North American F-86H Sabre
The heavyweight fighter-bomber Sabre — deeper fuselage, J73 engine, 20 mm cannon and nuclear capability · First flight 1952 · Built 1953–1955
The F-86H was redesigned around the much more powerful General Electric J73, which needed a deeper fuselage; the wings were also lengthened. The first YF-86H (52-1975) was flown by Joseph Lynch on 30 April 1952, and production ran from late 1953 to August 1955, for a total of 473. Early aircraft kept six machine guns, but later ones carried four 20 mm M39 cannon.
The H was built as a fighter-bomber: it had the Low Altitude Bombing System (LABS) for toss-bombing and provision for a nuclear weapon. It was never used in combat but gave the USAF a strong fighter-bomber until the supersonic F-100 Super Sabre arrived.
Retired from the active force, F-86Hs equipped Air National Guard squadrons into the 1960s — the aircraft in the US Air Force museum came from the New Jersey Air National Guard in November 1964. 29 were later converted into QF-86H target drones for the US Naval Weapons Center.
