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. Classified "Restricted," the manual was recently declassified and is here reprinted in book form. This facsimile has been reformatted and color images appear in black and white. Care has been taken to preserve the integrity of the text.

Strap in alongside the Sabre pilots as they experienced the world's first large-scale jet-vs-jet combats. Brought to life with innovative tactical artwork and dramatic first-hand accounts from the pilots themselves. 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.

The North American F-86 Sabre was the first operational Allied swept-wing transonic jet fighter of the postwar era. It was flown with distinction by the USAF in the Korean War where it was pitted against the Soviet MiG-15. The centerpiece of this Haynes Manual is Golden Apple Operations’ F-86A, 48-178, the sole-surviving airworthy example of the first production Sabre A model, as well as the world’s oldest flying jet-powered aircraft.

This publication provides safety information and guidance to those involved in the certification, operation, and maintenance of high-performance former military aircraft to help assess and mitigate safety hazards and risk factors for the aircraft within the context provided by Title 49 United States Code (49 U.S.C.) and Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations (14 CFR), and associated FAA policies. Specific models include: A-37 Dragonfly, A-4 Skyhawk, F-86 Sabre, F-100 Super Sabre, F-104 Starfighter, OV-1 Mohawk, T-2 Buckeye, T-33 Shooting Star, T-38 Talon, Alpha Jet, BAC 167 Strikemaster, Hawker Hunter, L-39 Albatros, MB-326, MB-339, ME-262, MiG-17 Fresco, MiG-21 Fishbed, MiG-23 Flogger, MiG-29 Fulcrum, S-211. DISTRIBUTION: Unclassified; Publicly Available; Unlimited. COPYRIGHT: Graphic sources: Contains materials copyrighted by other individuals. Copyrighted materials are used with permission. Permission granted for this document only. Where applicable, the proper license(s) (i.e., GFD) or use requirements (i.e., citation only) are applied.

Under cloudless blue skies, the Oakwood Cemetery Annex in Montgomery, Alabama hosts the largest Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery in the United States. Most of the graves contain young RAF trainee pilots killed during their flying training at nearby Maxwell and Gunter airfields during the Second World War. However, there is another grave, located at the edge of the plot, not from the early 1940s but, from 1954. The grave marks the final resting place of a 44-year-old senior RAF officer, Air Commodore Geoffrey Stephenson CBE. It begs the questions who was he and why is he buried there? This book sets out to answer both these questions. As a result, this is the remarkable story of not only Stephenson’s life but the people, planes and places that would leave an indelible mark on a seasoned fighter pilot. After growing up in Lincolnshire and Ireland, 18-year-old Stephenson joined the RAF in 1928 alongside Douglas Bader who would become a life-long friend. After leaving Cranwell, the pair both joined 23 Squadron. In the 1930s, Stephenson rose through the ranks to command 19 Squadron, a Duxford-based Spitfire unit, that would see his baptism of fire over Dunkirk in late May 1940. Following the downing of a Junkers Ju 87 Stuka, Stephenson was himself shot down and crash landed on the beach at Sangatte. After a brief period on the run in France and Belgium, Stephenson was taken into captivity, spending the next five years as a prisoner of war, ending up at the iconic Colditz Castle where, ironically, he was reunited with his old friend Bader. Upon his release in April 1945, Stephenson quickly resumed his RAF career commanding, instructing, and flying the latest jet fighters, both at home and overseas. He was aide-de-camp to two monarchs, including escorting a young Queen Elizabeth II during her 1953 Coronation Review. However, his already eventful career would take a tragic turn. In 1954, Stephenson flew to the United States to review their latest acquisitions, which included a flight in the supersonic F-100 Super Sabre. It would be his last flight. Nevertheless, Stephenson’s legacy lives on at his former base at Duxford in the guise of the Imperial War Museum’s immaculately restored Spitfire Mk.I N3200. This was the very aircraft in which he force-landed on 26 May 1940. Recovered from the French beach, N3200 was painstakingly rebuilt and returned to flying condition. Today, N3200 is often referred to as a ‘National Treasure’. This is the biography of a remarkable pilot, husband and father, revealing the planes he flew, the places he visited, and the incredible people he met along the way.