page_title: Canadair Sabre
section_title: Women's speed records
hierarchical_section_title: Canadair Sabre / Operational history / Women's speed records
caption_attribution_description: English: Jackie Cochrane in her record-setting Canadair F-86, talking with Charles E. Yeager
context_page_description: The Canadair Sabre is a jet fighter aircraft built by Canadair under licence from North American Aviation. A variant of the North American F-86 Sabre, it was produced until 1958 and used primarily by the Royal Canadian Air Force until replaced with the Canadair CF-104 in 1962. Several other air forces also operated the aircraft.
  There were two major production runs of the aircraft. The first, the Mk. 2 and Mk. 4's with just under 1,000 built, were very similar to their US counterparts, differing only in minor details. The second run, the Mk. 5's and Mk. 6's of similar numbers, were patterned on the later versions of the US Sabre with larger wings for improved maneuverability while replacing the original General Electric J47 engine with the locally-designed more-powerful Avro Canada Orenda. The Mk. 6, with a more powerful version of the Orenda, is widely considered the best of all Sabres.
  The last of the Canadair Sabres in front-line operation were in Pakistan, whose AIM-9 Sidewinder equipped Mk. 6 models were the backbone of their air force during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971. These racked up an impressive victory ratio over their Indian counterparts, which lacked missiles.
context_section_description: In 1952, Jacqueline Cochran, then aged 47, decided to challenge the world speed record for women, then held by Jacqueline Auriol. She tried to borrow an F-86 from the U.S. Air Force, but was refused. She was introduced to an Air Vice-Marshal of the RCAF who, with the permission of the Canadian Minister of Defence, arranged for her to borrow 19200, the sole Sabre 3. Canadair sent a 16-man support team to California for the attempt. On 18 May 1953, Ms. Cochran set a new 100 km speed record of 1,050.15 km/h (652.5 mph). Later on 3 June, she set a new 15 km closed circuit record of 1078 km/h (670 mph). While she was in California, she exceeded 1270 km/h in a dive, and thus became the first woman to exceed the speed of sound.
caption: Cochran in her record-setting F-86, talking with Charles E. Yeager[7]
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "Jackie Cochran in the cockpit of the Canadair F-86 with Chuck Yeager. (Photo courtesy Air Force Flight Test Center History Office)", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "96", "Image YResolution": "96", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop 7.0", "Image DateTime": "2004:01:30 21:12:49", "Image ExifOffset": "300", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "438", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "5965", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "800", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "634"}