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99-581: The Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star is the first jet fighter used operationally by the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) during World War II . Designed and built by Lockheed in 1943 and delivered just 143 days from the start of design, two pre-production models saw limited service in Italy just before the end of World War II . Designed with straight wings, the type saw extensive combat in Korea with

198-438: A tactical reconnaissance aircraft, instead of strategic reconnaissance . The term "Skunk Works" came from Al Capp 's satirical , hillbilly comic strip Li’l Abner , which was immensely popular from 1935 through the 1950s. In the comic, the “Skonk Works" was a dilapidated factory located on the remote outskirts of Dogpatch , in the backwoods of Kentucky . According to the strip, scores of locals were done in yearly by

297-623: A YP-80A (44-83026) at RAF Burtonwood , Lancashire, England, on 28 January 1945, the YP-80A was temporarily grounded. Before World War II ended, however, two American pre-production Lockheed YP-80A Shooting Star fighter jets saw limited service in Italy with the USAAF on reconnaissance, in February and March 1945. Because of delays in delivery of production aircraft, the Shooting Star saw no actual combat during

396-612: A dive at low altitude. Despite initial claims of success, the speed of the straight-wing F-80s was inferior to the 668 mph (1075 km/h) MiGs. 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

495-542: 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

594-751: A low wing and a single fuselage-mounted engine, to be designated XP-59B , but by this time the Bell factory was swamped with other work so the USAAF transferred the project to Lockheed. The impetus for development of the P-80 was the discovery by Allied intelligence of the Me 262 in spring 1943, which had made only test flights of its own first quartet (the V1 through V4 airframes) of design prototypes at that time, all fitted with retracting tailwheel landing gear. After receiving documents and blueprints comprising years of British jet aircraft research,

693-509: A lower exhaust speed than turbojets, and are mostly used for high sonic, transonic, and low supersonic speeds. High bypass turbofans are relatively efficient, and are used by subsonic aircraft such as airliners. Jet aircraft fly considerably differently than propeller aircraft . One difference is that jet engines respond relatively slowly. This complicates takeoff and landing maneuvers. In particular, during takeoff, propeller aircraft engines blow air over their wings and that gives more lift and

792-427: A newly installed emergency fuel pump backup system, but the investigation of Bong's crash found that he had apparently forgotten to switch on this pump, which could have prevented the accident. He bailed out when the aircraft rolled inverted but was too close to the ground for his parachute to deploy. After Bong's death, both the USAAF and Lockheed wanted to prove the reliability of the airplane. Robert E. Thacker from

891-413: A shorter takeoff. These differences caught out some early BOAC Comet pilots. In aircraft overall propulsive efficiency η {\displaystyle \eta } is the efficiency, in percent, with which the energy contained in a vehicle's propellant is converted into useful energy, to replace losses due to air drag , gravity, and acceleration. It can also be stated as the proportion of

990-483: A single fuselage-mounted engine was more effective, and this configuration was used by nearly all subsequent fighter aircraft. Lockheed was the first American aircraft company to start work on a jet-powered aircraft, beginning work on the L-133 in 1939. The L-133 eventually developed into an extremely advanced design, including futuristic features such as canard forewings and a blended wing body , but when Lockheed presented

1089-422: A speed that is the same as, or nearly the same as, the vehicle velocity. The exact formula for air-breathing engines as given in the literature, is where c is the exhaust speed, and v is the speed of the aircraft. For a long range jet operating in the stratosphere , the speed of sound is constant, hence flying at fixed angle of attack and constant Mach number causes the aircraft to climb, without changing

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1188-821: 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 Shooting Star-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

1287-544: A total of six MiG-15s in aerial combat. When sufficient Sabres were in operation, the Shooting Star flew exclusively ground-attack missions, and were also used for advanced flight training duties and air defense in Japan. By the end of hostilities, the only F-80s still flying in Korea were photo-reconnaissance variants. F-80Cs equipped 10 USAF squadrons in Korea: One RF-80A unit operated in the Korean War: During

1386-470: A true turbojet in that the turbine was driven by a piston engine, rather than combustion of the turbine gases - which was a much more complex solution. The British experimental Gloster E.28/39 first flew on May 15, 1941, powered by Sir Frank Whittle 's turbojet. The United States Bell XP-59A flew on October 1, 1942, using two examples of a version of the Whittle engine built by General Electric . The Meteor

