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North American Aviation began development of its twin jet Sabreliner in the 1950s. Military versions designated T-39 were offered to the US Air Force, indeed the Sabreliner name derives from a similarity to the wing and tail of the F-86 Sabre jet fighter, but the civilian Series 40 prototype made its first flight on 16 September, 1958 powered by two General Electric YJ85 turbojet engines. The type received its FAA type certification in April 1963.
The first production Sabreliner Series 40 had a roomier cabin seating 11 passengers and slightly better performance than the prototype. It was made mostly of aluminium alloy, had all-swept flight surfaces, conventional control surfaces plus leading edge slats. There was a large, hydraulically-operated airbrake under the forward fuselage, the nose gear had twin wheels and retracted forward, and the main gear had single wheels and retracted inwards.
Early production 40s were powered by two Pratt & Whitney JT12A-6A turbojets with 3,000 lbf thrust each. From 1966, these were replaced with PW JT12A-8 turbojets giving 10 per cent more thrust.
The seven seat Sabreliner Commander was introduced in 1971. The following year; both the standard Series 40 and the Commander were redesignated as Series 40A, with the Commander being enhanced for higher take off weight.
Series 60 was certificated in April 1967; stretched by just under one metre it could seat up to 12 passengers. The company had by this stage merged with Rockwell Standard under the name Rockwell International.
The Series 80, also known as the Series 75A, had GE CF700D-2 turbofans that provided lower noise and emissions but offered greater range. Deliveries started early 1974.
Sabreliner models 60 and 80 were retrofitted with the Mark V wing and designated as Series 60A and 80A.
In 1976 the Series 65 emerged with a supercritical Mark V wing and Garrett AiResearch TFE731-3R-1D turbofans. This was the last series run and Sabreliner production came to a close in 1981.
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| World fleet | Charter fleet | Typical pax | Cabin volume | Cruise | Range | Years | |
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| Sabreliner 40EL | ● | ● | ● | ●●●●●●●●● | ●●●●●●● | ●●●●●●●●●● | |
| Sabreliner 40 | ● | ● | ● | ●●●●●●●●● | ●●●●●●● | ●●●●●●●●●● | |
| Sabreliner 60A | ● | ● | ● | ●●●●●●●●● | ●●●●●●● | ●●●●●●●●●● | |
| Sabreliner 60EL | ● | ● | ● | ●●●●●●●●● | ●●●●●●● | ●●●●●●●●●● | |
| Sabreliner 60EX | ● | ● | ● | ●●●●●●●●● | ●●●●●●● | ●●●●●●●●●● | |
| Sabreliner 60SCELXM | ● | ● | ● | ●●●●●●●●● | ●●●●●●● | ●●●●●●●●●● | |
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| Sabreliner 60ELXM | ●● | ● | ● | ●●●●●●●●● | ●●●●●●● | ●●●●●●●●●● | |
| Sabreliner 40A | ●● | ● | ● | ●●●●●●●●● | ●●●●●●● | ●●●●●●●● | ●●●●●●●●●● |
| Sabreliner 80 | ●● | ● | ● | ●●●●●●●●● | ●●●●●●● | ●●●●●●●●●● | |
| Sabreliner 80SC | ● | ● | ● | ●●●●●●●●● | ●●●●●●● | ●●●●●●●●●● | |
| Sabreliner 80A | ● | ● | ● | ●●●●●●●●● | ●●●●●●● | ●●●●●●●●●● | |
| Sabreliner 65 | ●● | ● | ● | ●●●●●●●●● | ●●●●●●● | ●●●●●●●● | ●●●●●●●●●● |
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