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at the end of world war ii, jet fighters represented by the me-262 and "meteor" entered the stage of history, bringing air combat into the jet age.

the united states' jet research is slightly behind britain and germany. at this time, the first jet fighter xp-80 (later the f-80) was still being tested. today's article will take you to review its development process.

▲the me-262 in test flight, note that the initial tricycle landing gear layout was used. german jet technology has always been far ahead.

▲the first xp-80 prototype in the united states was not yet in service at the end of world war ii and was still being tested.

before the outbreak of world war ii, the first jet flew successfully, but the outbreak of the war shifted a lot of attention and funds to the battlefield, so the development of jets slowed down.

lockheed was the first company in the united states to research jet aircraft. it began researching the l-133 aircraft in 1939. the aircraft adopted a canard layout and wing-body fusion. the design was very radical. the army unsurprisingly rejected this plan. , and instead chose bell's more reliable xp-59.

the xp-59 first flew in october 1942, but the performance of the aircraft was only slightly better than that of the piston fighters at the time, making it useless. at this time, bell's focus was no longer on the xp-59, so the opportunity came to lockheed.

▲l-133 aircraft with radical layout.

▲bell's xp-59 aircraft, but its performance was poor.

in may 1943, lockheed officially began the research and development of the first-generation jet fighter in the united states, which was later codenamed xp-80. the core team of the project consists of 28 people, led by the famous aircraft designer clarence kelly johnson.

since britain and germany were already far ahead in the research and development of jets, lockheed had to speed up its research and development. johnson submitted a design proposal in june of the same year and promised to complete the manufacturing of the prototype within 150 days.

the xp-80's fuselage design is smooth and stable, using a mature straight-wing layout. the engine is installed in the fuselage, and the air inlets are located on both sides of the fuselage, close to the front of the wing root, so that the valuable nose space can be used to arrange more lots of weapons.

▲ johnson, a famous american aircraft designer, designed famous aircraft such as p-38, f-80, f-104, u-2, sr-71, etc.

on november 2, 1943, lockheed finally waited for the engine imported from the united kingdom - halford's h1 "goblin" engine. after the engine was installed on the aircraft, the first xp- 80 were trucked from burbank to morlock dry lake for testing.

however, embarrassingly, a foreign object was accidentally inhaled during the first test run, causing damage to the engine. as a last resort, another one was imported from the uk, causing the test progress to be pushed back again and again. on january 8, 1944, the ill-fated first xp-80 prototype finally made its first flight.

the first flight mission was carried out by test pilot milo burcham. five minutes after takeoff, burcham found that the landing gear could not be retracted and the aileron control was too sensitive and made an emergency landing. these problems were quickly solved and the test flight continued. conduct.

at an altitude of 6,240 meters, the xp-80 flew at a maximum level flight speed of 808km/h, becoming the first american-made aircraft to exceed 800km/h.

▲the first prototype of the xp-80. the aircraft in the photo is being prepared for test flights.

the second and third prototypes were quickly built and named xp-80a. the aircraft used general electric's i-40 engine (an improved j31 engine, later produced by allison as the j33). .

however, the xp-80a quickly exposed problems, including poor stall characteristics. it rolled rapidly to the right and entered a stall state with almost no warning before stalling. there are also issues such as the high rod force required, a suboptimal fuel system, and low engine reliability.

lockheed conducted special public relations to address the above issues, changing the rectangular wingtips of the wings and tail to rounded wingtips, and adding air guide grooves to the wing roots to simulate air separation inside the air inlets. the mounting angle of the horizontal tail has been increased by 1.5 degrees.

▲xp-80a in flight. the risk of test flying a jet is very high.

▲structure diagram of the later f-80 fighter jet.

still, the new planes were unreliable and test flights dangerous. at the end of 1944, 12 pre-production yp-80as rolled off the production line. test pilot burcham died in a crash while flying the third yp-80a on october 20, 1944.

there was another test flight accident on march 20, 1945. one of the engine blades broke, damaging the entire engine. fortunately, the pilot tony levert escaped in time, but his back was seriously injured and he lay down for six months before returning to work. .

however, greater losses were yet to come. on august 6, 1945, major richard bunger, the number one ace in american air combat, was killed while flying a mass-produced p-80. due to a main fuel pump failure, banger abandoned the plane and parachuted. the parachute failed to open because the altitude was too low and he fell to his death.

▲in early 1945, two yp-80a flew over mount vesuvius in italy. however, at this time there was no chance to fight the german army.

▲on january 28, 1945, a yp-80a crashed during a test flight, killing the test pilot.

although the road was bumpy, the p-80 was finally recognized by the us military and an order for 5,000 aircraft was placed in one go. the p-80 has entered mass production. its parameters are as follows: 10.5 meters in length, 11.8 meters in wingspan, 3.4 meters in height, 5750 kilograms in empty weight, and a maximum take-off weight of 7700 kilograms.

the p-80 is equipped with a j33-a-5 engine with a thrust of 2360 kg, a maximum flight speed of 932km/h, a range of 1930 kilometers, a practical ceiling of 13700 meters, a climb rate of 35m/s, and is equipped with 6 12.7mm machine guns , rockets and bombs can also be mounted under the wings.

▲p-80 engine.

▲the nose of the p-80 is equipped with six 12.7mm machine guns.

in february 1945, 344 p-80as had passed the verification of the us military. as of july of the same year, a total of 83 had been received, of which 45 were assigned to the 412th fighter group.

however, world war ii was coming to an end at this time, and the p-80 had almost no chance of combat. in the summer of 1945, nearly 30 p-80as of the 414th fighter group were transported to the philippines by aircraft carriers, preparing to participate in the final battle against japan.

however, the wingtip auxiliary fuel tanks and aircraft batteries required for the aircraft were not brought to the aircraft carrier, so these p-80s waited in vain for 30 days. by the time the auxiliary fuel tanks and batteries arrived, the pacific war was over, and the p-80s missed their last combat opportunity. .

▲in the summer of 1945, a yp-80a made an emergency landing in west virginia, which shows that the reliability of jets at this time was poor.

▲yp-80a during test flight.

after the war, the us military compared the p-80 and the me-262 and believed that the me-262 was superior to the p-80 in terms of acceleration, speed and climb. however, germany has always been far ahead in the research and development of jets. this result is not surprising to the americans. .

in june 1948, the u.s. military decided to uniformly use "f" to represent fighter aircraft, so the p-80 was renamed f-80. the f-80 participated in the korean war within a few years of service, but by this time it had lagged behind the mig-15. after the f-86 took over the task of competing for air supremacy, the f-80 mostly performed ground attack missions.

▲the f-80 was very active in the korean war and was the main fighter jet of the us military in the early days of the war.

in 1954, the f-80 was retired from the u.s. air force. a total of 1,731 aircraft were produced, of which 798 were f-80cs. in addition, a two-seat trainer version of the t-33 aircraft was developed based on the f-80. this aircraft was produced until 1959. a total of 6,557 aircraft were built, and some are still in use.