ORIGINAL: Tall Paul
The F-86 -couldn't- take off if the pilot let the airspeed get too high on the takeoff run!
A warbird Sabre ran off the end of a runway out here many years ago because of this, and hit an ice cream parlor well off the end of the runway.
Insufficient control power from the elevator to rotate the airplane if the pilot delayed and let it too fast.
I’ve seen videos of the take off roll leading to that crash. What happened is that the inexperience pilot over rotated the F-86 at low airspeed. The over rotated position of the airframe kept it from accelerating to a normal takeoff speed but the pilot realized it too late and ended up yanking it off the runway with low airspeed. It didn’t gain much altitude and ended up in the ice cream. It was so over rotated that the tail was almost hitting the runway. I also recall the runway used was short for a F-68. He should have started his rotation at about 105 knots by just gently rotating so the nose gear comes off the runway. Very sad event.