1485-721: Is known as the Breguet range equation after the French aviation pioneer Louis Charles Breguet . Skunk Works Skunk Works is an official pseudonym for Lockheed Martin 's Advanced Development Programs ( ADP ), formerly called Lockheed Advanced Development Projects. It is responsible for a number of aircraft designs, highly classified research and development programs, and exotic aircraft platforms. Known locations include United States Air Force Plant 42 (Palmdale, California), United States Air Force Plant 4 (Fort Worth, Texas), and Marietta, Georgia. Skunk Works' history started with

1584-643: Is now a registered trademark of Lockheed Martin. In November 1941, Kelsey gave the unofficial nod to Johnson and the P-38 team to engineer a drop tank system to extend range for the fighter, and they completed the initial research and development without a contract. When the Army Air Forces officially asked for a range extension solution it was ready. The range modifications were performed in Lockheed's Building 304, starting with 100 P-38F models on April 15, 1942. Some of

1683-650: Is the X-15 at Mach 6.85. The Space Shuttle , while far faster than the X-43 or X-15, was not regarded as an aircraft during ascent as it was carried ballistically by rocket thrust, rather than the air. During re-entry it was classed (like a glider) as an unpowered aircraft. The first flight was in 1981. The Bell 533 (1964), Lockheed XH-51 (1965), and Sikorsky S-69 (1977-1981) are examples of compound helicopter designs where jet exhaust added to forward thrust. The Hiller YH-32 Hornet and Fairey Ultra-light Helicopter were among

1782-427: Is the cycle efficiency and η p {\displaystyle \eta _{p}} is the propulsive efficiency. The cycle efficiency, in percent, is the proportion of energy that can be derived from the energy source that is converted to mechanical energy by the engine . For jet aircraft the propulsive efficiency (essentially energy efficiency ) is highest when the engine emits an exhaust jet at

1881-565: Is therefore an important consideration. Jet aircraft are usually designed using the Whitcomb area rule , which says that the total area of cross-section of the aircraft at any point along the aircraft from the nose must be approximately the same as that of a Sears-Haack body . A shape with that property minimises the production of shockwaves which would waste energy. There are several types of engine which operate by expelling hot gas: The different types are used for different purposes. Rockets are

1980-674: 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. 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

2079-647: The Boeing 707 to enter service in 1958 and thus to dominate the market for civilian airliners. The underslung engines were found to be advantageous in the event of a propellant leak, and so the 707 looked rather different from the Comet: the 707 has a shape that is effectively the same as that of contemporary aircraft, with marked commonality still evident today for example with the 737 (fuselage) and A340 (single deck, swept wing, four below-wing engines). Turbofan aircraft with far greater fuel efficiency began entering service in

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2178-564: The Department of the Navy was trying to reach the Lockheed management for the P-80 project, the call was accidentally transferred to Culver’s desk. Culver answered the phone in his trademark fashion of the time, by picking up the phone and stating "Skonk Works, inside man Culver". "What?" replied the voice at the other end. "Skonk Works", Culver repeated. The name stuck. Culver later said at an interview conducted in 1993 that "when Kelly Johnson heard about

2277-491: The Korean War , and were among the first aircraft to be involved in jet-versus-jet combat. The Americans used the F-80C variant and RF-80 photo-recon variants in Korea. 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

2376-529: The Lop Nur nuclear test facility in China . This drone was launched from the back of a specially modified A-12, known as M-21, of which there were two built. After a fatal mid-air collision on the fourth launch, the drones were re-built as D-21Bs, and launched with a rocket booster from B-52s . Four operational missions were conducted over China, but the camera packages were never successfully recovered. Kelly Johnson headed

2475-766: The Nakajima J9Y Kikka , a modified, and slightly smaller version of the Me 262 that had folding wings. By the end of 1945, the US had introduced their first jet fighter, the Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star into service and the UK its second fighter design, the de Havilland Vampire . The US introduced the North American B-45 Tornado , their first jet bomber, into service in 1948. It was capable of carrying nuclear weapons, but

2574-568: The P-38 Lightning in 1939 and the P-80 Shooting Star in 1943. Skunk Works engineers subsequently developed the U-2 , SR-71 Blackbird , F-117 Nighthawk , F-22 Raptor , and F-35 Lightning II , the latter being used in the air forces of several countries. The Skunk Works name was taken from the "Skonk Oil" factory in the comic strip Li'l Abner . Derived from the Lockheed use of the term,

