Sabreliner sets round the world record

I was kicking around Donaldson Center in Greenville and came across a Sabreliner. The gentleman purchased it because he like them as a child, now he owns one. Not knowing much about these, I did some googling and was surprised to come up with this:

http://www.flightglobal.com/blogs/aircraft-pictures/2010/03/pictures-video-round-the-world.html

Also, seems they were the first business jets? Dumb question I know but do most jets have leading edge slats? Do these act like flaps?

http://boeing.com/history/bna/t39.htm
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Huh, what an interesting plane. A very bomber-esque window setup, and triangles down the sides. Neat. From my knowledge, usually bigger planes end up with slats and not so much on smaller ones.

Essentially, slats increase the angle of attack the wing acts at, whereas flaps generally are used to increase the camber of the wing. By increasing the AoA, lift and drag are both increased (but not in equal amounts). This in turn allows for effective control of the flight surfaces at lower velocities closer to stall. The unequal addition of lift and drag also allows aircraft with slats deployed to have shorter takeoff lengths, which, if I had to make a guess, would be what the designers of that aircraft were going for.

Flaps' generally increase the wing camber and by extension the lift coefficient. This lowers the stall speed and allows for lower landing speeds, leading to reduced landing distance.

 

When I was very very little, and fuel was very very cheap, my father had one. After all, it was a St. Louis company (hometown).

The picture below, I *think* was whatever he had around the same time as the Sabreliner. For years, I had the scale model that North American Aviation (??) gave him upon building the plane. I don't remember much of it... but here's picture of my groovy self (2 years old?) and my father's super groovy trousers! No idea what it was.
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J David,

I wonder if the plane you saw was Eddie Smith's (RIP) old Sabreliner? Don't know what became of it after he passed away. My uncle had some seat-time in the ones General Dynamics used for corporate travel. After sitting in a JetStar a couple of months ago, I asked him why G.D. went with Sabreliners. He said it was a matter of cost of operation, four engines vs. two. But if you ever have a chance to check out a JetStar...they are pretty cool for their vintage!

KevFla

 

Sabreliners are pretty neat. I think that's a 60-- burns a lot of gas!

The 65 really became a great airplane-- very efficient, good range, all around excellent performer.

Once you get past the massive fuel burn of the Sabre 40/60/80 and into something like a Sabre 65, the real problem with them is the door. Sure, it's great if you happen to ditch, but the rest of the time it's quite annoying. The tiny windows also hurt the passenger experience.

In general, pilots love Sabres, and passengers, not so much.

 

awww, baby JRR! how cute

FWIW, Sabreliner is still based in STL...at least, their corporate office is in Clayton (http://www.sabreliner.com/contact.php). as a kid they had a manufacturing facility at Lambert, across from MD's headquarters.

 

Thought I read somewhere that North American used the wings and tail from the F-86 Sabre and slightly modified them. Hence Sabreliner.