FZA986 —

North American F-86

Beautiful! Note the pilot's helmet sticks up. As the canopy opens or closes pilot MUST lean forward not to get hit. I watched as a Colorado flight demonstration team aircraft came out of a bombburst maneuver in a dive and never recovered. Investigation revealed a wrench lodged in the stick well jamming the stick forward. Canopy was ejected, but pilot never exited. In training the pilot had a history of not avoiding the dishing canopy during sequence. Procedure was for the pilot to lean forward while the canopy departed, then lean back to finish the ejection sequence. Accident happened at an airshow at Patterson Field in mid '50s.

Such a cool looking aircraft.

Always nice looking aircraft… we have one in France now as well..

Thank you David Mursch for the below, detailed, 1950s, F-86 Sabre Jet CFIT information.

I was very fortunate to work on the Avionics on one of these beautiful aircraft when we tried to bring back into service after being "retired" in South Africa in 1976/1977.
We were looking forward to the test flight and the pilot got in but the jack plug did not fit the aircraft for his helmet. A big panic all around as we put our test onto his lead.
It was great to see one fly gain but due to fatigue, the project was halted. I cannot remember now how many there would have been collecting dust I hope they went to be preserved.