2673-575: The United States Air Force (USAF) as the F-80 . America's first successful turbojet -powered combat aircraft, it was soon outclassed with the appearance of the swept-wing transonic MiG-15 and was quickly replaced in the air superiority role by the transonic F-86 Sabre . The F-94 Starfire , an all-weather interceptor using the same airframe, also saw Korean War service. The closely related T-33 Shooting Star trainer remained in service with

2772-466: The United States Patent and Trademark Office . They have filed several challenges against registrants of domain names containing variations on the term under anti- cybersquatting policies, and have lost a case under the .uk domain name dispute resolution service against a company selling cannabis seeds and paraphernalia, which used the word "skunkworks" in its domain name (referring to " Skunk ",

2871-537: The XP-80 in May 1943. Since the British turbojet was not yet delivered, Lockheed obtained its blueprint dimensions from Bell as ordered by the USAAF. Lockheed's team, consisting of 28 engineers , was led by Clarence L. "Kelly" Johnson in the same manner as the P-38 Lightning , in the same remote building with high security and greater autonomy, a continuation of Lockheed's Skunk Works style of research and development. With

2970-541: The 1950s and 1960s, and became the most commonly used type of jet. The Tu-144 supersonic transport was the fastest commercial jet aircraft at Mach 2.35 (2,503 km/h (1,555 mph)). It went into service in 1975, but was withdrawn from commercial service shortly afterwards. The Mach 2 Concorde entered service in 1976 and flew for 27 years. The fastest military jet aircraft was the SR-71 Blackbird at Mach 3.35 (3,661 km/h (2,275 mph)). Most people use

3069-598: The 1950s. The first flight of a jet-propelled aircraft to come to public attention was the Italian Caproni Campini N.1 motorjet prototype which flew on August 27, 1940. It was the first jet aircraft recognised by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (at the time the German He 178 program was still kept secret). Campini began development of the motorjet in 1932; it differed from

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3168-484: The 2,457 miles (3,954 km) run between Long Beach and New York in 4:13:26 hrs at an average speed of 584 mph (507 kn; 940 km/h), aided by the upper-level westerly winds, to set a Fédération Aéronautique Internationale record. The P-80B prototype, modified as a racer and designated P-80R , 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. The P-80C began production in 1948; on 11 June

3267-442: The 3G Distillery, a smelly former bourbon works where the first YP-38 (constructor's number 2202) was built. Moving from the distillery to a larger building, the stench from a nearby plastic factory was so vile that Irv Culver , one of the engineers, began answering the intra-Lockheed "house" phone "Skonk Works, inside man Culver speaking!" In Al Capp's comic strip Li'l Abner , Big Barnsmell's Skonk Works — spelled with an "o" —

3366-687: The Air force awarded Skunk Works the contract to build the F-117 stealth fighter on November 1, 1978. During the entirety of the Cold War , the Skunk Works was located in Burbank, California, on the eastern side of Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport ( 34°12′03″N 118°21′07″W  /  34.200768°N 118.351826°W  / 34.200768; -118.351826 ). After 1989, Lockheed reorganized its operations and relocated

3465-531: The August 1944 record flight of 504 mph (811 km/h; 438 kn) by a special high-speed variant of the Republic P-47 Thunderbolt . Contemporary pilots, when transitioning to pioneering jets like the Shooting Star, were unused to flying at high speed without a loud reciprocating engine and had to learn to rely on the airspeed indicator . The second prototype, designated XP-80A , was designed for

3564-522: The Flight Test Division at Wright Field was ordered to select three other pilots, pick up 5 P-80s from Lockheed and fly them to Muroc Army Airbase , and fly each airplane there for 500 hours. Thacker tapped Chuck Yeager , plus two other pilots and they put 500 hours on each airplane without further incident. After the war, the USAAF compared the P-80 and Me 262 concluding, "Despite a difference in gross weight of nearly 2,000 lb (900 kg),

3663-456: The Germans and British clearly far ahead in development, Lockheed was pressed to develop a comparable jet as quickly as possible. Kelly Johnson submitted a design proposal in mid-June and promised that the prototype would be ready for testing in 150 days. The Skunk Works team, beginning 26 June 1943, produced the airframe in 143 days, delivering it to Muroc Army Airfield on 16 November. The project

3762-507: 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.

