North American YF-95

The North American YF-95 was a night-fighter development of the F-86 Sabre, the first aircraft designed around the new 2.75-inch FFAR (Fin-Folding Aerial Rocket) also known as the Mighty Mouse. Begun in March 1949, the unarmed prototype, serial 50-577, first flew on December 22, 1949 piloted by North American test pilot George Welch and was the first U.S. Air Force night-fighter design with only a single crewman and a single engine, a J47-GE-17 with afterburner rated at 5,425 lb. static thrust. Gun armament was eliminated in favor of a retractable under-fuselage tray carrying 24 unguided Mk. 4 rockets, then considered a more effective weapon against enemy bombers than a barrage of cannon fire. A second prototype, serial 50-578, was also built, but the YF-95 nomenclature was short-lived as the design was subsequently redesignated YF-86D.

The fuselage was wider and the airframe length increased to 40 feet 4 inches, with clamshell canopy, enlarged tail surfaces, and AN/APG-36 all-weather radar fitted in a radome in the nose, above the intake. Later models of the F-86D received an uprated J-47-GE-33 engine rated at 5,550 lb. static thrust (from the F-86D-45 production blocks onward.) A total of 2,504 D-models were built.

Related development
F-86 Sabre Comparable aircraft
MiG-15 Fagot

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