Doug Matthews' F-86F Sabre Restoration

[MKD1966]

So, am I understanding this correctly, all F-86’s with a combat paint s heme invoke the yellow band? Why was yellow the “ go to “ color? What if someone painted an F-86 as Navy or Marine FJ-3. That would be nice.

I think that would look awesome - and in fact my Stepdad was crewchief for Dale Snodgrass on the "Skyblazers" F-86 for 10+ years and I traveled with them during the 2002 airshow season... Dale always talked about how cool it would be to have a Sabre painted in a cool FJ Fury scheme since he was a Navy guy... Of coarse he couldn't do that to the Skyblazer since the Air Force Heritage program was a big part of his airshow bookings... I do believe though that if the timing and money would have right that he would have acquired a second airframe to paint up Navy... Oh well - woulda, coulda, shoulda...
Mike

[quemerford]

Well on the basis that Sabres and Furys are not the same thing, it would be akin to painting a Spitfire in a P-51 colour scheme!

There are huuuuundreds of day-fighter colour schemes to go through before you get to the pastiche of a Fury scheme on a Sabre!

...and none of them have yellow ID bands.

[Dan K]

Well on the basis that Sabres and Furys are not the same thing, it would be akin to painting a Spitfire in a P-51 colour scheme!...

Thanks for today's chuckle. I vote for a NAVY/NATC scheme.

[quemerford]

Well on the basis that Sabres and Furys are not the same thing, it would be akin to painting a Spitfire in a P-51 colour scheme!...

Thanks for today's chuckle. I vote for a NAVY/NATC scheme.

Rivet counting maybe, but why choose an F-86E with cannons when your airworthy Sabre won't be that either? OK, this time it would be more like painting a Spitfire in a Hurricane colour scheme, but still a pastiche IMHO. If you want a genuine navy blue colour scheme, then one of the Albrook F-86E/Fs would at least be closer to accurate.

Or get an FJ-3 flying! Put me down for that

[michaelharadon]

Perfect time, then, to remake The Hunters.

[Saville]

Perfect time, then, to remake The Hunters.

Well....in some ways yes and some no.

For the original movie the Air Force put up more than an entire squadron of F-86's for the camera - you can see an entire squadron in the air pulling contrails, in the film:



And you got lots of shots of operational F-86's taxiing and taking off.

And speaking of F-84's posing as Migs, you also see a squadron of F-84 (Migs) though only 4 of them are painted as Migs:



Those days are over - we'll never see that number of real 1950's jets in the air like that again.
Though perhaps some of that footage could be re-used.

And there were several live shots taken from the ground - like in the final dogfight - of an F-84 and F-86 dueling. that could be done of course.

Some things could be done better than the 1958 movie:

There were double exposures showing a merge of opposing planes. And many "air combat" shots were done in the studio with back projection.

But I guess the real question would be:

Would the remake be true to the original book - a real downer book. Something like the 1958 movie?

Or something else entirely?

I saw this movie as a kid and it stuck with me ever since. I own a copy of it. It's one of my all time favorite movies.

I even painted the helmet that I use for Flight test and aerobatics, in the same pattern as the main character:



Of course it has a love story which is a little hard to believe, but it does set up a serious philosophical issue quite nicely.

[JohnB]

Yes, people will nitpick, but look at 3 view drawings of the F-84F and MiG-15...
They share the same configuration: Nose intake, swept mid-mounted wings, cruciform tail...really pretty close.

[kalamazookid]

Here's an update:

http://warbirdsnews.com/warbird-restora ... e-run.html

[Matt_in_NC]

First flyable F-86 I’ve seen with replica guns. Contrasts quite a bit with the glass cockpit! Awesome looking restoration...the more Sabres in the air, the better!