From 'North American F-86 Sabre', Duncan Curtiss,
Crowood Series, pp.87-89
TF-86F Two seat Sabre
On 3rd February 1953 NAA began design of a two seat F-86F,
to meet a USAF requirement for high speed T-33 trainer
replacement.
Initial construction of the NA-204 began on 8th April 1953.
The new aircraft was a modification of the F-86F-30 by
splicing in a 63" (160cm) plug into the forward fuselage
to accommodate the second cockpit. The alteration in the
CofG thus caused was corrected by moving the wing forward
by 8" (20cm).
The trainer would use a one piece clamshell canopy, rather
than the sliding type fitted to the fighter.
Armament was not fitted. One change from the fighter version
was the use of the slatted wing, rather than one with the fixed
'6-3' leading edge.
The first aircraft 52-5016, made it's first flight on December14th,
and proved to have a similar performance to the F-86F.
On 17th March 1954, NAA test pilot Joe Lynch, took off from
Nellis AFB on the aircraft's ninth flight.
Pulling into a slow roll on take-off, the aircraft crashed and
exploded, killing Lynch.
Investigations revealed that the base personnel had filled the
fuel tanks completely, rather than partially, as required by the
flight profile, the extra weight leaving the pilot no margin
for error.
On 23rd March the AF authorised the construction of a
second machine as the NA-216. The last F-86F-35 was
converted to the new configuration, with further modifications
as a result of the previous, brief, flight tests.
An extended vertical tail was installed, along with a ventral fin.
Two .50 cal guns were also installed, along with underwing
pylons, as was the slatted wing.
The aircraft,53-1228, flew for the first time on 5th August 1954,
but on 7th February 1955, the Air Force announced that no
production aircraft would be procured. Therefore, on 10th
March the aircraft was transferred to Edwards AFB for use
as a chase plane. The aircraft had a sucessful career at
Edwards, before being retired in November 1958, and
finally scrapped in March 1961.
First three pictures from the above reference,
the drawing is from
'Aircraft of the USAF', Nico Sgarlato, A&AP, 1978, page 9.
cheers,
Robin.