The North American F-86 Sabre was the first swept-wing jet fighter to see service in the U.S. Air Force. It was used extensively by the USAF during the Korean War and ended the war having shot down 792 Russian-built MiG-15 fighters. More than 5,500 examples of the F-86 were built in the United States and Canada during its production run. Variants of the Sabre flew with the air forces of more than 20 nations around the world.

This F-86A-1, S/N 47-615, was manufactured by North American Aviation in Inglewood, California, and delivered to the United States Air Force on 15 October 1948. It was immediately assigned to the 3345th Technical Training Group, Air Training Command, at Chanute AFB for use as a ground instructional airframe. In October 1951 it was transfered to the 3345th Technical Training Wing at Chanute. It was dropped from the active USAF inventory in July 1956 and transfered to museum status. It was placed on a display pedestal on the north edge of Rantoul in 1967.

This aircraft is on loan to Octave Chanute Aerospace Museum from the National Museum of the United States Airforce.