Blackpool F86 (xb733) on Lancashire farm- any leads?

Well well! Taken where though? Certainly looks Stateside, but I still stand by the statements above regarding drone use.

…but one should never say ‘never’!

🙂

Mojave. I suspect it’s only use was for any useable parts (which could include panels etc)

Discussed previously here:

http://forum.keypublishing.com/showthread.php?114348-Historic-airframes-preserved-then-lost-again/page5

Well well! Taken where though? Certainly looks Stateside, but I still stand by the statements above regarding drone use.

…but one should never say ‘never’!

🙂

Sabrejet,

There is a picture of it in Michael O’Leary’s Osprey ‘Sabre’ book, taken in the US subsequent to the auction. It has been positively identified beyond any possible shadow of a doubt as the same aircraft.

hi,
yes this was with Refectair at Blackpool, also VP441? Seafire, and NX611 Lancaster,

regards
jack…

I’d like to correct a great deal of misinformation regarding this aircraft.

First off, its owner at Plock’s/Dandy’s Farm in Much Hoole had taken care to look after it, and aside from some repairs carried out prior to his ownership (fabriced-over evidence of a belly landing whilst in AMI service), it was a very original aircraft, with no evidence of the ‘full of concrete’ statements often made of it.

I sat in this aircraft in the barn at Much Hoole and can confirm that the cockpit looked 100% complete, it still had its engine installed, and looked for all the world like a project just begging to fly.

Following the Duxford auction the aircraft (unsold) travelled back to Much Hoole and was subsequently purchased from Tom Bracewell by persons unknown.

However, it seems unlikely that it ever travelled anywhere for use “…as part of the QF-86 drone programme”. For one – the USN QF-86F programme had more than enough (free of charge) F-86Fs to use, the FSI/Tracor QF-86E programme likewise for its donor Canadair Sabres. Secondly, being a J47-engined aircraft, G-ATBF would have had little appeal to FSI, which was converting Orenda-engined Sabre 5s. Again, the USN had enough surplus F-86Fs for their programme, so why buy one?

Moreover, I know a great many people who were involved in both QF-86E and QF-86F programmes, and none of them had ever heard of it (and confirmed the above train of thought) – and it certainly would have been something to talk about, painted as it was in ‘Luftwaffe’ colours (as was the Japanese ASDF F-86F which briefly flew in JASDF markings at the start of the QF-86F programme!).

I did try approaches at the time via Tom Bracewell (he couldn’t recall who collected it!) and the auction house – all to no avail.

My personal view is that the aircraft stayed in the UK and either survives with a secretive owner (we do live in hope), or more likely was scrapped at the time, or bought by a well-meaning soul, who also scrapped it, daunted by the prospect. Sad to say, even in the 1980s, Sabres were not given great value on this side of the pond.

Duncan

Just come across this thread when I was considering starting up a new one on “The Ones That Got Away”.

Here’s some shots of G-ATBF which date from 1969 (a very cold, misty day I can tell you) and the Duxford auction of 1984 … I’d love to know if there is any DEFINITE proof of what happened to it.

So it seems that my old grey matter is not entirely unreliable!

The wheels filled with concrete seems a credible explanation for the ‘fuselage filled with concrete’ stories.

Recall it was south of the Ribble, around Bretherton – IIRC – in a front garden, rather than on a farm – though the garden could have belonged to the farmhouse. I worked on the mobile library and it was amazing what you can see along country lanes from such a high vantage point! It was not in good condition then and I recall being told the tyres had been filled with concrete to keep them “inflated”!

I think she can now be called ‘dead’ in light of the picture verification and lack of any new sighting in the U.S.

Asked this question a while ago. It wasn’t in the best of health when I saw it, so I don’t think it would have yielded many spares.

First pic is when it was on the farm, second one ‘assembled at Duxford for an auction a couple of years later. It didnt sell IIRC.

The aircraft was reported in one of the Osprey series on the F-86 Sabre. It was shown being used as part of the QF-86 drone programme in the U.S.
I suspect that at the time it was for sale(1984) Flight Systems were actively scouring the world for Canadair Sabres and this machine fitted the bill.