F-80 Shooting Star

The Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star, redesignated F-80 in 1948, is a single-seat, single-engine jet fighter designed and built by Lockheed in the United States. It was the first jet aircraft used operationally by the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF), with pre-production aircraft entering service in late 1944. It flew fighter, ground-attack and photo-reconnaissance missions in the Korean War and was the basis for the T-33 trainer and F-94 Starfire.

Development

The USAAF rejected Lockheed's 1939 L-133 study in favour of the Bell P-59, which proved only marginally faster than piston-engined fighters. After Allied intelligence identified the Me 262 in spring 1943, Wright Field tasked Lockheed with designing an airframe around the British Halford H-1B Goblin turbojet. A team of 128 engineers under Clarence L. "Kelly" Johnson began work in May 1943 in a tent-covered building that became known as the Skunk Works. The first prototype was completed on day 139. The XP-80 Lulu-Belle first flew on 8 January 1944 and reached 502 mph (808 km/h). Fuel pump failures killed Lockheed's chief test pilot in October 1944 and America's top-scoring ace in August 1945. An initial order for 1,000 P-80As followed in February 1945. Production ended in 1950 with 1,714 single-seat aircraft, 927 of them F-80Cs.

Design

The P-80 has a conventional all-metal airframe with a straight low wing, tricycle landing gear and a pressurised cockpit under a bubble canopy. It was the first operational jet fighter with its engine buried in the fuselage and the first aircraft fitted with wingtip tanks. The P-80B added an ejection seat, thinner wings with thicker skin and a stainless steel armoured engine compartment. The F-80C uses an Allison J33-A-35 turbojet rated at 4,600 lbf (20 kN), or 5,400 lbf (24 kN) with water injection. It reaches 594 mph (956 km/h) at sea level and has a service ceiling of 46,800 ft (14,300 m).

Armament

Six 0.50 in (12.7 mm) M3 Browning machine guns with 300 rounds per gun are mounted in the nose. The F-80C can also carry eight 127 mm HVAR unguided rockets or two 1,000 lb (450 kg) bombs.

Operational History

Two YP-80As flew reconnaissance missions in Italy in February and March 1945 but saw no combat. On 19 June 1947, the P-80R set a world airspeed record of 623.73 mph (1,004.2 km/h). During the Berlin Blockade, the 56th Fighter Group made the first west-to-east Atlantic crossing by single-engine jets in July 1948. The US Navy received 50 F-80Cs in 1949 as TO-1/TV-1 trainers. At the start of the Korean War, the F-80 made up about half of USAF fighter strength, and F-80Cs eventually equipped 10 squadrons. Faster MiG-15s led the F-86 Sabre to replace it in the air superiority role, and the F-80 then flew ground-attack missions. Of 368 F-80s lost in Korea, 277 were lost on combat missions. The USAF credits the F-80 with 17 aircraft destroyed in the air and 24 on the ground. US service ended in 1959. Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Uruguay received F-80Cs from 1957, and Chile retired the last examples in 1974.

Variants

• XP-80: Halford H-1B-powered prototype, one built, first flown 8 January 1944.
• P-80A/F-80A: Initial production model, 524 built, fitted with 225 US gal tip tanks.
• P-80B/F-80B: 240 built with an ejection seat, underwing rocket launchers and an improved J33 engine.
• F-80C: Main production version with the J33-A-35 engine and 260 US gal tip tanks, including 128 converted F-80As.
• RF-80A: Photo-reconnaissance version used in Korea by the 8th (later 15th) Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron.