/MinuteMen.wmv


I don't know what's with the dirty tail on that plane. I have a ton of Minute Men photos and film and none have any plane with a dirty tail. Pretty interesting photo though as 867 was Walt Williams' plane -- lead and commander. To my knowledge Walt never flew slot. Maybe a bird hit it or something. Most of my photos have Capt. John T. Ferrier in 2900 flying slot. I'll have to dig through my archives for photos of the slot after John was killed in a crash with 2900.

After Walt had to quit flying, my dad took over as Squadron Commander and Minute Men lead and he continued to fly his plane 868 so, it is possible that this plane became a slot plane but, not with Walt at the stick.

*UPDATE* Capt. Gobel James - slot: Gobe flew 867 as slot after my dad took over as commander and his name is also on the plane. So, that is definitely a slot plane but I still wonder about how dirty that tail is. Good call however -- that is apparently what it is.

As a kid, I used to play in and around the planes at the base. The kids would go out and polish their dad's planes. Ah, the good old days.

Enjoy
Bob Cherry

Some photos...




Parked planes with serial numbers identified


John France's F-86 with the 50th Anniversary Minute Men F-16


Miss Storm - the 50th Anniversary Minute Men F-16

Anyone ever find info on the Gun-Val F-84s?