North American "Sabre III" fighter

[vulture]

Has anyone here ever heard of a fighter project from North American called the
Sabre III? It was stated to have had a single GE J93 turbojet. This concept is said to have directly followed the cancelled XF-108 Rapier. Any info and images will be appreciated greatly, thanks.

Vulture

 

[overscan (PaulMM)]

No.
Clearly, one would assume that if F-86 is Sabre, F-100 is the Super Sabre (Sabre II), then Sabre III would logically be the F-107 (sometimes called Super Super Sabre or Ultra Sabre). However if we assume that the F-107 was not counted as a new generation (it was originally the F-100B) then you would be looking at a single engine fighter project with some vague Sabre ancestry around 1959/1960. Perhaps an F-107 derivative fitted with J93 instead of J75?

Of course, this is all speculation.

 

[Stargazer]

Na-212 covered a whole range of projects, including the F-107 project with ventral air intakes and the final F-107 Ultra Sabre.

As to the "Sabre III" designation, one could also argue that the P-86 and early F-86 was the first generation, the F-93 (F-86C) was the second and the F-86D (F-95) was the third... But if "Sabre III" is supposed to be post-Rapier, then it doesn't work.

Only possibility I can think of is this:

F-86/F-93 series = Sabre (I)
F-100/F-107 series = (Super) Sabre (II)
new generation = Sabre III

 

[fightingirish]

Hey folks, a drawing and some details about the North American "Sabre III" fighter study appear in Tony Butler's latest book, American Secret Projects 5: Fighters and Interceptors 1950 to 1980, on pages 336 and 337, published by Crecy in 2026.

 

[stever_sl]

Hey folks, a drawing and some details about the North American "Sabre III" fighter study appear in Tony Butler's latest book, American Secret Projects 5: Fighters and Interceptors 1950 to 1980, on pages 336 and 337, published by Crecy in 2026.

Do you have a copy? Because everywhere I've looked, it's been marked as pre-order, to be released 30 July. It's apparently an update to an earlier book...?

 

[fightingirish]

Hey @stever_sl , I have both issues.

ASP5 was delivered to me this week.

 

[overscan (PaulMM)]

Hey folks, a drawing and some details about the North American "Sabre III" fighter study appear in Tony Butler's latest book, American Secret Projects 5: Fighters and Interceptors 1950 to 1980, on pages 336 and 337, published by Crecy in 2026.

Yep, I've got the drawing. Don't have a copy of the book though.

 

[stever_sl]

Hey @stever_sl , I have both issues.
View attachment 815161
ASP5 was delivered to me this week.

May I ask where you ordered the new one? I haven't been able to find anyone who has it...

 

[overscan (PaulMM)]

Its out in the UK but not the US. So you could order from a bookshop the UK, or wait for copies to get to the US.

 

[stimpy75]

Just ordered me No 5 from Amazon for 37 Euros...already had the older one which i got 2nd hand

 

[fightingirish]

Hello folks, back to topic, here a quick summary about the North American "Sabre III" fighter study.

North American Sabre III (Air Superiority Fighter Study)
An unnumbered company-funded study (1965/66) out of Los Angeles for a single-seat, tandem-wing air superiority fighter.
Engine & Airframe: Powered by a single General Electric YJ93-3 engine equipped with a 2D variable geometry inlet. It featured all-moving wing tips.
Avionics & Armament: Armed with an internal bay for Sparrow Air-to-Air Missiles (AAM), an M61 20mm cannon located beneath the cockpit, and a 26-inch (66 cm) radar dish inside the nose.
Design Iterations:
Initial Specifications: Wingspan of 31 ft 10 in (9.70 m), length of 61 ft 5 in (18.72 m), 500 sq.ft wing area, 240 sq.ft all-moving canard area, and 10,147 lb of internal fuel.
Revised Design (Dated January 24, 1966): Shorter wingspan (24 ft 11 in) and length (56 ft 8.5 in). Gross take-off weight was set at 36,100 lb.
Performance Metrics (Revised):
Sea Level: Maximum speed of 875 mph (Mach 1.15) with a sea-level climb rate of 55,000 ft/min.
Altitude: Maximum speed of 2,110 mph (Mach 3.2) at 50,000 feet.
Acceleration: Capable of accelerating from Mach 0.8 to 2.2 in 2.5 minutes.
Legacy: The design was reconsidered in June 1971 to fit the Advanced Tactical Fighter (ATF) mission scope.

I’m holding off on posting the drawing here for now because of forum rules.
Source: American Secret Projects 5: Fighters and Interceptors 1950 to 1980, pages 336 and 337, written by Tony Butler and published by Crecy in 2026

May I ask where you ordered the new one? I haven't been able to find anyone who has it...

As I mentioned in the assigned topic earlier, I ordered this book from Aviation Megastore.