Static Fighter (F86?) on display, Avery Park, Corvallis, Ore

[spriso]

A friend is looking for images of a ex-military fighter that was on display in Avery Park, in Corvallis, Oregon in the 1960s. I seem to recall that someone once told me that there was an F86 there at one time, but I have not been able to prove that?

Of course, if it was there, it is long-gone now (as most display aircraft left to the kids, elements, and vandals!)

Any one have any info-- or better yet, images of this said jet?

Any help appreciated!

Michael

[quemerford]

It was an F-86D-35, one of the few 'Dogs' without a drag 'chute to see service outside of CONUS. As such it would have been a rare beast had it survived.

S/n was 51-8467, ex-68th FIS, and when the unit equipped proper with drag-chuted Dogs, '467 was returned to the US and stored for some time at McClellan.

A later report in the Corvallis Gazette-Times stated that, "The Corvallis Pilots Association had placed in the park an F-86 Sabre jet fighter plane after the Korean War. It was moved to the east end of the park to keep Mikado company as a "study in contrasts." It suffered from heavy usage, some vandalism and weather damage. After about a decade in its new home, it was sold for scrap metal."

[spriso]

Fantastic info--- thank you so very much!

Now all we need to do is find a photo of it!

Thanks again,

Michael

[mcdermd]

Hello - I found you guys talking about this old Sabre while I was looking for more information on it myself. As I recall, it was taken out of the park just sometime in the few years before I was born in '74 but the "figure jet in the park" lore was pervasive through my childhood. It was in the northeast corner of the park, between the steam locomotive and the Avery House.

The pictures come from a member of a Facebook group for Corvallis folks that my wife is a part of.