3861-607: 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. Shooting Stars first saw combat service in

3960-416: The Me 262 was superior to the P-80 in acceleration, speed and approximately the same in climb performance. The Me 262 apparently has a higher critical Mach number (the Me 262A's being at M 0.86 ), from a drag standpoint, than any current Army Air Force fighter." The Shooting Star began to enter service in late 1944 with 12 pre-production YP-80A s, one of which was destroyed in the accident in which Burcham

4059-496: The Meteor, as Projekt 1065, with initial plans drawn up by Waldemar Voigt's design team in April 1939. The Messerschmitt Me 262 was the first operational jet fighter , manufactured by Germany during World War II and entering service on 19 April 1944 with Erprobungskommando 262 at Lechfeld just south of Augsburg. An Me 262 scored the first combat victory for a jet fighter on 26 July 1944,

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4158-625: The Skunk Works received a contract from the CIA to build a spyplane known as the U-2 with the intention of flying over the Soviet Union and photographing sites of strategic interest. The U-2 was tested at Groom Lake in the Nevada desert, and the Flight Test Engineer in charge was Joseph F. Ware, Jr . The first overflight took place on July 4 1956 . The U-2 ceased overflights when Francis Gary Powers

4257-464: The Skunk Works to Site 10 at U.S. Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale, California , where it remains in operation today. Most of the old Skunk Works buildings in Burbank were demolished in the late 1990s to make room for parking lots. One main building still remains at 2777 Ontario Street in Burbank (near San Fernando Road), now used as an office building for digital film post-production and sound mixing. During

4356-502: The Skunk Works until 1975. He was succeeded by Ben Rich. In 1976, the Skunk Works began production on a pair of stealth technology demonstrators for the U.S. Air Force named Have Blue in Building 82 at Burbank. These scaled-down demonstrators, built in only 18 months, were a revolutionary step forward in aviation technology because of their extremely small radar cross-section . After a series of successful test flights beginning in 1977,

4455-541: The U.S. Air Force and Navy well into the 1980s, with the last NT-33 variant not retired until April 1997. The XP-80 had a conventional all-metal airframe, with a slim low wing and tricycle landing gear . Like most early jets designed during World War II—and before the Allies captured German research data that confirmed the speed advantages of swept-wings —the XP-80 had straight wings, similar to previous propeller-driven fighters. It

4554-558: The XP-80 in only 143 days, seven fewer than was required. Warren M. Bodie, journalist, historian, and Skunk Works engineer from 1977 to 1984, wrote that engineering independence, elitism and secrecy of the Skunk Works variety were demonstrated earlier when Lockheed was asked by Lieutenant Benjamin S. Kelsey (later air force brigadier general) to build for the United States Army Air Corps a high speed, high altitude fighter to compete with German aircraft. In July 1938, while

4653-400: The XP-80. The P-80 testing program proved very dangerous. Burcham was killed on 20 October 1944 while flying the third YP-80A, 44–83025. The Gray Ghost was lost on a test flight on 20 March 1945, although pilot Tony LeVier escaped. Newly promoted to chief engineering test pilot to replace Burcham, LeVier bailed out when one of the engine's turbine blades broke, causing structural failure in

4752-400: The aircraft carrier USS  Franklin D. Roosevelt 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

4851-471: The aircraft's tail. LeVier landed hard and broke his back, but returned to the test program after six months of recovery. The top-scoring World War II USAAF ace Major Richard Bong was also killed on an acceptance flight of a production P-80 in the United States on 6 August 1945. Both Burcham and Bong crashed as a result of main fuel pump failure. Burcham's death was the result of a failure to brief him on

4950-447: The building but the sour smell of bourbon mash lingered, partly because the group of buildings continued to store barrels of aging whiskey. The first YP-38 was built there before the team moved back to Lockheed's main factory a year later. In 1964, Johnson told Look magazine that the bourbon distillery was the first of five Lockheed skunk works locations. During the development of the P-80 Shooting Star , Johnson's engineering team

5049-639: The commanding General of the Army Air Force, Henry H. Arnold , believed an airframe developed to accept the British-made Halford H-1 B "Goblin" jet engine could provide the superior performance to match the new German jets, and the Materiel Command's Wright Field research and development division tasked Lockheed to design the aircraft based on their experience with the L-133. Concept work began on

