Lockheed F-80 Shooting Star
The Lockheed F-80 Shooting Star was the first jet fighter used operationally by the United States Army Air Forces. Designed by Clarence "Kelly" Johnson's Skunk Works team in 1943 and flown on 8 January 1944, it set its single British Goblin engine in mid-fuselage behind a nose carrying six machine guns, and it reached service too late to see combat in the Second World War. Redesignated F-80 when the Air Force became a separate service, it was the Air Force's first front-line jet in Korea, where Lt. Russell Brown was credited with downing a MiG-15 on 8 November 1950 in what the Smithsonian calls the first all-jet air-to-air combat, a claim Soviet records dispute. Outclassed as a fighter by swept-wing jets, it spent most of its career attacking ground targets. Sources count production differently — 1,731 built by Pima's reckoning, 1,714 production aircraft by Wikipedia's — the last American examples were withdrawn in 1959, and Chile, the final operator, kept its aircraft until 1974.
Why It Mattered
The Lockheed F-80 Shooting Star was the first jet fighter the United States used operationally: the Smithsonian calls its prototype the first operational turbojet fighter produced in the United States. In 1943, with American bombers taking losses to German interceptors and the Messerschmitt Me 262 approaching service, the Army Air Forces asked the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation to develop a combat jet. Clarence "Kelly" Johnson's team began work on 21 June 1943 in a corner of the Burbank plant walled off with engine crates and a circus tent, a hideaway someone nicknamed the "Skunk Works". The prototype, nicknamed Lulu Belle, was ready to fly in 143 days and flew on 8 January 1944. Six years later the type opened America's jet age in combat over Korea, where the Smithsonian credits an F-80C pilot with the victory in the first all-jet air-to-air combat.
Design Notes
Johnson set the British Halford H-1B Goblin engine in the middle of the fuselage, where it could draw air through narrow intakes on both sides, several feet aft of the nose. That left the nose free for six .50 caliber machine guns, and unusually for an experimental aircraft, the prototype flew with all six guns installed from the outset. The imported engine was an expedient: for production, General Electric supplied a new, larger turbojet, the I-40, and the two XP-80A prototypes built around it added a pressurized cockpit and a bigger fuselage. The I-40 line led to the Allison J33 that powered production aircraft; Pima's specification panel lists the J33-A-35 at 4,600 pounds of thrust. The wing stayed straight, in the piston-engine tradition, and the P-80B was the first model fitted with an ejection seat. Wikipedia notes that the straight wing left the type quickly outclassed once swept-wing fighters appeared.
Operational History
The first service-test YP-80As flew on 12 September 1944, and the Army Air Forces sent two each to England and Italy. The two sent to Italy saw limited service but never engaged in combat; there were never enough production aircraft or trained crews to equip a front-line squadron. The hurried program cost lives: among the pilots killed in P-80s were Lockheed's test pilot Milo Burcham and Major Richard I. Bong, America's top ace. After the war the P-80 became, in the Smithsonian's words, a fine, reliable frontline fighter, redesignated F-80 when the Air Force became a separate service. Production is counted differently: Pima Air & Space Museum gives 1,731 built, while Wikipedia counts 1,714 production aircraft delivered before conversions. In Korea the F-80 was the Air Force's initial front-line fighter until the MiG-15's arrival brought the F-86 Sabre to the theatre. On 1 November 1950 the Soviet pilot Semyon Khominich was credited with the first jet-versus-jet kill, an F-80 the Americans said was downed by flak. A week later, Lt. Russell J. Brown reported downing a MiG-15 — the first American claim of a jet-versus-jet victory. Soviet records say no MiG was lost that day; the Smithsonian records it as the first all-jet air-to-air combat. F-80 pilots were credited with six MiG-15s in all, and at its height ten USAF squadrons operated the F-80C over Korea. Most of its work was against the ground — Pima notes the type saw most of its service as a ground support aircraft — escorting B-29s and flying as a fighter-bomber, and by the end of hostilities only photo-reconnaissance variants still flew there. The Navy also took 50 F-80s to acquaint its land-based Navy and Marine squadrons with jet aircraft; in Navy service they were designated TV-1.
Afterlife
The final American F-80s were withdrawn in 1959, after final years in training and Air National Guard units. Exported F-80s flew on in Latin America: Vintage Aviation News lists Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Uruguay, many serving well into the 1970s, and Chile, the last operator, retired its aircraft in 1974. Its two-seat derivative, the T-33 trainer, far outlived it: Wikipedia counts 6,557 T-33s built, in production until 1959. The prototype survived: the Air Force transferred Lulu Belle to the Smithsonian in 1949, and after some 4,841 man-hours of work it was completely restored by May 1978 and displayed in the museum's Jet Aviation gallery. In 2019 the museum moved it back into storage for its Washington renovations, and the Smithsonian now lists the aircraft as not on display. Other Shooting Stars sit in museums across the United States — Pima Air & Space Museum displays a P-80B, serial 45-8612 — and restoration continues: in April 2024 a former Navy TV-1 arrived at the March Field Air Museum in California to be restored.