Canadair Sabre Mk.I/VI: Commonwealth Sabre Mk.30-32 in R.C.A.F., R.A.F., R.A.A.F., S.A.A.F., Luftwaffe and Foreign Service v. 2

On 22nd January 1970 a Sabre 5, serial number 23102, touched down at Trenton after a flight from Montreal-Cartierville to mark the finale of what was considered to be the "last official Sabre flight in Canada". It also meant the end of a brilliant career in its homeland of one of the finest—if not the best—day fighter aircraft of die post-war period, at least as far as its country of origin and the Royal Canadian Air Force was concerned. Having provided the major aircraft equipment of the RCAF for over twelve years as well as being utilized by several other air forces, it had played a dominant part on the stage of European air defence since 1951; and even today it is still flying in small numbers, and is expected to do so for some time to come before leaving the sky for ever. Its official retirement from RCAF service was marked by a ceremony held on 29th November 1968 at the Canadian air base of Chatham, New Brunswick. This concerned twenty-one Sabres Mk. 5, the last to remain on the RCAF inventory. The service career of this formidable fighting machine was initiated when Canada joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, thus creating the necessity to equip its Air Force with a modern day fighter which was then the sole weapon for air defence. The logical choice fell on the best aircraft the Western world had available at that time, and this was the North American F-86 Sabre. Licence production was planned in Canada by Canadair Ltd., of Montreal, and in 1949 a contract was signed between North American Aviation and Canadair to build an initial batch of 100 aircraft, these being the F-86A, which received the Canadair designation CL-13 Sabre Mk. 1. It was identical with the F-86A-5, powered by the General Electric J47-GE-13 turbojet engine, which delivered 5,200 lb. static thrust.

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