<p>The P-80, known as the F-80 after the newly independent US Air Force adopted the F for fighter designation on 1 June 1948, was the first genuinely successful American jet fighter and could, in fact, have been available earlier. Clarence L. ('Kelly') Johnson's Lockheed design team at Burbank, California, had proposed a jet fighter in 1939, only to have its L-133 design quashed by lack of an engine and by bureaucratic indifference. Pressured by wartime exigencies, the USAAF in 1943 asked Johnson to produce the XP-80, a low-wing, tricycle-gear, conventional single-seat jet fighter, in just 180 days! Put together ahead of this demanding schedule in a scant 143 days, the prototype XP-80 (44-83020), nicknamed 'Lulu Belle', was powered by a 3,000-lb (13.34-kN) thrust de Havilland-built Goblin centrifugal-flow turbojet engine.
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<p>The spinach-green XP-80 made its first flight on 8 January 1944 with Milo Burcham at its controls. Testing was undertaken on a crash basis at Muroc Dry Lake, California. By VE-Day, two P-80s were in Italy readying for combat, two had reached England, and in all no fewer than 16 examples were flying. Early P-80 accidents claimed the lives of Burcham on 20 October 1944 and of America's top ace, Major Richard I. Bong, on 6 August 1945, but the program was in all an exceedingly successful one and an improved engine was to make it more so. Developed from British technology by General Electric but manufactured by Allison, the 4,000-lb (17.79-kN) thrust J33-A-11, 5,200-lb (23.07-kN) thrust J33-A-19 and 5,400-lb (24.02-kN) thrust J33-A-25 centrifugal-flow turbojet powered the similar P-80A, P-80B and P-80C variants of the Lockheed Shooting Star.
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<p>The designation F-14A was assigned to the photo-reconnaissance version of the Lockheed fighter (F for 'foto' being changed to R for reconnaissance in 1948) which developed into the RF-80A and RF-80C, and demonstrated its mettle as an intelligence-gathering platform during the 1950-53 Korean War. The designation P-80R was used for an ultra-streamlined, one-off racing aircraft which set a speed record in the late 1940s, but was otherwise less than a full success.
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<p>Various 'odd mod' Shooting Stars were typical of the postwar spirit of innovation, but never received their own designations. One P-80A (44-84995) was fitted with an experimental, revolving gun mount while another P-80A had four 20-mm cannon in place of the six 0.5-in (12.7-mm) machine guns normally carried. A P-80A (4485042) was used to test two 20-in (50-cm) ramjet engines on the wingtips and another (44-85214) was flown with larger ramjets 30-in (76-cm) in diameter. An F-80C was literally dragged through the sky by a B-29 bomber in a towing experiment. It was a time of experimentation, but none of these ideas led anywhere.
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<p>By the late 1940s, a dozen squadrons throughout the USA and Alaska operated the F-80. Various speed and distance records demonstrated the fighter's potential. On 22 January 1946, Colonel William H. Councill flew a P-80A (44-85123) coast to coast in 4 hours 13 minutes, averaging 580.9 mph (934.8 km/h) for the 2,435.8 miles (3,919.9 km) between Long Beach, California and La Guardia, New Jersey. On 19 June 1947, Colonel Albert Boyd flew the sole P-80R (44-85200), nicknamed 'Racey', to a new world speed record of 623.8 mph (1,003.88 km/h) at Muroc Dry Lake, California. In 1949, wartime ace Colonel David Schilling began mass ferry flights of fighters across the Atlantic using the F-80, a range-stretching exercise he would later employ to full potential with the Republic F-84.
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<p>When President Truman committed United States forces to battle in Korea on 25 June 1950, F-80s such as those of the 49th Fighter-Bomber Group at Misawa AB, Japan, were abruptly hurled into combat. F-80s rapidly cleared the skies of the propeller-driven clunkers of the North Korean air force, but when the Chinese entered the war in November 1950, the Lockheed fighter was quickly outclassed by their new jet fighter, the MiG-15. In history's first jet-versus-jet action on 8 November 1950, First Lieutenant Russell Brown, flying an F-80C (49-737), was credited with a MiG-15 kill. For the remainder of the war, however, the F-80 was relegated to the air-to-ground role, in which it performed yeoman service.
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<p>There are persistent reports that the Communist side obtained a flyable F-80 during the war and used it to harass US aircraft.
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<p>F-80s were used by the US Navy under the designation TV-3 (originally TO-1) in the training role. The two-seat trainer variant, initially called TF-80C but legendary as the T-33 (US Navy TV-2), was to become more numerous than the fighter upon which it was based. The essential F-80 design was also developed into the F-94 all-weather interceptor which, for a brief period, was known as the YF-97.
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<p>By 27 July 1953 when the Korean conflict ended, the principal F-80C variant was clearly a second-line fighter, but it had made a mark. In Korea, F-80s flew 98,515 combat sorties, shot down 37 enemy aircraft including six MiG-15s, dropped 33,266 tons (30,179 tonnes) of bombs and launched 80,935 air-to-ground rocket projectiles. Total F-80 losses from enemy action numbered 143, including 14 destroyed by MiG-15s,113 claimed by ground fire, and 16 lost to unknown causes. F-80 Shooting Stars, which had once served with no fewer than 13 fighter groups (the group designation being replaced by the wing in 1951), served with Air National Guard squadrons until at least October 1955.
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<p>F-80s were provided as part of US military assistance to Latin America and served with the air forces of Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Uruguay. Numerous museum examples of the F-80 remain on public view today. Total production of fighter versions was 1,714.
<item><hi format=bold>Performance:</hi> maximum speed 594 mph (955.9 km/h) at sea level; service ceiling 46,800 ft (14,265 m); range 825 miles (1,328 km)
<item><hi format=bold>Weights:</hi> empty 8,420 lb (3,819.3 kg); maximum take-off 16,856 lb (7,645.9 kg)
<item><hi format=bold>Dimensions:</hi> span 38 ft 9 in (11.81 m); length 34 ft 5 in (10.49 m); height 11 ft 3 in (3.43 m); wing area 237.6 sq ft (22.07 m<su>2</su>)
<item><hi format=bold>Armament:</hi> six 0.5-in (12.7-mm) fixed forward-firing nose machine guns, plus provision for two 1,000-lb (454-kg) bombs and eight underwing rockets
