It was offered to the United States Air Force (USAF) in response to its Utility Trainer Experimental (UTX) program.

North American Aviation began development of the Sabreliner as an in-house project, and in response to the UTX request for proposals, offered a military version to the USAF.

The UTX candidate, designated the T-39A, was identical in configuration to the NA-265, but when the contract was awarded and the T-39A entered production, it was powered by two Pratt & Whitney JT12A-8 turbojet engines.

North American then stretched the design by 3 feet 2 inches (0.97 m), providing greater cabin space, and marketed it as the Series 60, which was certificated in April 1967.

In late 1965 T-39s replaced Martin B-57 Canberras on flights to transport high-priority cargo, such as exposed film from photoreconnaissance missions, from outlying bases to Saigon.

[1] Being derived from the F-86, the Sabreliner is the only business jet authorised for aerobatics and is used by two California companies: Flight Research Inc. and Patriots Jet Team, for inflight upset-recovery training to reduce loss-of-control, involving full stalls, fully inverted flight, and 20-40° descents in a 2.8g envelope, within its 3g rating.

[11] Between 1993 and 1994, Osama bin Laden reportedly owned and used a former USAF T-39A, which had been converted to civilian use and refurbished at Van Nuys Airport.

There, the jet was reportedly used to ferry five Al-Qaeda operatives to Kenya to agitate tribal insurgency against US peacekeeping troops in nearby Somalia; one of the passengers was allegedly senior bin Laden deputy Mohammed Atef.

In later years, Ali testified that, in 1995, bin Laden asked him to ram the plane against that of Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak,[14] despite the aircraft having never been repaired after the Khartoum accident.