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5148-506: The conflict. The initial production order was for 344 P-80As after USAAF acceptance in February 1945. A total of 83 P-80s had been delivered by the end of July 1945 and 45 assigned to the 412th Fighter Group (later redesignated the 1st Fighter Group ) at Muroc Army Air Field . Production continued after the war, although wartime plans for 5,000 were quickly reduced to 2,000 at a little under $ 100,000 each. A total of 1,714 single-seat F-80A , F-80B , F-80C , and RF-80 s were manufactured by

5247-522: The day before the British Gloster Meteor entered operational service. The Me 262 had first flown on April 18, 1941, but mass production did not start until early 1944, with the first squadrons operational that year, too late for any effect on the outcome of the World War II . While only around 15 Meteors were operational during WW2, up to 1,400 Me 262 were produced, with 300 entering combat. Only

5346-496: The design to the Army Air Force, it was rejected as being technologically unfeasible. Instead the USAAF concentrated development around the much less radical Bell P-59 Airacomet , which first flew in October 1942. It quickly became obvious, however, that the P-59's performance was only marginally superior to current piston engined fighters. Bell performed preliminary work revising the P-59 with

5445-520: The design were soon addressed and corrected in the test program. Initial opinions of the XP-80A were not positive, with Lockheed Chief Engineering Test Pilot Milo Burcham commenting that an aircraft he very much enjoyed (powered by the Halford engine) had now become a "dog." The XP-80As were primarily testbeds for larger, more powerful engines and air intake design, and consequently were larger and 25% heavier than

5544-567: The designation "skunk works" or "skunkworks" is now widely used in business, engineering, and technical fields to describe a group within an organization given a high degree of autonomy and unhampered by bureaucracy, with the task of working on advanced or secret projects. There are conflicting observations about the birth of Skunk Works. Engineer Ben Rich sets the origin as June 1943 in Burbank, California . Kelly Johnson has made contradictory statements, some agreeing with Rich, and others putting

5643-474: The ducted-fan engine backfired, setting the aircraft on fire before any flights were ever made, and it lacked nearly all of the features necessary for a jet engine - including a lack of fuel injection, and any concern about hot jet efflux being directed at a highly flammable fabric surface. During the 1920s and 1930s a number of approaches were tried. A variety of motorjet , turboprop , pulsejet and rocket powered aircraft were designed. Rocket-engine research

5742-447: 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. On 27 January 1946, Colonel William H. Councill flew a P-80 nonstop across the U.S. to make the first transcontinental jet flight. He completed

5841-481: The engine had warned Lockheed that the skin of the inlet ducts was too thin but the American engineers ignored this warning and both ducts collapsed and were sucked into the engine when at full throttle. This delayed the first flight until a second engine (the only other existing) could be delivered from Britain, de Havilland generously donating the engine intended for the prototype Vampire . The first prototype (44-83020)

5940-411: The engines in propeller-powered aircraft generally achieve their maximum efficiency at much lower speeds and altitudes, jet engines achieve maximum efficiency at speeds close to or even well above the speed of sound . Jet aircraft generally cruise most efficiently at about Mach 0.8 (981 km/h (610 mph)) and at altitudes around 10,000–15,000 m (33,000–49,000 ft) or more. The idea of

6039-458: The first commercial jet service, from London to Johannesburg , in 1952 with the de Havilland Comet jetliner . This highly innovative aircraft travelled far faster and higher than propeller aircraft, was much quieter, smoother, and had stylish blended wings containing hidden jet engines. However, due to a design defect, and use of aluminium alloys, the aircraft suffered catastrophic metal fatigue which led to several crashes, which gave time for

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6138-519: The first instance of powered flight, a large number of jet engine designs were suggested. René Lorin , Morize, Harris proposed systems for creating a jet efflux. After other jet engines had been run, Romanian inventor Henri Coandă claimed to have built a jet-powered aircraft in 1910, the Coandă-1910 . However, to support this claim, he had to make substantial alterations to the drawings which he used to support his subsequently debunked claims. In fact

6237-407: The group of independent-minded engineers were later involved with the XP-80 project, the prototype of the P-80 Shooting Star . Mary G. Ross , the first Native American female engineer, began working at Lockheed in 1942 on the mathematics of compressibility in high-speed flight —a problem first seriously encountered in the P-38. In 1952, she was invited to join the Skunk Works team. In 1955,

