Drone converted F-86s and F-100s

The operational histories of the F-86 Sabre and F-100 Super Sabre jet fighters have been well-documented in the literature with emphasis on not just their wartime combat careers but also operational use by foreign air arms around the world, including US allies. However, lost in talk regarding the F-86 and F-100 is the fact that these iconic jet fighters were also specially used as drones to give pilots and Army personnel experience against real aerial targets after the US Air Force retired the F-86 and F-100 from active combat duty.

The first QF-86E prototype (civil registration N74170) in Mojave, California, after completing its first flight in May 1975. This aircraft was built under license by Canadair as a Sabre Mk. 5 with RCAF serial number 23320. 

In 1973, while attending a Targets Conference at Point Mugu, California, Bob Laidlaw, a graduate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) with an advanced degree in Aeronautical Engineering and the founder of the Newport Beach-based company Flight Systems Inc. (FSI), investigated the idea of modifying vintage F-86 Sabre jet fighters into pilotless drone targets. In December, FSI submitted an initial proposal for a drone-converted F-86 to the US Army Target Branch in Huntsville, Alabama, and a contract was immediately signed for development of a proof-of-concept F-86 target drone. Laidlaw secured a purchase option on a lot of 55 ex-Royal Canadian Air Force Canadair Sabre Mk. 5 aircraft owned by Dave McEwen, a native of Moncton in New Brunsvick, Canada, and in 1974 one Sabre Mk. 5 (RCAF 23320) was acquired by FSI from McEwen to be modified into a proof-of-concept Sabre drone, and it received the civil registration N74170 after arriving at Mojave. In June 1974, another ex-RCAF Sabre Mk. 5 (RCAF 23096) which had been used by Boeing as a chase plane for airliner test flights and bore the civil registration N8686F while in that role until its replacement by a Sabre Mk. 5 with Sabre Mk. 6 wings (ex-RCAF 23363) was acquired by FSI and ferried from Seattle to Mojave, receiving civil registration N74180 and becoming the second Sabre drone prototype. The designation QF-86E was assigned to these two Sabre Mk. 5s, and in February 1975, FSI personnel began modifying N74170 with remote flight control systems while creating as very little modification to the basic airframe of the aircraft as possible, and after being fitted with these systems, N74170 made its first flight in April, when conversion of N74180 to a target drone began. In May-June 1975, the QF-86E prototypes were transferred to Holloman AFB in New Mexico for range integration testing, and after the two aircraft completed 60 flight hours of full-scale target presentations, the US Army awarded FSI a production contract for the QF-86E. Beginning in late 1976, several Canadair Sabre Mk. 5s were converted by FSI to QF-86E production standard, being fitted with a transponder, an interface control unit, a flight control and autopilot system, flight Termination set, a maneuver programmer, a television camera, and mission-related systems, and deliveries of QF-86Es to the US Army's White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico began in mid-1977. More than fifty production QF-86Es were delivered to the US Army, including the one Sabre Mk. 6 (ex-RCAF 23454, ex-N186F) that had been acquired in the early 1970s by Laidlaw, and they retained the RCAF serials on their vertical stabilizers despite being given a new paint scheme. A great majority of QF-86Es were destroyed by surface-to-air weapons, with the first anti-aircraft kill against a QF-86E being scored on October 12, 1978 with a Patriot SAM, and the Army ended the QF-86E drone program in June 1986.

Left: Four QF-100Ds and one QF-100F lined up in a row at Tyndall AFB in western Florida, April 25, 1990.
Right: QF-100D serial number 56-1341 on outdoor display at the Planes of Fame Museum, photographed by me on April 13, 2019.

