Evans, Andy Real to Replica. Red Series. Volume 11: American Harrier

The North American F-86 Sabre was undoubtedly one of the greatest fighter aircraft of all time, ranking alongside aircraft such as the Fokker D.VII, the Sopwith Camel, the Supermarine Spitfire, the Messerschmitt Bf 109, the Focke Wulf Fw 190, the Mitsubishi Zero and the North American P-51 Mustang. It entered service with the USAAF in 1949 and played a key role in denying communist forces air superiority during the Korean War. After the end of the Korean War, many Sabres were put into service with dozens of foreign air forces and became the most important fighter aircraft of many Allied nations. It was built under licence in Canada, Japan, Italy and Australia. Its service life was so long that the last operational F-86 was not withdrawn from service until 1993, which is probably a record for a fighter aircraft. Its success led to an extended production run of more than 7,800 aircraft between 1949 and 1956 in the United States, Japan and Italy. Variants were built in Canada and Australia. The Canadair Sabre added another 1,815 aircraft, and the significantly redesigned CAC Sabre (sometimes known as the Avon Sabre or CAC CA-27) was produced in a quantity of 112. With a total production of 9,860 units of all variants, the Sabre is by far the most widely built Western jet fighter aircraft. In addition, 738 aircraft carrier-modified versions were purchased by the US Navy as the FJ-2 and -3 Fury. As the title Real to Replica suggests, there is also a section on how to build the F-86 in common model scales, making this book an ideal resource for both enthusiasts and model builders.