On 28th February 1946, the Army Air Force approved the swept wing XP-86 mock-up and in August basic engineering drawings were made available to the manufacturing division of North American to cut metal for the new aircraft. The Air Force was so impressed with the projected performance that a letter contract was awarded to North American on 20th December 1946 to build thirty three production P-86As. No YP-86s were built. On 1 st October P-86A, the XP-86, took off for the first time. On 14th November 1947, a tracking theodelite at Muroc Dry Lake Army Base, now known as Edwards AFB, revealed the XP-86 had achieved Mach 1.02 and 1.03 on two successive dives.This information was immediately classified and would remain a secret for almost fifty years.
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