6336-434: The helm. The formal contract for the XP-80 did not arrive at Lockheed until October 16, 1943; some four months after work had already begun. This would prove to be a common practice within the Skunk Works. Many times a customer would come to the Skunk Works with a request and on a handshake the project would begin, with no contracts in place, no official submittal process. Kelly Johnson and his Skunk Works team designed and built

6435-430: The incident, he promptly fired me. It didn’t really matter, since he was firing me about twice a day anyways." At the request of the comic strip copyright holders, Lockheed changed the name of the advanced development company to "Skunk Works" in the 1960s. The name "Skunk Works" and the skunk design are now registered trademarks of the Lockheed Martin Corporation. The company also holds several registrations of it with

6534-508: The jet engine was not new, but the technical problems involved did not begin to be solved until the 1930s. Frank Whittle , an English inventor and RAF officer, began development of a viable jet engine in 1928, and Hans von Ohain in Germany began work independently in the early 1930s. In August 1939 the turbojet powered Heinkel He 178 , the world's first jet aircraft, made its first flight. A wide range of different types of jet aircraft exist, both for civilian and military purposes. After

6633-411: The larger General Electric I-40 engine (an improved J31, later produced by Allison as the J33). Two aircraft (44-83021 and 44-83022) were built. 44-83021 was nicknamed the Gray Ghost after its "pearl gray" paint scheme, while 83022, left unpainted for comparison of flight characteristics, became known as the Silver Ghost . The XP-80A's first test flight was unimpressive, but most of the problems with

6732-416: The late 1990s when designing Pixar's building, Edwin Catmull and Steve Jobs visited a Skunkworks Building which influenced Jobs' design. In 2009, the Skunk Works was inducted into the International Air & Space Hall of Fame at the San Diego Air & Space Museum . Next generation optionally-manned U-2 aircraft. During September 2015 the proposed aircraft was deemed to have developed into more of

6831-476: The many helicopters where the rotors were driven by tip jets . Jet-powered wingsuits exist – powered by model aircraft jet engines – but of short duration and needing to be launched at height. Because of the way they work, the typical exhaust speed of jet engines is transonic or faster, therefore most jet aircraft need to fly at high speeds, either supersonic or speeds just below the speed of sound (" transonic ") so as to achieve efficient flight. Aerodynamics

6930-576: The mechanical energy actually used to propel the aircraft. It is always less than 100% because of kinetic energy loss to the exhaust, and less-than-ideal efficiency of the propulsive mechanism, whether a propeller , a jet exhaust, or a fan. In addition, propulsive efficiency is greatly dependent on air density and airspeed. Mathematically, it is represented as η = η c η p {\displaystyle \eta =\eta _{c}\eta _{p}} where η c {\displaystyle \eta _{c}}

7029-412: The new fighter including a significant structural revolution in which the aluminum skin of the aircraft was joggled , fitted and flush-riveted, a design innovation not called for in the army's specification but one that would yield less aerodynamic drag and give greater strength with lower mass. As a result, the XP-38 was the first 400-mph fighter in the world. The Lightning team was temporarily moved to

7128-505: The newly formed United States Air Force redesignated the type as F-80C . The USAF Strategic Air Command had F-80 Shooting Stars in service from 1946 through 1948 with the 1st and 56th Fighter Groups. 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 ,

7227-399: The oldest type, and are mainly used when extremely high speeds are needed, or operation at extremely high altitudes where there is insufficient air to operate a jet engine. Due to the extreme, typically hypersonic , exhaust velocity and the necessity of oxidiser being carried on board, they consume propellant extremely quickly, making them impractical for routine transportation. Turbojets are

7326-471: The origin earlier, in 1939. The official Lockheed Skunk Works story states: The Air Tactical Service Command (ATSC) of the Army Air Force met with Lockheed Aircraft Corporation to express its need for a jet fighter. A rapidly growing German jet threat gave Lockheed an opportunity to develop an airframe around the most powerful jet engine that the allied forces had access to, the British Goblin . Lockheed

7425-528: The pungent smell of the cannabis flower). Lockheed Martin claimed the company registered the domain in order to disrupt its business and that consumer confusion might result. The respondent company argued that Lockheed "used its size, resources and financial position to employ 'bullyboy' tactics against... a very small company." In Australia, the trademark for use of the name "Skunkworks" is held by Perth-based television accessory manufacturer The Novita Group Pty Ltd. Lockheed Martin formally registered opposition to

