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In developing jet-powered aviation technology, Germany was at least a year earlier of the Allies. In response to the German lead, the Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star was designed. But the US Air Force immediately started on the next generation of jet fighters. Like the German Me-262, the wing sweep of the North American F-86 Sabre was 35 percent, and the fuselage was elegantly streamlined. The XP-86 prototype had its first flight on October 1, 1947, piloted by WWII Pearl Harbor pilot George Welsh. The F-86 Sabre was not just America's first swept-wing fighter, but also the world's fastest fighter when it entered USAF service in 1949. From 1953 to 1956, the RAF operated roughly 430 Canadian-built Sabres out of a total manufacturing run of over 9,800 aircraft.