by Adam Estes
A rare North American F-86A Sabre, albeit one with a somewhat existential identity, is among several restoration projects presently underway at the March Field Air Museum in Riverside, California. The aircraft has only been on hand since August 9th this year, but the rebuild team has already made significant progress.
This Sabre has spent most of the previous four decades in and around Salt Lake City, Utah, serving as a memorial to pilots from the Utah Air National Guard. However, since 2016, the airframe had sat in storage at Roland R. Wright Air National Guard Base, which lies within the grounds of Salt Lake City International Airport. March Field Air Museum’s Aircraft Recovery Team arrived to collect the disassembled airframe on August 8th. With help from 151st Maintenance Group personnel at the base, the transport crew loaded the entire aircraft onto the museum’s 38-foot trailer in just four hours, making the journey home to Riverside on the following day. The museum’s Restoration Manager, Alex LaBonte, began searching for clues regarding the aircraft’s service record almost a soon as his team had unloaded it. This was no easy task as the Sabre’s identity was unknown at the time of its recovery and it clearly included components from several different airframes. The primary issue, therefore, involved identifying the individual aircraft which comprised the majority of its parts.
The Utah Air National Guard had painted the fighter jet to commemorate one of their own Sabres, F-86A 49-1273, during its time with 191st Fighter-Interceptor Squadron (now the 191st Air Refueling Squadron). But nothing substantial from that fighter could possibly form part of March Field’s newest Sabre as the real 49-1273 no longer exists; it crashed in Lamb’s Canyon, just a few miles east of Salt Lake City, on March 13th, 1955. After a month of painstaking research in military archives, interviews, and a thorough inspection of the aircraft, LaBonte’s team finally had some answers. They determined that their Sabre’s forward fuselage came from F-86A 49-1324, while the aft section came from F-86F 52-5233, and the wings from an as-yet unidentified third example. While the aircraft is certainly a composite, a museum will typically base the airframe’s id around the most significant fuselage section, which is the forward fuselage in this case.
As a result, the museum has likely chosen to present this Sabre as F-86A-5-NA 49-1324. North American Aviation (NAA) constructed ‘324 at the company’s plant in Inglewood, California, rolling her out on September 6th, 1950. The United States Air Force (USAF) accepted the airframe on October 19th, and took delivery on October 23rd, 1950. The aircraft arrived at Nellis Air Force Base in Las Vegas, Nevada on October 24th, 1950, when it joined the 3595th Pilot Training Wing (PTW). The jet fighter served at Nellis until November 1st, 1951, when it returned to NAA’s facilities in Long Beach, California, presumably for maintenance and upgrades. The Sabre returned to the newly-redesignated 3595th Training Wing (TW) at Nellis on January 29, 1952, where it continued to to fly until September 14, 1953.
After a stay within the Sacramento Air Material Area, the Sabre transitioned into the Air National Guard (ANG), moving between the following units:
- 176th FIS – WI ANG at Truax Field, Madison, Wisconsin – 7th December, 1953
- 194th FBS – CA ANG at Hayward Field, near Oakland, California – 14 September, 1954 (Fresno from 22 Apr ’55)
- San Antonio Air Materiel Area – 1st July 1955
- 194th FIS – CA ANG – Fresno, California – 10 August, 1955
- 192nd FIS – NV ANG – Reno, Nevada – 22 May, 1958
Many thanks to Adam Estes for this fascinating report. It is marvelous to see the Sabre restoration coming along so nicely. The discovery of the espionage note is extraordinary though, and given that the intended recipient clearly never received it, and the tenor of the message… one wonders what happened to those involved! From the editor’s perspective, it could well have occurred during the airframe’s period at Everett, the location for Boeing’s massive manufacturing plant, which would have been a huge target for nefarious intelligence gathering operations, and probably still is. The heavy state of corrosion for both the casings and their links definitely seems to indicate a significant period of exposure, which would agree with the time period, and the fact that the message was never picked up could perhaps date the original drop off time to 1981, when the fuselage moved to its new owner in California. That seems a distinct possibility at least… A little sleuthing around Everett might even reveal the navy anchor mentioned in the text, and a type writer expert could probably identify the kind of machine which printed the original text. It is all very intriguing!
Raised in Fullerton, California, Adam is pursuing a Bachelor's degree in History. Fascinated by aviation history from a young age, he has visited numerous air museums across the United States, including the National Air and Space Museum and the San Diego Air and Space Museum. He volunteers at the Planes of Fame Air Museum in Chino as a docent and researcher, gaining hands-on experience with aircraft maintenance. Known for his encyclopedic knowledge of aviation history, he is particularly interested in the stories of individual aircraft and their postwar journeys. Active in online aviation communities, he shares his work widely and seeks further opportunities in the field.
Guess you could make it an E1 or E5 with that windscreen. Looks like it also has the long 6/3 wing with slats. It would be nice if you could find A5 parts and restore it to its original glory.