7524-441: The rest of Lockheed was busy tooling up to build Hudson reconnaissance bombers to fill a British contract, a small group of engineers was assigned to fabricate the first prototype of what would become the P-38 Lightning . Kelly Johnson set them apart from the rest of the factory in a walled-off section of one building, off limits to all but those involved directly. Secretly, a number of advanced features were being incorporated into

7623-549: The rocket-propelled Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet was a faster operational aircraft during the war. Around this time, mid 1944, the United Kingdom's Meteor was being used for defence of the UK against the V-1 flying bomb  – the V-1 itself a pulsejet -powered aircraft and direct ancestor of the cruise missile  – and then ground-attack operations over Europe in the last months of

7722-409: The second oldest type; they have a high, usually supersonic, exhaust speed and low frontal cross-section, and so are best suited to high-speed, usually supersonic, flight. Although once widely used, they are relatively inefficient compared to turboprop and turbofans for subsonic flight. The last major aircraft to use turbojets were Concorde and Tu-144 supersonic transports . Low bypass turbofans have

7821-419: The temporary advantage the Germans had gained from years of preliminary development on jet planes." The donated British jet engine and program data had no doubt proved invaluable. In test flights, the XP-80 eventually reached a top speed of 502 mph (808 km/h; 436 kn) at 20,480 ft (6,240 m), making it the first turbojet-powered USAAF aircraft to exceed 500 mph in level flight, following

7920-484: The term 'jet aircraft' to denote gas turbine based airbreathing jet engines , but rockets and scramjets are both also propelled by jet propulsion. Cruise missiles are single-use unmanned jet aircraft, powered predominantly by ramjets or turbojets or sometimes turbofans, but they will often have a rocket propulsion system for initial propulsion. The fastest airbreathing jet aircraft is the unmanned X-43 scramjet at around Mach 9–10. The fastest manned (rocket) aircraft

8019-567: The toxic fumes of the concentrated "skonk oil", which was brewed and barreled daily by "Big Barnsmell" (known as the lonely "inside man" at the Skonk Works), by grinding dead skunks and worn shoes into a smoldering still , for some mysterious, unspecified purpose. In mid-1939 when Lockheed was expanding rapidly, the YP-38 project was moved a few blocks away to the newly purchased 3G Distillery, also known as Three G or GGG Distillery. Lockheed took over

8118-578: The value of the local speed of sound. In this case: V = a M {\displaystyle V=aM} where M {\displaystyle M} is the cruise Mach number and a {\displaystyle a} the local speed of sound. The range equation can be shown to be: R = a M c T C L C D l n W 1 W 2 {\displaystyle R={\frac {aM}{c_{T}}}{\frac {C_{L}}{C_{D}}}ln{\frac {W_{1}}{W_{2}}}} which

8217-533: The war. In 1944 Germany introduced the Arado Ar 234 jet reconnaissance and bomber aircraft into service, though chiefly used in the former role, with the Heinkel He 162 Spatz single-jet light fighter appearing at the end of 1944. USSR tested its own Bereznyak-Isayev BI-1 in 1942, but the project was scrapped by leader Joseph Stalin in 1945. The Imperial Japanese Navy also developed jet aircraft in 1945, including

8316-555: Was being carried out in Germany and the first aircraft to fly under rocket power was the Lippisch Ente , in 1928. The Ente had previously been flown as a glider. The next year, in 1929, the Opel RAK.1 became the first purpose-built rocket aircraft to fly. The turbojet was invented in the 1930s, independently by Frank Whittle and later Hans von Ohain . The first turbojet aircraft to fly

8415-483: 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

8514-527: Was chosen to develop the jet because of its past interest in jet development and its previous contracts with the Air Force. One month after the ATSC and Lockheed meeting, the young engineer Clarence L. “Kelly” Johnson and other associate engineers hand delivered the initial XP-80 proposal to the ATSC. Two days later the go-ahead was given to Lockheed to start development and the Skunk Works was born, with Kelly Johnson at

8613-419: Was killed. A 13th YP-80A was modified to the sole F-14 photo reconnaissance model and lost in a December crash. Four 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

