North American YF-95

The North American YF-95A-NA 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 lbf (24 kN) 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, a clamshell canopy, enlarged tail surfaces with an AN/APG-36 all-weather radar fitted in a radome above the nose intake. Later models of the F-86D received an uprated J-47-GE-33 engine rated at 5,550 lbf (25 kN) static thrust (from the F-86D-45 production blocks onward.) A total of 2,504 D-models were built.

Sources: Wagner, Ray, American Combat Planes, 2nd Edition, Doubleday & Company, Garden City, New York, 1968, pages 266–267.

Andrade, John M., U.S. Military Aircraft Designations and Serials Since 1909, Midland Counties Publications, Earl Shilton, Leicester, 1979, Pages 103–104, 106.