Wells, MN - Wells Airport

Wells airport and our F-86L Sabrejet. It came to us in 1988, but has an interesting history. 9,860 F-86's were produced in the US and Canada from 1949-1956 and were heavily used during the Korean War. Our F-86, on loan from the USAF, was orginally produced in 1953 as a F-86D. Select low use F-86's were converted to F-86L's in 1956 to include a SAGE ground attack and interceptor radar developed by MIT. Only 981 were produced and can easily be identified by the rounded nose cone. The Wells F-86D/L served at George AFB in California and was sent to GrandForks, ND in 1960. In 1962 during the Cuban Missle Crisis, F-86L's were scrambled and on alert for possible duty over Cuba. In 1965, air guard units retired the Sabrejets from active duty. F-86L's were used in Thailand until 1976 and other versions of F-86's were used by the Bolivian Air Force until 1994. There are only 6 still flying, none of them the F-86L version.