Sqn Ldr Alam's Hunter-killing F-86F

[Sabrejet]

Following the posting of a recent 'Ready for Inspection' F-86F (the 1/72 Airfix kit painted to represent Pakistan AF Muhammad Mahmood Alam's famous Hawker Hunter killer from 1965), I realised that a major error had been made by the decal manufacturer. Looking at other references I realised that this error has become widespread. The RFI is here by the way (nice job!):

 

 

I won't go into the controversy surrounding Sqn Ldr Alam's kills, but for information the Pakistan AF states that on 7 September 1965 he shot down five Indian AF Hawker Hunters in less than a minute. Alam's final tally for a short period was nine aircraft shot down, plus two probables from 6 to 16 September 1965. You can find more on Wiki etc.

 

The error with the decals? Well it turns out that Cutting Edge in its sheets CED48023 (1/48) and CED72025 (1/72) had the aircraft's serial number as 55-4026 (tail number 54026):

 

Also the Hobby Master diecast has the same s/n:

 

And Kits World 1/72 KW172143 decal sheet:

 

 

Plus a number of side-views on the internet (credits Wings Palette and unk) - both this time showing Sidewinder missiles mounted:

 

 

 

Before I go further, here are a few photos showing Alam and the F-86F which was painted with his nine + 2 kills (though I cannot confirm that it was this Sabre in which he scored all or any of his kills):

 

 

 

 

And a none-too-good shot of the aircraft on its own:

 

 

So yes, for sure it's '026 - so the decals are correct right? Well no.

 

First of all, the s/n shown in the references above (55-4026) did actually serve with the PAF, but only after it had been one of those initially delivered to the Japan Air Self Defense Force (in 1957), not used and then returned to the USA in February 1959. It was delivered on to the PAF circa 1965.

But the PAF operated two F-86Fs marked with the ‘last three’ of ‘026’ on the nose. The second machine was Alam’s aircraft – and its correct s/n was 52-5026. This aircraft started life as an F-86F-30 (and delivered with the 6-3 wing) which served with 3595th Combat Crew Training Wing at Nelis AFB, then a series of other CCTW until transferred to the Royal Norwegian AF in January 1961; at this point it gained the long-span, slatted F-40 wing and also received TACAN equipment. It served there with 336 skvadron marked variously as ‘PX-2’; ‘PX-11’; ‘PX-B’ and ‘PX-Z’ before being struck off in March 1965 and transferred to the Pakistan AF just in time to see action during the April-September conflict.

 

See these close-ups of the aircraft's Technical Data Block (TDB). The TDB provides the unique identity for USAF and ex-USAF aircraft types and is usually present even after aircraft are transferred to foreign air forces. These views prove the aircraft to be 52-5026:

 

 

 

Though note that the TDB stencil has this Sabre as an F-86F-35, whereas it is in fact an F-86F-30. Ah well - no-one's perfect!

 

The photo below shows 52-5026 just prior to transfer to the PAF: markings were removed but the anti-dazzle panel was retained along with stencils etc. Note that the RNoAF Martin-Baker ejection seats in some Norwegian F-86Fs were replaced with the original NAA seat before going to Pakistan.

 

 

And this view shows the unusual ejection seat marking/arrow seen on Norwegian F-86Fs and visible on Alam's jet:

 

 

Finally, when Sargodha Air Base at Mianwali in Pakistan was renamed to honour Sqn Ldr Alam, the base's Sabre gate guard was repainted to represent 'his' F-86F. They almost got the tail number correct, though the 'long' serial number is the right one for this historic machine (credit: History of PIA.com):

 

 

Why the error? Well having two '026s in the same air force doesn't help for sure. But hopefully the above will go some way to setting the record straight. I've tweaked the side-view above and this is my best attempt at addressing the errors in various of the sources:

 

 

And here is a photo of 52-5026 later in Pakistan AF service, looking nice and anonymous:

 

 

[stalal]

Wow! I never thought I could get this much detail for this jet. Thank you so much for such meticulous research. 

 

However it leaves me confused. I have this Hasegawa F-86F-40 in my stash and same decal sheet you mentioned. Now what will I need to do to make the model kit accurately resembling Alam's war time jet?

[Sabrejet]

@stalal - Minor changes to the s/n - '54026' to '25026' and don't fit the Sidewinders. There are a few minor painting points to note - the fin cap isn't black as shown sometimes but pale grey and the anti-dazzle panel is matt black except for the mid part which covers the radio/radar/gunsight bay: it appears that this item had been replaced with an item from another F-86F on Alam's jet and so this section is olive drab - you can see that in the photos above. The Hobby Master diecast seems to have got most of the details correct aside from the s/n and the black fin cap. 

