In 1951 North American F-86A Sabre (48-291), performed flight investigations for maneuvering accelerations and buffeting characteristics at high altitude with/without wing tip tanks.

During the years 1955 and 1956 the Douglas Aircraft Company D-558-2 Skyrocket filled the need for a research airplane to provide data from full-scale flight testing on the behavior of a swept-wing aircraft in transonic research. North American’s F-86 Sabre furnished the Air Force with an operational sweptwing fighter/fighter bomber airplane. The Sabre and the Skyrocket complemented one another in swept-wing research.

The capabilities of the two were not equal, for the F-86 was simply a fighter airplane with its armament removed and instrumentation installed, while the D-558-2s were research airplanes from the start. Handling qualities data were obtained from both aircraft and comparisons were made. The F-86 flew as chase plane for the Douglas D-558-2 series flights.

The North American F-86D and F-86E flew at the NASA High-Speed Flight Station in December of 1958. These flights were research flights for handling qualities studies of a sweptwing fighter aircraft.

Whether as Air Force or NACA aircraft the North American F-86 Sabres served as chase aircraft or research tools gathering data. One was a chase plane for flight 39 of the Bell Aircraft X-1-1 when a rocket take-off was made from the ground on January 5, 1949; A North American F-86D Sabre Dog was used as a chase for the Bell Aircraft X-1A flights; and as already mentioned the F-86 flew chase for the Douglas D-558-2s.

The North American F-86 Sabre used a General Electric J47-GE engine. The A and F models had a fuselage length of 37 feet 6 inches, with a 35 degree sweptback wing and a wing span of 37 feet 1 inch.