P-80 Shooting Star - America's WW2 Combat Jet

[Music] when we think about high-tech aircraft in world war ii it is always the german ones that tend to come to mind the messerschmitt 262 the heinkel 163 comet or the 162 fox jaeger but what about the allies were they really a step behind the third reich when it came to jets well no the british had actually invented the first turbojet engine created by raf officer frank whittle in 1930. whittle had gone on to build the gloucester e-2839 the first allied jet engine aircraft that first flew in 1941. only two prototypes were built but from it was developed the gloucester meteor the only allied jet to see combat in world war ii the first american jet fighter was the bell p-59 era comet that entered service in october 1942. although 66 were built the era comet was not used operationally in fact when tested by the raf they found it to be inferior to the new meteor the error comet was instead used to train jet fighter pilots leaving service in 1950 it is a fact that jet aircraft design was one area where the americans lagged far behind the british and the germans but they closed the gap with a new aircraft design the p80 the p80 was to be the next generation american jet and it was to be the only us turbo jet aircraft to see service in the combat area in world war ii [Music] developed by lockheed it was the only allied jet of world war ii to have the engine mounted within the fuselage what drove the development of the p80 was the allies discovery of the new german messerschmitt 262 which came to allied attention in spring 1943. the u.s decided to use existing british jet research and also decided to fit the new plane with the british halford h-1b goblin jet engine to give the p-80 a performance that could match the 2-6-2 the americans began work on the p80 in may 1943 a research and development program without the engine which was not yet available from the uk the problem for the americans was that they were playing catch-up the germans and the british were far ahead and had already built the 262 and the meteor working around the clock lockheed's skunk works team of 130 engineers and technicians created the first p-80 prototype named lulu bell in early 1944. powered by a british goblin engine lulu bell first flew on the 8th of january 1944. british jet data given freely by the uk government had proved vital to the p80 success in tests lulu bell exceeded 500 miles per hour in level flight at 20 000 feet two more prototypes were built to take the new us-developed general electric i-40 engine but american test pilots disliked the new engine preferring the british goblin two of the prototypes were lost in accidents entering pre-production with an improved american engine as the yp80a 12 were built one being destroyed in an accident the 13th was configured as an f-14 photo reconnaissance plane but was also lost in a crash in december 1944 highlighting how dangerous early jets could be the united states army air forces was very keen to get the shooting star as the p-80 was called into the war against germany [Music] and perhaps even to see combat against the german messerschmitt 262 a small unit was formed comprising just four pre-production yp80as they would be dispatched to europe in crate support ships to demonstrate the new type at usaaf and raf airfields and also to familiarize allied crews with the type and perhaps see actual combat morale among the bomber crews of the us 8th and 15th air forces needed raising as they had begun to encounter the 262 in combat a german jet able to outpace escorting u.s fighters and pose a serious threat to the lumbering b-17s and b-24s two of the new american aircraft went to england to conduct the aforementioned demonstration and familiarization flights while the other two headed for the front in italy joining the first fighter group at lesina airfield the first fighter group was flying the lockheed p-38 lightning a pair of yp-80as joined the group's 94th fighter squadron under the code name project extraversion the two aircraft sent to england arrive by ship on the 30th of december 1944 during the height of the battle of the bulge and only two days before operation borden platter the last big german air offensive of the war on the 1st of january 1945 when hundreds of luftwaffe aircraft including me262s attacked allied airfields in western europe in support of the german ground defensive unfortunately one of the yp80as was lost in a fatal crash at raf burtonwood in lancashire on the 28th of january 1945 during a demonstration flight the other aircraft was loaned to rolls-royce for use in flight tests for the new neen b-41 turbo jet engine it was destroyed in a crash landing on the 14th of november 1945. the pair of yp-80as sent to italy were faced with an interesting situation when the american jets arrived at lesina in late january 1945 the luftwaffe was already using jets of its own on the italian front base at udine in northern italy erado reconnaissance jets were running photo missions over allied lines the erado 234 could not be intercepted by conventional allied planes meaning that the luftwaffe could conduct photo recon missions with impunity the yp80a had the potential to change the situation was it intended to use the yv-80as to intercept the errado jets was it coincidental that the shooting stars arrived at the front just weeks after the errados had begun their spy missions some historians believe that project extroversion was a shoot down mission also the presence of the yp80a would be noted by the germans who were photographing allied airfields in italy the presence of u.s jets would ring alarm bells in berlin officially a yp80a attached to the 94th fighter squadron actually flew two operational sorties in italy piloted both times by major ed leclerc what those two missions entailed we will never know but they were recorded as non-combat both aircraft were returned to the u.s and one ended up as a target drone and the other one was lost in a crash however in february 1945 an initial production order for 344 p-80as was placed an 83 had been built before japan surrendered in august 1945 and world war ii came to an end and 45 of these aircraft were assigned to murak army airfield now edwards air force base in california serving in the 412th fighter group in total 1715 p-80s were built the type being retired from u.s service in 1959 chile continued to fly the shooting star until 1974. the military training version of the aircraft the t-33 shooting star remained in u.s service until 1997 with many examples still flying all over the world today but i can't help but speculate what would have happened if a yp80a had encountered a messerschmitt me262 in combat in 1945 but i think i'll let you argue that one out in the comments section below thanks for watching please subscribe and share you can also help to support my channels at paypal and patreon details in the description box below

Channel: Mark Felton Productions

Views: 478,609

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Id: 0hf4ET6CGfI

Length: 9min 33sec (573 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 04 2020