Lockheed F-80 Shooting Star: Books - History and Deployment

Lockheed P-80/F-80 Shooting Star : A Photo Chronicle

The Lockheed P-80/F-80 Shooting Star was the first American operational jet fighter. David McLaren's book chronicles the development and early trials of the aircraft during Lockheed's groundbreaking attempts to create a viable jet fighter, in a period when jet propulsion was still an innovative unknown.
This period also saw engineers and test pilots like Kelly Johnson and Tony LeVier facing many challenges, incidents and accidents as they attempted to create a new fighter from yet untested aerodynamic theories, and engines that were still under development.

Also discussed are the record breaking transcontinental and absoulte speed records set by the Shooting Star. Detailed analysis of the Shooting Star's combat record in Korea shows why the F-80 flew more combat missions than any aircraft in the war theater.
Also presented is a summation of all USAF, USAFR, and foreign countries that flew the P-80/F-80.

F-80 Shooting Star Units of the Korean War (Osprey)

A fully illustrated study of the US Korean War fighter that fought in the first ever jet-versus-jet engagement in the history of aviation.
Built within a 180-day time limit in 1943, the F-80 Shooting Star first saw service in Italy in the final year of World War 2, and consequently was sent to bases in the US, Europe and the Far East after VJ Day. It was the latter groups based in Japan that initially bore the brunt of the early fighting in Korea, engaging MiG-15s in the world's first jet-versus-jet combat.

Flown principally by the 8th and 49th Fighter Bomber Wings, the F-80 served until the end of the war, completing an astonishing 98,515 combat sorties, shooting down 17 aircraft (including three of the vastly superior MiG-15s), dropping over 33,000 tons of bombs, and firing over 80,000 air-to-ground rockets.
Aside from the fighter-bomber Shooting Stars, the ultra-rare, but heavily used, photo-reconnaissance RF-80A saw extensive use in the frontline in Korea as a replacement for the vulnerable RF-51D.

Filled with first-hand accounts and rare color photographs taken by the veterans themselves, this is the engrossing story of the pioneering F-80 Shooting Star.