North American F86-A Editorial Photo

On display at the Udvar-Hazy Center of the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in Chantilly, Virginia, The F-86, the U.S. Air Force's first swept-wing jet fighter, made its initial flight in October 1947. The first production model flew in May 1948, and four months later, an F-86A set a new world speed record of 670.9 mph. As a day fighter, the F-86A saw service in Korea as the primary opponent of the Russian-built MiG-15. By the end of hostilities, F-86 pilots had shot down 792 MiGs, with a kill ratio of about 8:1. More than 5,500 F-86 day fighters were built in the U.S. and Canada. Air forces of 20 other nations, including West Germany, Japan, Spain, Great Britain and Australia, also operated the Sabre. The North American F-86 Sabre, also called the Sabrejet, is a transonic jet fighter aircraft. Produced by North American Aviation, the Sabre is best known as the United States' first swept-wing fighter that could counter the swept-wing Soviet MiG-15 in high-speed dogfights in the skies of the Korean War (1950–1953), fighting some of the earliest jet-to-jet battles in history.