|
PCAM's
RF-86F Sabre was retrieved from the Naval Weapons Test Center in China
Lake, CA. The aircraft was part of a fleet used as remote controlled
drones for weapon testing (as in they shoot missiles at them!) We are
very happy to have received the aircraft before it was used for that
purpose.
The following is a brief history of the
development of the RF-86 aircraft type. The author, Bob Archibald, has
been collecting information for the purpose of publishing a magazine
article and provided PCAM with this synopsis.
The RF-86 Development and
Operational History
The RF-86 is a plane that was developed
in the field and not in the factory. After the Chinese entered the war
and supplied a large number of MiG 15's it became too dangerous for the
Tactical Reconnaissance planes operating in the theater. They could not
fly into the areas around MiG Alley (the Yalu River valley) in the
currently available planes: RF-80, RB-26 (the recce version of the A-26
we have), and Marine recce (Banshees I think). These were all too slow.
Pilots who normally flew these
missions, the 15th Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron (TRS) at K-14 (Kimpo),
realized they needed a recce version of a plane that COULD get on in an
environment dominated by MiG's and Sabres. Why not modify a Sabre to do
the job? No one was interested, but they convinced the commander of the
4th Fighter Group (on the same airfield) to let them play with a
scrapped fuselage of an F-86 in the dump. They took it apart, removed
some guns and found a place for some cameras. They convinced Far East AF
Hq in Japan to modify two war weary F-86A's with the camera
installation. It was done at Tachikawa in Japan and the first RF-86A's
flew in the winter of 1951 (?this is without reading my notes).
|