Subject: Number Eighty in the Series--Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star (3 of 8)

From: [email-masked]
Date: 1 Jul 93 13:45:39 GMT

>From [email-masked]

>From [email-masked]

Thirteen YP-80A service test aircraft were ordered on March 10, 1944.  
Serials were 44-83023 through 44-83935.  They were generally identical 
to the XP-80A and were powered by the General Electric I-40 turbojet, 
the production model of which was designated J33-GE-9 or -11.  
Armament was increased to six 0.50-in machine guns in the nose.  

The USAAF wanted a photographic reconnaissance aircraft with the 
performance of the P-80, and, on September 23, 1944, they ordered that 
the second YP-80 (44-83024) be completed as an unarmed photo-recon 
ship.  It was assigned the designation XF-14, the F designation being 
in the pre-1948 F-for-photographic reconnaissance series.  In 
converting the aircraft to XF-14 configuration, the six 0.50-in 
machine guns in the nose of the YP-80A were taken out and replaced by 
a set of cameras.  The career of the XF-14 was rather brief--it was 
destroyed on December 6, 1944 in a midair collision.  

Manufacturer's trials of the YP-80A began on September 13, 1944.  The 
trials got off to a horrible start.  The third YP-80A (44-83025) 
crashed on its maiden flight on October 20, 1944, killing the 
well-known test pilot Milo Burcham.  In spite of the loss of the third 
YP-80A, four YP-80As were deployed to Europe in order to demonstrate 
their capabilities to combat crews and to help in the development of 
tactics to be used against Luftwaffe jet fighters.  YP-80As 44-83026 
and 44-83027 were shipped to England in mid-December 1944, but 
44-83026 crashed on its second flight in England, killing its pilot.  
44-83027 was modified by Rolls-Royce to flight test the B-41, the 
prototype of the Nene turbojet.  On November 14, 1945, it was 
destroyed in a crash landing after an engine failure.  44-83028 and 
44-83029 were shipped to the Mediterranean.  They actually flew some 
operational sorties, but they never encountered any enemy aircraft.  
Both of them fortunately managed to survive their tour of duty in 
Europe, but one of them crashed on August 2, 1945 after returning to 
the USA.  The other one ended its useful life as a pilotless drone.  

The remaining nine YP-80As were used for a variety of purposes, 
including operational evaluation and service trials.  The first YP-80A 
was specially instrumented and was used by NACA at the Ames 
Aeronautical Laboratory at Moffett Field in California for high-speed 
diving trials.  The tenth, eleventh, and twelfth YP-80As were 
delivered in 1945 to the 31st Fighter Squadron of the 412th Fighter 
Group at Bakersfield Municipal Airport in California for service 
tests.  

Sources:

  War Planes of the Second World War, Fighters, Volume Four, William Green,
  Doubleday, 1964.

  The American Fighter, Enzo Anguluci and Peter Bowers, Orion Books, 1987.

  United States Military Aircraft since 1909, Gordon Swanborough and Peter 
  M. Bowers, Smithsonian Institution Press, 1989.

  Fighters of the United States Air Force, Robert F. Dorr and David Donald,
  Temple Press Aerospace, 1990.

  American Combat Planes, Ray Wagner, Third Enlarged Edition, Doubleday, 1982.

  Lockheed Aircraft since 1913, Rene J. Francillon, Naval Institute Press,
  1987.

Joe Baugher		AT&T Bell Laboratories   	
2000 North Naperville Road      Naperville, Illinois 60566-7033