Air International 1994-08
R.Dorr - Lockheed F-80. A Star is Born
Formation of four P-80As, the aircraft in the foreground, 44-85474 is a P80A-5; one of the first batch of 500 Shooting Stars ordered.
F-80C-10-LO of the 25th Fighter Interceptor Squadron, 51st Fighter Interceptor Wing, at Suwon AB, Korea in mid 1951 shortly before the 51st FIW converted to the F-86 Sabre. Four squadrons of F-80s were in the Far East when the Korean War began.
Lockheed F-80A Shooting Star
Outwardly almost indistinguishable, the aircraft in the centre 45-8499 is an P-80B and the other two are P-80A models. In fact the P-80B contained some 65 design changes from the P-80A-5 model, including a thinner wing, armour shielding around the engine and provision for JATO boosters.
P-80Bs at the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation flight test base at Van Nays, California, in 1947 awaiting delivery to the Air National Guard.
The Acrojets (Acrobatics and jet planes) were the first ‘official’ USAF jet aerobatic team and comprised P-80Bs flown by instructor pilots from the Fighter School, Yuma AFB.
Classic lines of the P-80 are illustrated in this portrait of P-80B-1-LO 45-58480, the third production P-80B seen with its air brake deployed.
Sheila III is P-80A-1-LO 44-85093, one of a batch which appeared at the Washington DC National Airport for an Army Air Forces air show on May 19, 1946.
F-80B 47-551, of the 66th Fighter Squadron, taxiing in snow in February 1950. The trim on tail and outer wing panels is the USAF's Arctic red, while the squadron colour on nose, wing tips and mid-fuselage is green.
Первый XP-80 (на фотографии) поднялся в воздух 8 января 1944 года, он был оснащен выпускавшимися "de Havilland" ТРД Halford НВ.1B Goblin тягой 10,94 кН. Последующие два XP-80A оснащались двигателями General Electric I-40 тягой по 17,79 кН. Машины были больше и на 25% тяжелее предшественника, а также имели перепроектированные воздухозаборники и топливные баки на законцовках крыла.
Spinach-green prototype XP-80, 44-83020 nicknamed Lulu Belle, made its first flight on January 8, 1944, in the hands of the company test pilot Milo Burcham.
US Navy TO-1 was used by the Navy and Marine Corps to introduce naval aviators to fast-jet flying in the early 1950s
Finished in what the manufacturer described as "skim-milk grey in color", P-80A-1-LO 44-85044 competed in the 1946 Thompson Trophy races. This aircraft was also used to test an experimental, revolving gun mount.
F-80C 49-879, of the 8th Fighter Bomber Wing, carrying wing tip fuel tanks and two bombs on a combat mission during the Korean War.
Lockheed F-80B Shooting Star
The general arrangement drawings depict: A - the XP-80 as first flown; B - the P-80C (side plan and head-on view); C - scrap view of the original wing tip tanks; D - scrap view of the later Fletcher-type tip tanks; E - the RF-80.
The seventh P-80A 44-84998, was converted to F-14A reconnaissance configuration, with cameras in the extended nose. The type was successively redesignated FP-80A and then RF-80A.