The straight-winged Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star was the United States Army Air Force's first operational jet fighter going from design to build in just 143 days in 1943! Can you imagine? At the rate things are going with today's airplane manufacturers it's goin' to take 143 years from design to build. The plane saw extensive use in Korea by the USAAF's successor, the U.S. Air Force, as the F-80. Although it helped usher in the jet age, when the swept wing MiG-15 appeared on the world stage, its days were numbered. Often times the P-80/F-80 is shown with wingtip tanks as seen in this photo I took at the Nellis Aviation Nation air show back in 2010:
The Thomas version of the plane is sans tanks as seen in this Wikipedia photo:
The toy jet measures 7 3/8" (18.7cm) L x 8 1/8" (20.6cm) wingspan x 3" (7.6cm) H and has four missile firing pods under the wings all of which appear to fire at once via the actuating lever on the top of the fuselage (the missiles from my jet are missing but the plane itself is in decent shape). One variant of the F-80 was equipped with 8 unguided missiles so the toy is not too far off field. On to the photos. Enjoy! Opa Fritz and Oma Bettina
Really excellent! Great looking toy!
ReplyDeleteThanx Will! like many of the things I've collected, it was a lucky find.
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