Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star Jet Fighter

In the waning days of World War II, the US military rushed four hush-hush experimental fighters without propellers to the European front. Unbeknownst to the bewildered ground crews arming them, these Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star aircraft would usher in a new “jet age” just as revolutionary for the US Air Force as the tank was for the Army.

The P-80 started in 1944 as an ultra-secret crash program. It was to counter the German Me-262, the world’s first jet fighter and one busy slaughtering B-17’s over the Continent. Despite Lockheed Martin designing and delivering battle-worthy prototypes in just 146 days, the Shooting Star never had a chance to see combat in WWII. Which was probably just as well, since the early variants were quite unreliable. At least five test pilots were killed in XP-80 crashes, including Major Richard Bong, the top-scoring USAAF ace of the war.

Trial By Fire:

Still, by the time the Korean War broke out, many of the lethal kinks had been hammered out of America’s first true jet fighter. Even if non-fatal crashes were still too common. In the first six months of the war, P-80’s claimed 75% of enemy aircraft kills. Early in the conflict, a P-80 Shooting Star flown by Lt. Russell Brown shot down a North Korean MiG-15 - the cutting edge of jet fighter technology at the time - during the first jet-versus-jet air battle in history.

P-80 Strafing run in Korea, 1952. North Korean T-34 in the foreground.

Firepower:

Armed with six .50-caliber machine guns and up to 2,000 pounds of ordinance, Shooting Stars routinely wreaked havoc on North Korean and Chinese ground troops as well. This wasn’t without sacrifice. Approximately 30% of the total P-80 fleet were lost in Korea, 113 from ground fire and 14 shot down by enemy aircraft (usually Mig-15’s).

F80s in Korea, 1950.

Tech Demonstrator:

While soon replaced by the swept-wing F-86 at the end of the Korean conflict, the P-80 set some impressive records in its short service history. One of the jet’s most important non-combat uses was serving as a test bed for new technologies. In fact, the P-80 became the first fighter to be equipped with an ejection seat.

F-80 dropping napalm in Korea.

Setting Records:

The Shooting Star couldn’t break the sound barrier on account of its straight-wing design. However, they routinely set records for long-endurance high-speed flights just under the speed of sound. In 1947, a P-80 Shooting Star made the first transcontinental nonstop jet flight across the US, a distance of 2,457 in only 4 hours and 13 minutes at an average speed of 584 mph.

During the Berlin airlift of 1948, a squadron of the P-80 Shooting Stars were scrambled to defend the transports from Soviet Aggression. They completed the first non-stop Atlantic crossing by a single-engine jet aircraft and were on station in West Germany in less than a day.

Perhaps the Shooting Star’s most famous legacy is the venerable T-33 trainer, which directly evolved from the P-80D and remained in US service until 1997.