Without doubt, one of the rarest jet aircraft in the world has just been dismantled at the Imperial War Museum Duxford, for a journey to its new home away from these shores. This American aviation classic has been wooing UK Airshow audiences for well over 20 years, but unfortunately, our luck has now run out and she is heading for a new career back in the US. I’ll bet that many enthusiasts did not realize just how special an aeroplane she actually was – let’s take a closer look at her.
Golden Apple Operations North American F-86A Sabre
As the aviation world entered the latter stages of the Second World War, the need for greater speed was seemingly the most critical attribute desired by aircraft designers. The magnificent Messerschmitt Me 262 jet fighter had really taken the Allied air forces by surprise and this massive technological leap in design and propulsion simply had to be matched and as a matter of critical urgency. With these increased speeds requiring a total re-think in aviation design, it was some time before an aircraft was produced by western design teams that could rival the impact of the Me 262 and the quality of the new Soviet Mikoyan Gurevich MiG-15 fighter, but when they did, they produced an absolute classic. The North American F-86 Sabre incorporated many of the design innovations captured from the German aviation industry at the end of the war and was regarded as the first classic jet fighter to be produced in the world, although it could be argued that the MiG-15 was deserving of a share in this title. Indeed, the two aircraft were pitted against each other during the Korean War and were generally pretty evenly matched. Many of the Sabre pilots were experienced fighter pilots, used to flying Mustangs in WWII and when flying against inexperienced Chinese and North Korean pilots, they enjoyed excellent success rates in combat. When the equally experienced Soviet pilots manned the MiGs, things were much more evenly matched. The final Sabre v MiG kill ratio of 10:1 was thought to be somewhat exaggerated, but with 792 MiGs downed and only 78 Sabres recorded as lost, official figures seem to confirm the superiority of the Sabre in Korea and of the 41 American pilots to achieve ‘Ace’ status during the conflict, all but one flew the F-86 Sabre.
Over the past 22 years, I am sure that many of us will have been lucky enough to catch a display from the Golden Apple F-86A Sabre, most probably at one of the Duxford Airshows. Without doubt, one of the most significant features of a Sabre display is the spectacular amount of smoke that is generated by the General Electric J-47 axial flow engine and as the pilot puts the power on to speed through the display axis, you cannot fail to spot the smokey Sabre in the sky – most certainly not worried about its carbon footprint, a Sabre display really is a thing of beauty. Unfortunately, as with all things historic aviation, we often fall in to the trap of taking these magnificent aeroplanes for granted, thinking that they are always going to be there for our entertainment and that is not always the case. It is now clear that North American Sabre 48-178 G-SABR has displayed in the UK for the last time for the foreseeable future, perhaps ever, as she heads home to the US – I suppose that many would argue that this is where she belongs. Unfortunately, they are inheriting one of the most important historic aircraft in the world and one which many would not have appreciated the importance of. G-SABR was the 50th production ‘A’ model aircraft, out of the North American factory in Los Angeles and although she is finished in the Korean War colours synonymous with Sabre operations, this aircraft did not actually serve during the conflict. The only flying ‘A’ model in the world, it is also believed that she is actually the oldest jet powered aircraft still flying in the world, which really does make her a very significant aircraft indeed. Unfortunately, UK enthusiasts may have witnessed one of her beautifully smokey displays for the last time and our loss is most certainly Americas gain.
Flying Tigers – The Future
This has certainly been a bitter sweet week in the history of Flying Tigers and I can honestly say that I feel a little bit battered after the past few days. As you may well imagine, the e-mail I sent out on Wednesday was probably the hardest thing that I have ever had to do and it came after a concerted period of reflection on the best thing to do. As I should have expected, you lot have been absolutely fantastic and the many kind messages we received have meant the world to us. To say that we have been inundated is an understatement and I am asking that you please give me a little time to get round to replying to your message, as I intend to reply to each one. I would once again, like to sincerely thank you all for the support that you have given Emma and myself over the years and helping to make Flying Tigers something a little different in our hobby.
Moving forwards, many people have asked me to clarify what will be happening in the immediate future at Flying Tigers. Well, certainly for the next couple of months, we will be working extremely hard, in a similar way to the way we always have. Our Newsletter will continue to be produced for the foreseeable future and I will certainly hope to keep you informed of any developments through this medium. With plenty of interesting articles from the world of aviation, military history, die-cast aviation collecting and associated hobby features, I hope that future Newsletters will be at least as enjoyable as the ones that have gone before. From a trading perspective, our warehouse is fully stocked and we will be working to make people aware of what we have available. With many lines not even on our website, the first thing to do will be to make sure everything is visible to collectors, as we have some very desirable stuff. We also have lots of classic Hobbymaster models, many of which are only available from us and are now becoming extremely sought after – these back catalogue items will be of great interest to collectors and may very well be available for the last time in the UK. I think that what I am trying to say is that it will be a good idea to check the Flying Tigers Web-store regularly, over the coming weeks, as there will be a multitude of die-cast aviation goodies available for your perusal.
‘Clear Prop’ – Let’s get started!
After the week that we have had, lets get the ball rolling by doing what we rarely get the opportunity to do – A POST FREE WEEKEND. I suppose that this is our interpretation of attending an Airshow, where our collectors could just take their models home with them, or having an open day at the Flying Tigers hangar – in both situations, postage would not be an issue, so we are going to take care of that expense, even though all of our models are already discounted! Unfortunately, there are a couple of caveats, as postage is extremely expensive and our collector base is global these days – to qualify, orders must be placed by midday on Monday 3rd November and will be applied to NEW orders totalling £30.00 or more, excluding the postage element of the order (the postage will still show on the order confirmation, but this will not be taken when we process the order – Paypal orders will have the postage cost refunded at the time of processing).
The Free Postage offer only applies to all UK Mainland postal addresses, but all other postal destinations across the world will benefit from a £5.00 reduction on the postage price. As I explained before, there are no catches here, this is a genuine savings opportunity – all our models are already discounted and this offer is in addition to these existing discounts.
Models worthy of consideration
I thought that I would end this latest Newsletter with a couple of images of models which may well be of interest to collectors, in light of this weeks offer – die-cast aviation models at their very best!