8712-556: Was largely dominated by the Soviet Union, so the CIA used several shell corporations to acquire source material.) Several years later, the U.S. Air Force became interested in the design, and it ordered the SR-71 Blackbird , a two-seater version of the A-12. This aircraft first flew in 1966 and remained in service until 1998. The D-21 drone , similar in design to the Blackbird, was built to overfly

8811-438: Was located adjacent to a malodorous plastics factory. According to Ben Rich’s memoir, an engineer jokingly showed up to work one day wearing a Civil Defense gas mask. To comment on the smell and the secrecy the project entailed, another engineer, Irv Culver , referred to the facility as "Skonk Works". As the development was very secret, the employees were told to be careful even with how they answered phone calls. One day, when

8910-479: Was nicknamed Lulu-Belle (also known as "the Green Hornet" because of its paint scheme). Powered by the replacement Halford H1 taken from the prototype de Havilland Vampire jet fighter, it first flew on 8 January 1944, with Lockheed test pilot Milo Burcham at the controls. Following this flight, Johnson said, "It was a magnificent demonstration, our plane was a success – such a complete success that it had overcome

9009-531: 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. 1714 production aircraft were delivered to the Air Force prior to any conversions or redesignations, with their original block numbers. Lockheed also produced a two-seat trainer variant with a longer fuselage, the T-33 , which remained in production until 1959 and

9108-707: Was produced under license in Japan and Canada. The trainer was used by more than 20 countries. A total of 6,557 T-33s were built and some are still flying. Two TF-80Cs were modified as prototypes for the F-94 Starfire , an all-weather fighter produced in three variants. XP-80. On display at Pioneer Village in Minden, Nebraska . Data from Quest for Performance, Lockheed Aircraft since 1913 General characteristics Performance Armament Related development Aircraft of comparable role, configuration, and era Related lists Jet aircraft Whereas

9207-479: Was shot down during a mission on May 1, 1960, while over Russia. The Skunk Works had predicted that the U-2 would have a limited operational life over the Soviet Union. The CIA agreed. In late 1959, Skunk Works received a contract to build five A-12 aircraft at a cost of $ 96 million. Building a Mach 3.0+ aircraft out of titanium posed enormous difficulties, and the first flight did not occur until 1962. (Titanium supply

9306-468: Was so secret that only five of the more than 130 people working on it knew that they were developing a jet aircraft, and the British engineer who delivered the Halford H1 engine was detained by the police because Lockheed officials could not vouch for him. After the engine had been mated to the airframe, foreign object damage during the first run-up destroyed the engine. The British engineer who had delivered

9405-476: Was the Heinkel He 178 , on August 27, 1939 in Rostock (Germany), powered by von Ohain's design. This was largely a proof of concept, as the problem of " creep " (metal fatigue caused by the high temperatures within the engine) had not been solved, and the engine quickly burned out. Von Ohain's design, an axial-flow engine, as opposed to Whittle's centrifugal flow engine, was eventually adopted by most manufacturers by

9504-417: Was the first operational jet fighter to have its engine buried in the fuselage, a format previously used in the pioneering German Heinkel He 178 V1 of 1939, and the later British Gloster E.28/39 demonstrator of 1941. Other early jets generally had two engines because of their limited power, these being mounted in external nacelles for easier maintenance. With the advent of more powerful British jet engines,

9603-428: Was the first production jet, with the first orders for production examples being made on 8 August 1941, the prototype first flying on 5 March 1943 and the first production aircraft flying on 12 January 1944, while the first orders for production Me 262 aircraft were not issued until 25 May 1943, and the first production Me 262 did not fly until 28 March 1944 despite the Me 262 program having started earlier than that of

9702-570: Was used for reconnaissance over Korea. On November 8, 1950, during the Korean War , United States Air Force Lt. Russell J. Brown, flying in an F-80 , intercepted two North Korean MiG-15s near the Yalu River and shot them down in the first jet-to-jet dogfight in history. The UK put the English Electric Canberra into service in 1951 as a light bomber . It was designed to fly higher and faster than any interceptor . BOAC operated

9801-408: Was where Kickapoo Joy Juice was brewed from skunks, old shoes, kerosene, anvils, and other strange ingredients. When the name leaked out, Lockheed ordered it changed to "Skunk Works" to avoid potential legal trouble over use of a copyrighted term. The term rapidly circulated throughout the aerospace community, and became a common nickname for research and development offices. The once informal nickname

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