Shooting Star (Jet fighter plane)

The Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star is an early jet fighter that was designed and built by Lockheed. It was the first jet aircraft to be used operationally by the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF), flying active missions during the latter months of World War II. The P-80 has its origins in Lockheed's earlier L-133 design study, although the USAAF ultimately passed it over in favour of the competing Bell P-59 Airacomet for it being technologically unfeasible. However, after the P-59's performance proved to be lacking and the discovery of Nazi Germany's Me 262 combat jet in spring 1943, Lockheed was instructed to commence work on what would become the XP-80 in May 1943. Developed to accept the British-made Halford H-1 B "Goblin" turbojet engine, it was worked on by 128 engineers led by Clarence L. "Kelly" Johnson in what became known as the Skunk Works. Design work on the airframe started on 26 June 1943, and the first aircraft was delivered to Muroc Army Airfield only 143 days later. On 8 January 1944, the first prototype performed its maiden flight. During early flights of the P-80, multiple pilots lost their lives, including one of America's top aces, Richard Bong. By the end of 1944, 12 pre-production aircraft had been delivered to the USAAF. While two pre-production aircraft saw limited service in Italy just before the end of World War II, they never engaged in direct combat. Production of the P-80 continued after the conflict, being adopted by both the United States Navy (USN) and the newly-formed United States Air Force (USAF), the latter assigning it the designation F-80. The type was deployed widely during the opening years of the Cold War, forming part of the response to events such as the Berlin Blockade. It saw extensive combat operations during the Korean War, both as a fighter and as a photo-reconnaissance aircraft. At its height, no less than 10 USAF squadrons were operating the F-80C over Korea. However, by the end of the conflict, fighter models of the F-80 had already been withdrawn from the Korean theatre in favour of other platforms. Although the aircraft had been America's first successful turbojet-powered combat aircraft, it was designed with straight wings and thus was quickly outclassed by a new generation of swept wing fighters, such as the Soviet's MiG-15. This led to the F-80 being rapidly replaced in the air superiority role by the transonic-capable North American F-86 Sabre. The final American F-80s were withdrawn in 1959; the Chilean Air Force, the last operator of the type, retired their aircraft during 1974. Multiple derivatives of the P-80 were produced, such as the Lockheed F-94 Starfire, a twin-seat all-weather interceptor that saw action during the Korean War. Another derivative was the closely related Lockheed T-33 Shooting Star, an early jet trainer that remained in service with both the USAF and USN well into the 1980s, and a handful of examples were still operational into the twenty-first century.