U.S. Army Air Force service The Shooting Star began to enter service in late 1944 with 12 pre-production
YP-80As, one of which was destroyed in the accident in which Burcham was killed. A 13th YP-80A was modified to the sole F-14 photo reconnaissance model; it was lost in a December crash. Four aircraft were sent to Europe for operational testing (demonstration, familiarization, and possible interception roles), two to England and two to the
1st Fighter Group at
Lesina Airfield, Italy, but when test pilot Major Frederic Borsodi was killed in a crash caused by an engine fire while demonstrating a YP-80A (44-83026) at
RAF Burtonwood, Lancashire, England, on 28 January 1945, the YP-80A was temporarily grounded. Because of delays in the delivery of production aircraft, the P-80 saw no actual combat during the conflict. The initial production order for 1,000 P-80As was received after USAAF acceptance in February 1945. By spring 1946, the USAAF was operating 301 P-80s, almost all of which based in the continental United States. On 27 January 1946, Colonel William H. Councill flew a P-80 nonstop across the U.S. to make the first
transcontinental jet flight. was piloted by Colonel
Albert Boyd to a world
air speed record of 623.73 mph (1,004.2 km/h) on 19 June 1947. A total of 1,714 single-seat
F-80A,
F-80B,
F-80C, and
RF-80s were manufactured by the end of production in 1950, of which 927 were F-80Cs (including 129 operational F-80As upgraded to F-80C-11-LO standards). However, the two-seat TF-80C, first flown on 22 March 1948, became the basis for the T-33 trainer, of which 6,557 were produced.
U.S. Air Force service Production of the P-80C was started in 1948; on 11 June, the newly formed
United States Air Force (USAF) redesignated the type as
F-80C. The 1st and 56th Fighter Groups of the USAF's
Strategic Air Command operated the F-80 between 1946 and 1948. The first P-80s to serve in Europe joined the 55th Fighter Group (later redesignated the 31st FG) at
Giebelstadt, Germany, in 1946, remaining 18 months. When the
Soviet Union blockaded Berlin, a squadron of the 56th FG led by Colonel
David C. Schilling made the first
west-to-east Atlantic crossing by single-engined jets in July, flying to Germany for 45 days in Operation Fox Able I. Replaced by the newly F-80-equipped 36th Fighter Group at
Fürstenfeldbruck, the 56th FG conducted Fox Able II in May 1949. That same year F-80s first equipped the 51st Fighter Group, based in Japan. The 4th (
Langley Air Force Base, Virginia), 81st (
Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico), and 57th (
Elmendorf Air Force Base, Alaska) Fighter Groups all acquired F-80s in 1948, as did interceptor squadrons of the
Air Defense Command. The first
Air National Guard unit to fly the F-80C was the 196th FS of the California ANG in June 1947. During October 1951, despite the US being actively engaged in the
Korean War, the USAF began the withdrawal of both the F-80A and F-80B.
U.S. Navy service Several P-80A Shooting Stars were transferred to the United States Navy beginning 29 June 1945, retaining their P-80 designations. At
Naval Air Station Patuxent River, one Navy P-80 was modified with required add-ons, such as an
arrestor hook, and loaded aboard the aircraft carrier at
Norfolk, Virginia, on 31 October 1946. The following day the aircraft made four deck-run takeoffs and two catapult launches, with five arrested landings, flown by
Marine Major
Marion Carl. A second series of trials was held on 11 November. The U.S. Navy had already begun procuring its own jet aircraft, but the slow pace of delivery was causing retention problems among pilots, particularly those of the Marines who were still flying
Vought F4U Corsairs. To increase land-based jet-transition training in the late 1940s, 50 F-80Cs were transferred to the U.S. Navy from the U.S. Air Force in 1949 as jet trainers. Designated TO-1 by the Navy (changed to TV-1 in 1950), 25 were based at
Naval Air Station North Island, California, with
VF-52, and 16 assigned to the Marine Corps, equipping
VMF-311 at
Marine Corps Air Station El Toro. These aircraft were eventually sent to reserve units. The success of these aircraft led to the procurement by the Navy of 698 T-33 Shooting Stars (as the TO-2/TV-2) to provide a two-seat aircraft for the training role. Lockheed went on to develop a carrier-capable version, the
T2V SeaStar, which went into service in 1957. The F-80 flew both air-to-air and air-to-ground sorties, claiming several aerial victories against North Korean
Yak-9s and
Il-10s. On 1 November 1950, a Russian MiG-15 pilot, Lieutenant Semyon F. Khominich, became the first pilot in history to be credited with a jet-versus-jet aerial kill after he claimed to have shot down an F-80. According to the Americans, the F-80 was downed by flak. One week later, on 8 November, the first American claim for a jet-versus-jet aerial kill was made when Lieutenant Russell J. Brown, flying an F-80, reported that he downed a MiG-15. Soviet records claim that no MiGs were lost that day and that their pilot, Senior Lieutenant Kharitonov, survived by pulling out of a dive at low altitude. The MiGs incorporated German research showing that swept wings delayed the onset of compressibility problems, and enabled speeds closer to the speed of sound. F-80s were soon replaced in the air superiority role by the
North American F-86 Sabre, which had been delayed to also incorporate swept wings into an improved straight-winged naval
FJ-1 Fury. However, F-80 pilots still destroyed a total of six MiG-15s in aerial combat. When sufficient Sabres were in operation, the F-80 flew exclusively ground-attack missions, and were also used for advanced flight training duties and air defense in Japan. By the end of hostilities, and the only F-80s still flying in Korea were photo-reconnaissance variants. F-80Cs equipped 10 USAF squadrons in Korea: •
8th Fighter-Bomber Wing (35th, 36th, and 80th Fighter-Bomber Squadrons), based at
Suwon Air Base, was the longest-serving F-80 unit in Korea. It began missions from Japan in June 1950 and continued to fly the Shooting Star until May 1953, when it converted to
F-86 Sabres. •
49th Fighter-Bomber Group (7th, 8th, and 9th FBS) deployed to
Taegu AB (K-2), Korea, from Japan in September 1950 and continued fighter-bomber missions in the F-80C until June 1951, when it converted to the
F-84 Thunderjet. •
51st Fighter-Interceptor Wing (16th and 25th FIS) operated F-80Cs from
Kimpo AB (K-14) and Japan from September 1950 to November 1951 when it transitioned to F-86s. •
35th Fighter-Interceptor Group and two squadrons, the 39th and 40th FIS, went to
Pohang, Korea in July 1950, but converted to the
P-51 Mustang before the end of the year. One RF-80A unit operated in the Korean War: •
8th Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron, later redesignated 15th TRS, served from 27 June 1950 at Itazuke, Japan, Taegu (K-2), and Kimpo (K-14), South Korea, until after the armistice. The squadron also utilized a few converted RF-80Cs and RF-86s. During the Korean War, 368 F-80s were lost, including 277 in combat missions and 91 non-combat losses Of the 277 F-80s lost in operations (approximately 30% of the existing inventory), 113 were lost to ground fire, 14 to enemy aircraft, 54 to "unknown causes" and 96 were "other losses". F-80s are credited by the USAF with destroying 17 aircraft in air-to-air combat and 24 on the ground. Major
Charles J. Loring Jr. was posthumously awarded the
Medal of Honor for his actions while flying an F-80 with the 80th Fighter-Bomber Squadron, 8th Fighter-Bomber Wing on 22 November 1952. ==Variants==