North American Sabreliner

American business jet

The North American Sabreliner, later sold as the Rockwell Sabreliner, is an American mid sized business jet developed by North American Aviation. It was offered to the United States Air Force (USAF) in response to its Utility Trainer Experimental (UTX) program. It was named "Sabreliner" due to the similarity of the wing and tail to North American's F 86 Sabre jet fighter. The Sabreliner was also developed into a commercial variant.

North American Aviation began development of the Sabreliner as an in house project, and in response to the UTX request for proposals, offered a military version to the USAF. UTX combined two different roles, personnel transport and combat readiness training, into the same aircraft. By 1973, North American had merged with Rockwell Standard under the name Rockwell International. In 1976 Rockwell contracted Raisbeck Engineering to redesign the wing of the Sabreliner series. The resulting Raisbeck Mark V wing was the first supercritical wing in service in the United States. The Mark V wing was combined with Garrett TFE731 turbofan engines, to create the Series 65. Sabreliner models 60 and 80 were retrofitted with the Mark V wing as the Series 60A (STC SA687NW) and Series 80A (STC SA847NW). Sabreliner production came to a close in 1981. The next year, Rockwell sold its Sabreliner division to a private equity firm which formed Sabreliner Corporation, the support organization for continuing operators. The Series 65 was the last series run and 76 of them were produced, mostly for the private market. Monsanto has the oldest continuously operating company corporate jet division starting with its purchase of a Sabreliner 40. T 39s were used in support of combat operations in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War. In late 1965 T 39s replaced Martin B 57 Canberras on flights to transport high priority cargo, such as exposed film from photoreconnaissance missions, from outlying bases to Saigon. The original Navy version, the T3J 1, redesignated T 39D after the 1962 redesignation of USN/USMC/USCG aircraft, was initially fitted with the radar system from the McDonnell F3H 1 Demon all weather fighter and used as a radar trainer for pilots of that aircraft. The T 39D aircraft was subsequently introduced into the Basic Naval Aviation Observer (NAO), later Student Naval Flight Officer (SNFO) program. Three versions of the T 39D were used throughout the 1960s, '70s, and '80s: one without radar for high altitude instrument navigation training and low altitude visual navigation training in the SNFO Intermediate syllabus; a second variant equipped with the APQ 126 radar from the LTV A 7 Corsair II for training primarily bombardier/navigators, reconnaissance attack navigators, and electronic countermeasures officers in attack aircraft; and a third variant with the APQ 94 radar for training pilots of the Vought F 8 Crusader. The T 39N and T 39G are currently used in the NFO Strike and Strike Fighter syllabi in training USN and USMC student Naval Flight Officers, as well as various NATO/allied/coalition student navigators. Foreign students also train in the T 39 in place of the Beechcraft T 1 Jayhawk during the Intermediate Jet syllabus. The Sabreliner requires a minimum crew of two and, depending on cabin configuration, can carry up to seven passengers (NA 265 through NA 265 40) or ten passengers (NA 265 60 and subsequent models). As a Navy flight training aircraft, it will typically fly with a pilot, one or two NFO instructors, and two to three student NFOs or student navigators/CSOs.