Just two years after the US Army began operating the QF-86E, in August 1979 Sperry Flight Systems was awarded a contract to convert nine F-100s into target drones and evaluate them as replacements for the QF-102/PQM-102 drone conversion of the F-102 Delta Dagger, with eight F-100Ds (serial numbers 55-3610, 55-3669, 56-2912, 56-2978, 56-2979, 56-3048, 56-3324, and 56-3414) and a single F-100F (serial number 56-3984) designated QF-100D and QF-100F respectively. The first two F-100Ds to be converted into drones were designated YQF-100D and fitted with cockpit controls so that they could be flown by pilots for system evaluation, and the other six F-100Ds were modified to standard US Air Force target configuration and Army requirements, while the F-100F chosen for conversion became QF-100F. Takeoff of a QF-100 drone was directed by two ground-based controllers positioned at the end of the runway. Once airborne, the drone was handed off to a third controller sitting in a fixed-base ground station and a dual redundant system was used to get the drone to the mission area and to select the maneuvers, which were pre-programmed into on-board computers. If the drone survived the mission, it was flown back to the handover point, where the two controllers at the end of the runway brought it back in for a landing. The YQF-100D first flew from Tyndall AFB in northwest Florida on November 19, 1981, and after successful flight trials of the QF-100, Sperry was contracted to convert 99 additional F-100Ds and F-100Fs to QF-100 configuration, with deliveries to the USAF's Tactical Air Command being made in late 1983. In May 1984, FSI received a contract to modify 209 F-100Ds and F-100Fs as QF-100Ds and QF-100Fs, and the first QF-100s to be made by FSI were delivered in mid-1985. Sperry finished QF-100 conversions in April 1985, while FSI's conversions of its F-100Ds and F-100Fs to QF-100s until the end of the 1980s. The QF-100s themselves sported a bright red-orange paint scheme and had a few extra blade antennas for the transmission and reception of radio signals from remote-controllers on the ground. Each QF-100 drone had a lifetime of  ten flights before being destroyed, and the QF-100s were flown over the Gulf of Mexico and used as live firing targets for F-15 and F-16 training. Many were shot down with air-to-air missiles fired by the F-15 and F-16, and some either crashed on landing or lost in flight for other reasons. The last QF-100 flight was made in July 1992, and the remaining QF-100s went back to the boneyard at Davis-Monthan AFB, by which time the US Air Force was deploying the QF-106 drone conversion of the F-106 Delta Dart.

Left: A QF-86H (serial number 52-5747) in flight, 1972.
Right: QF-86H serial number 53-1351 on outdoor display at the Planes of Fame Museum, photographed by me on April 13, 2019.

The US Army was not alone in using F-86 drone conversions as live firing targets for training aircrews flying more modern aircraft. In the early 1970s the US Navy acquired about three dozen retired F-86Hs which were converted into target drones under the designation QF-86H, and it used those aircraft for target practice by Navy fighter pilots at NAS Point Mugu and NWC China Lake in southern California. Some of the QF-86Hs were shot down with anti-aircraft, and others were retired by the end of the 1970s or lost in accidents, with a few now on static display at museums. In addition, more than 130 F-86Fs formerly operated by the Japan Air Self-Defense Force (including five license-built by Mitusbishi) were modified into target drone aircraft with the designation QF-86F, and deliveries to US Navy units began in 1980, with more than 20 F-86Fs formerly used by Japan and other US allies being used as spare parts for the QF-86F fleet. During the 1980s and continuing into the early 1990s, the QF-86Fs were used for target practice by Navy fighter pilots at NAS Point Mugu and NWC China Lake, and several were destroyed by air-to-air missiles or lost in accidents. By 1993, the last QF-86Fs were retired from service, and a few have been donated to museums. The QF-86H with serial number 53-1351 that I've seen at the Planes of Fame Museum happens to include a few components from F-86H serial number 52-2074, possibly because when 53-1351 was retired and stripped of several non-vital parts, the latter Sabre had a few parts of its derelict airframe used to restore 53-1351. 

References:

Curtis, D., 2001. North American QF-86E/F/H/Sabre Full Scale Aerial Targets. Simi Valley, CA: Ginter Books.

Doug, J., 2011. "QF-100: The Final Hun." The Intake 1 (17): 20-26. (PDF link here)

Johnsen, F.A., 2024. Q-Birds: American Manned Aircraft as Drones. Manchester, UK: Hikoki Publications.