Restoring the last F-86 Sabre fighter jet

Volunteers at the Royal Aviation Museum of Western Canada will be putting the finishing touches on a restoration project for the last variant ever built in Canada of the F-86 Sabre fighter jet. 

The Sabre’s restoration is scheduled to be completed in late September and its unveiling will be part of the Winnipeg museum’s celebrations to mark its 50th anniversary. 

The fighter jet carries historical significance as serial number 1815, signifying the 1,815th and final Sabre aircraft produced by Canadair in Montreal, under licence from U.S.-based North American Aviation. 

The Manitoba museum’s Sabre, a Mark 6 built in 1958, was the last one of 225 Mark 6 models produced by Canadair. 

Aviation experts say the Mark 6s were the best Sabre jets manufactured by Canadair from 1950 to 1958. This final variant had an Orenda engine that was more powerful than those in previous Sabre models such as the Mark 5. 

“Back in the 1950s, the Sabre was one of the first fighters that allowed a bubble canopy, meaning the pilot actually sat up above the canopy rail on the airplane,” said Marsh Pettitt, the museum’s chief of restoration. 

The design meant that pilots would have a wide field of view if they turned their head around, said Pettitt, a retiree who has volunteered at the museum since 2018. “The bubble canopy would allow you, if you could twist yourself in that seat, to look behind you.” 

Pettitt’s career included being stationed in the air force at Trenton, Ont. He piloted Hercules aircraft and F-18 fighter jets, and he served as a flight instructor in Moose Jaw, Sask., where he flew the Tutor. 

With aviation still very much in his veins, he takes pride in the restoration of the Sabre. The plane has suffered corrosion and weather damage from many Winnipeg winters. 

“Mother Nature was beating it up where it was sitting, and we couldn’t take it anymore,” Pettitt said with a laugh. 

It will be a major accomplishment to fully restore the plane to resemble its former lustre in appearance, even though it won’t be capable of flying. 

The Sabre project is also a nod to the 100th anniversary of the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF). The museum opened a temporary gallery in March devoted to commemorating the RCAF centennial, with displays such as paintings for public viewing until mid-August. 

Established as the Western Canada Aviation Museum in July 1974, Queen Elizabeth awarded the “Royal” designation in 2014, when it was renamed the Royal Aviation Museum of Western Canada. The old museum on Ferry Road closed in 2018 and relocated. The new building opened in May 2022, at Winnipeg’s Richardson International Airport. 

For more than a year, volunteers have been meticulously restoring the jet, section by section, inside a rented warehouse located near the airport. Plans call for the jet to be painted in the livery of the RCAF’s 441 tactical fighter squadron. 

“As it turns out, it’s fantastic. We now have been able to save and to restore our Sabre,” said museum president Terry Slobodian. 

Sabre jets were crucial to the RCAF and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) during the Cold War, especially in the 1950s and early 1960s. They were also used by various air forces globally. 

The Canadair CF-104 Starfighter replaced the F-86 Sabre in the early 1960s. 

Jet number 1815 has taken a circuitous route over the decades, flying in Germany for NATO initially. It would later be diverted to Iran and then to the Pakistan Air Force (PAF). The PAF had stored the jet outdoors, before donating it to the museum in 1996. 

As of late July, the museum’s team of 34 volunteers had put in a total of nearly 5,000 hours on the Sabre project. “They’re always working on something,” said Slobodian. 

After the Sabre’s restoration is done, it will be moved from the warehouse to the museum’s “Military Skies” zone, where a Starfighter is already on display. 

Previous restoration projects at the museum include the Canadair CL-84 Dynavert, finished in 2021, and the CF-AWR Bellanca Aircruiser, completed in 2022. 

The museum obtained its CL-84 in the 1970s and the Aircruiser in 1985, so it took decades before they got to the front of the queue of the project priorities, said Slobodian. 

The unveiling of the restored Sabre will follow several key events held recently at the Winnipeg museum. In mid-July, for example, the Mynarski Memorial Lancaster paid a visit to Winnipeg for a couple of days, on loan from the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum at Munro Hamilton International Airport in Ontario. 

Looking ahead, there will be a travelling exhibit of Snoopy and the Red Baron, courtesy of the Charles M. Schulz Museum in California. That three-month exhibit is slated to open in Winnipeg on Oct. 6.