F-86E - US Navy?

[Simon Cornes]

A question for the experts. Did the US Navy ever operate the Sabre? I don’t think so but I could imagine it being possible as a ‘trainer’ for the FJ-2 Fury maybe? I know that variety of Fury was only ever operated by the USMC, land based and in a natural metal finish. 
Why am I asking? Because I am finishing a part built Kinetic F-86 which has a light gull gray/ white paint job. I think it’s a bit of wiffery!!

[Sabrejet]

Aside from the obvious QF-86F and QF-86H drones operated by the Navy in more recent years, at least one F-86A was loaned to the Navy at Patuxent River. Since the standard F-86 training route was to go through T-33 jet transition and straight into your first F-86F flight, the Navy/Marine Corps followed a similar process with the Fury series.

[Simon Cornes]

6 minutes ago, Sabrejet said:

Aside from the obvious QF-86F and QF-86H drones operated by the Navy in more recent years, at least one F-86A was loaned to the Navy at Patuxent River. Since the standard F-86 training route was to go through T-33 jet transition and straight into your first F-86F flight, the Navy/Marine Corps followed a similar process with the Fury series.

And I imagine that loan ‘A’ model stayed in USAF markings? It does look good in LGG/W though! 
Thanks for broadly confirming my thoughts though.

[Sabrejet]

Yes the F-86A kept its USAF markings. Shame though because a NAVY-marked Sabre would sure confuse things!

[Ed Russell]

2 hours ago, Sabrejet said:

a NAVY-marked Sabre would sure confuse things!

[e8n2]

8 hours ago, Simon Cornes said:

A question for the experts. Did the US Navy ever operate the Sabre? I don’t think so but I could imagine it being possible as a ‘trainer’ for the FJ-2 Fury maybe? I know that variety of Fury was only ever operated by the USMC, land based and in a natural metal finish. 
Why am I asking? Because I am finishing a part built Kinetic F-86 which has a light gull gray/ white paint job. I think it’s a bit of wiffery!!

The first XFJ-2, 133756 was delivered with the F-86 nose wheel.  It was in overall GSB.  It also looks to have the 6-3 wing with slats and has an all flying tail.  The only difference is that it had four 20mm cannons instead of six .50 cal machine guns.  I found an image of it here:

 

While most of the Marine FJ-2s were in natural metal, the Navy used the FJ-3 and had a number of them in GSB finish before the switch over to LGG/W.

Later,

Dave

[Simon Cornes]

3 hours ago, Ed Russell said:

Australian?

[Sabrejet]

1 hour ago, Simon Cornes said:

Australian?

 

Yes that aircraft as I recall is a test piece for RAAF painters, so it's had many schemes.

[Tony Edmundson]

11 hours ago, e8n2 said:

The first XFJ-2, 133756 was delivered with the F-86 nose wheel.  It was in overall GSB.  It also looks to have the 6-3 wing with slats and has an all flying tail.  The only difference is that it had four 20mm cannons instead of six .50 cal machine guns.  I found an image of it here:

 

While most of the Marine FJ-2s were in natural metal, the Navy used the FJ-3 and had a number of them in GSB finish before the switch over to LGG/W.

Later,

Dave

That does not look like a 6-3 wing with slats, looks more like a short chord wing with slats.

 

Tony

[Simon Cornes]

1 hour ago, Tony Edmundson said:

That does not look like a 6-3 wing with slats, looks more like a short chord wing with slats.

 

Tony

Looks like a 6-3 wing to me without slats and with a fence!  But if you mean the tufted variety then I agree with you!!

[Sabrejet]

Tony's right: narrow-chord, slatted wing on the XFJ-2.

[Simon Cornes]

19 minutes ago, Sabrejet said:

Tony's right: narrow-chord, slatted wing on the XFJ-2.

Yes, you can see the slat dropped in the photo.

[Tony Edmundson]

4 hours ago, Simon Cornes said:

Yes, you can see the slat dropped in the photo.

Narrow chord is the keyword

[e8n2]

12 hours ago, Tony Edmundson said:

That does not look like a 6-3 wing with slats, looks more like a short chord wing with slats.

 

Tony

I looked at a number of shots of 756 and couldn't tell for sure.

Later,

Dave

[VH-JEB]

On 30/06/2022 at 19:34, Sabrejet said:

Yes that aircraft as I recall is a test piece for RAAF painters

From the FAAAA web site

As noted above, the airframe is an old RAAF Sabre (serial A94-922), which upon retirement was used for training in the Surface Finishers course.  In 1983 Mark Webb and Andy Brown were on the course and decided to paint it in the colours of VC724 Squadron, replicating the blue and white scheme of the Macchi jet then in service.  

Having completed the work they parked it outside the Control Tower for all to see, as a bit of a morale-booster as this was about the time the FAA fixed wing element was disbanded.   The work took about a week and the kangaroos in the roundels were hand painted, as was the practice at the time.

Mark reports that the RAAF Officer Commanding, who was an ex-Sabre jock, was far from impressed.  

The three sailors then painted the Sabre in A4 colours – a light gull grey – and not being satisfied with that, then painted it in what they considered suitable colours for the Air Force – a hot pink (unfortunately we don’t have a photo of that).

[Sabrejet]

3 hours ago, VH-JEB said:

From the FAAAA web site

As noted above, the airframe is an old RAAF Sabre (serial A94-922), which upon retirement was used for training in the Surface Finishers course.  In 1983 Mark Webb and Andy Brown were on the course and decided to paint it in the colours of VC724 Squadron, replicating the blue and white scheme of the Macchi jet then in service.  

Having completed the work they parked it outside the Control Tower for all to see, as a bit of a morale-booster as this was about the time the FAA fixed wing element was disbanded.   The work took about a week and the kangaroos in the roundels were hand painted, as was the practice at the time.

Mark reports that the RAAF Officer Commanding, who was an ex-Sabre jock, was far from impressed.  

The three sailors then painted the Sabre in A4 colours – a light gull grey – and not being satisfied with that, then painted it in what they considered suitable colours for the Air Force – a hot pink (unfortunately we don’t have a photo of that).

 

It's also been painted in Argentine 'Cruz del Sur' aerobatic team colours!

[tweeky]

there's an F86 navy version on USS intrepid.

 

[Simon Cornes]

12 minutes ago, tweeky said:

there's an F86 navy version on USS intrepid.

 

Would that be an FJ Fury of some sort I wonder? 4 cannon instead of 6 machine guns.

[Simon Cornes]

Yep, FJ-3 - similar but not the same!!