On April 4, 1949 Canada joined NATO and committed itself to supporting the aerial defense of Western Europe. In August 1949 a manufacturing agreement was signed between North America Aviation (NAA) and Canadair of Montreal to build the Sabre in Canada.
North American Aviation first flew the Sabre in October 1947. Canadair built 1,815 Sabres of which 1,183 served in the RCAF. The first six Canadian examples were designated the Canadair CL-13 Sabre Mark 1. These were identical to the NAA F-86A-5 and were powered by the 5,200-pound thrust General Electric J47-GE-13 engines. The first aircraft flew on August 9, 1950 and was piloted by A.J. "AI" Lilly. A few days later he became the first person to break the sound barrier over Canada. At the height of the Cold War, Canada provided 300 F-86 Sabres in 12 squadrons to NATO as part of the European air defense force against the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact countries. Sabres were built in 5 more versions by Canadair, the most numerous being the Mk.V and Mk.VI.