 

The Hasegawa kit already has the TACAN intake (RH side by the speed brake) but strangely not the antennae: there should be two - one on the top of the nose intake (see side views and photo of '026 on its own above) and one under the fuselage, aft of the main landing gear bays. PM me if you need any other info.

Edited September 30, 2018 by Sabrejet

[Jure Miljevic]

There was an article about Sqn Ldr Alam published some twenty years or so ago in Aviation history, I believe. It includes at least one additional photo of his F-86F. Will try to find it and come back with more info later. Cheers

Jure

[Jure Miljevic]

Hello

Yes, the article by Jon Guttman was published in September 1998 number of Aviation history. Unfortunately the photo I was talking about does not show 026 52-5026 but 125 53-1125. The article photo depicts Sqn Ldr Alam while climbing into Sabre's cockpit. The other photos of the 125, very probably taken during the same photo sessions can be seen here and here. However, the article does not mention serial of Sqn Ldr Alam's Sabre during 7th September engagement. Interestingly, it does claim Sabres were also armed with Sidewinders: ˝... I fired my second Sidewinder. The missile streaked ahead of me, but I didn't see it strike. ...˝. So, another question without a clear answer.

Sorry to mud waters even further. Cheers

Jure

P.S.: Perhaps I should mention that Indian victory flags in Cutting Edge 1/48 set are slightly too large. It is not too bad, though.

[tomthounaojam]

This has been discussed in length in another group on facebook, regarding his kills. There are some discrepancies on his reporting. We Indian admit to losing to 3 aircraft in the matter, however, the question is there is not gun camera footage of the "kill" and if he was such an ace fighter commanding mirages ( religion caught up/nationality he was born in India?) why he was not allowed to participate in 71 war.

As for the decals Whether the kills are correct or not, the decals will have to be faithful to what the Pakistanis painted the aircraft as. I am not an expert sharing a synopsis what other have said and discussed about this is matter.

"Although Peter Steinemann & other researchers has shown Alam as exaggerating. PAF Cdre S.Sajad Haider have demolished Alam's claim saying, “Logically, since the five were claimed to have been shot down in 23 seconds, then they should all have crashed in close proximity. The conjecture that all the rest could have crashed after 8-9 minutes of flying is superfluous and unworthy of the official PAF history.”

 

PS sadly we will never know as he is no longer.

[RidgeRunner]

Great detective work, SJ

[RidgeRunner]

1 hour ago, tomthounaojam said:

As for the decals Whether the kills are correct or not, the decals will have to be faithful to what the Pakistanis painted the aircraft as.

Absolutely!

[Jure Miljevic]

Hello

In his article Jon Guttman provides accounts from both sides, so a reader can make informed decision, shall we say, about Sqn Ldr Alam's claims. I made mine, but to me the main concern is how aircraft participating in engagement looked like (got a Sabre and a Hunter kits put aside until enough info emerges), not the actual score. Even claims, made in good faith, are almost always inflated, let alone those polished by well oiled propaganda machine. Few years ago I read an article (either in Avions, Aero journal or Le fana de l'aviation magazine) about Erich Hartmann's claims (must dig it out and read it again). IIRC against Hartmann's claims of twenty or so Soviet planes shot down the actual losses or more accurately loss in entire sector (Kuban, I think) that day was one Airacobra. It probably helped that PK film crew was present with the sole task to record Hartmann's air-to-air feats for weekly film news. Author of the article claimed that Hartmann's actual score was probably somewhere between 70 to 80 victories. Still impressive, no doubt, but far cry from 352 aircraft shot down attributed to him. Cheers

Jure

[Sabrejet]

This is a common discussion regarding kills/claims on aircraft: it's particularly pertinent on Korean War Sabres, where kills were registered on the port/LH side to the pilot rather than the aircraft. Thus painting an ace's aircraft to represent any one mission is a case of doing a lot of detective work.

 

Since there is no evidence that Alam used '026 for all or even any of his kills, the decals only represent the aircraft that was shown with Alam after he'd gotten all his claims in (i.e. sometime after 16 September 1965). And even if he did use the aircraft for all his kills, it's obvious that the only time all the kills would have been painted onto '026 would have been at the end of it all.

 

The Sidewinder issue is also spurious: the only photographic evidence (so far) that I've seen of '026 in this scheme is of the aircraft without missiles or even rails. 

 

Incidentally the drop tanks are the big finless type on forced ejection pylons (that is the pylon is part of the wing not the tank).

Edited October 1, 2018 by Sabrejet

[bzn20]

Excellent , story , searching for the information and the finished model.

Well done .