World War II Database

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

ww2dbaseThe American work on the jet fighter, the first of which was the XP-80 project led by Clarence L. "Kelly" Johnson of Lockheed Corporation, began in earnest in mid-1943 after the discovery of the German progress in the same field. US Army Air Forces chief Henry Arnold suggested that the Lockheed airframe could be developed to accept the British Halford H-1 B (shortly after named de Havilland Goblin) turbojet engine, as the British were ahead of the Americans in jet engine research at the time. The first airframe was delivered in Nov 1943, and a Goblin engine was brought to California, United States to be mated with the airframe. Foreign object damage destroyed the first engine, and a second engine was rushed from Britain so that the work could continue. The first prototype, "Lulu-Belle" or "Green Hornet", powered by the second engine, took a successful flight on 8 Jan 1944 with Milo Burcham at the controls. The second prototype variant, designated XP-80A, was designed for the larger American-made General Electric I-40 engine. Two aircraft of this second prototype variant were built, "Gray Ghost" and "Silver Ghost". On 20 Oct 1944, test pilot Burcham was killed flying the third YP-80A prototype. Then, on 20 Mar 1945, "Gray Ghost" was lost in an accident; although test pilot LeVier was able to bail out, he broke his back on the parachute landing, necessitating a six-month recovery time. Four pre-production YP-80A fighters were sent to Europe for operational testing, two to Britain and two to Italy. One of the two sent to Britain crashed at RAF Burtonwood in England, United Kingdom on 28 Jan 1945, killing Major Frederic Borsodi. The two sent to Italy saw front line service as reconnaissance aircraft, flying such missions in Feb and Mar 1945. None of them would see combat before the end of the European War in May 1945. The greatest speed that the prototypes achieved was 808 kilometers per hour (502 miles per hour). Beginning in late Jun 1945, several P-80A aircraft were transferred to the United States Navy; they were further modified with arrestor hooks for operations aboard carrier USS Franklin D. Roosevelt beginning in late 1946. 83 production P-80 aircraft were delivered by the end of Jul 1945. In Aug 1945, Major Richard Bong was killed in a production P-80 aircraft, with a fuel pump failure that took place too close to the ground.

ww2dbaseAfter the war, P-80 jet fighters served in Europe at the start of the Cold War. In 1948, they were redesignated F-80 jet fighters of the United States Air Force. In 1949, US Navy received F-80C aircraft from the US Air Force; US Navy initially designated them TO-1, but this was later changed to TV-1 in 1950. F-80 Shooting Star jet fighters saw extensive combat during the Korean War, with satisfactory results against Soviet-supplied North Korean Yak-9 and Il-10 aircraft. F-80 jet fighters were superseded by North American Aviation's F-86 Sabre jet fighter, which entered production in 1949, and Lockheed's F-94 Starfire jet fighter, which entered production in 1950.

ww2dbaseProduction of this design ended in 1950. By that time a total of 1,714 single-seat P-80/F-80 jet fighters were built. The related two-seat trainer TF-80C/T-33 saw a higher production number of 6,557.

ww2dbaseThe US Air Force made F-80 Shooting Star aircraft obsolete in 1950, and they were later made available to Latin American forces friendly to the United States: Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Uruguay. In the 1970s, F-80 fighters in these Latin American forces, as well as those in service with the US Navy, were retired from service. The related T-33 Shooting Star trainer aircraft would remain in service with both the US Air Force and the US Navy until the 1980s.

P-80 Shooting Star Timeline

SPECIFICATIONS

F-80C

Machinery	One Allison J33-A-35 centrifugal compressor turbojet engine rated at 4600 lbf (20.46 kN) / 5400 lbf (24.02 kN) with water injection
Armament	6x12.7mm AN/M3 Browning machine guns, 8x127mm unguided rockets, 2x454kg bombs
Crew	1
Span	11.81 m
Length	10.49 m
Height	3.43 m
Wing Area	22.07 m²
Weight, Empty	3,819 kg
Weight, Loaded	5,738 kg
Weight, Maximum	7,646 kg
Speed, Maximum	965 km/h
Speed, Cruising	660 km/h
Rate of Climb	23.30 m/s
Service Ceiling	14,000 m
Range, Normal	1,930 km

Photographs