On January 8th 1944 the prototype of the United States' first jet fighter; the Lockheed P-80 flew for the first time. Development had begun in 1943 in response to an Army Air Force requirement for a jet propelled airplane using the British De Havilland Halford engine.
The previous June Lockheed had been given the go ahead to develop one XP-80; and the formal contract, signed on the 16th October, stated that this aircraft would be delivered within 180 days. In March 1944 a further 13 prototypes, designated YP-80A, were ordered.
Lockheed produced the XP-80 in no less than 145 days, well within schedule. The Halford engine, however, did not match up; and although it powered the first flights of the XP-80, it was soon replaced in the YP-80A by the General Electric J33-11 engine.
On the 18th September the Army Air Force accepted the first of the YP-80A prototypes. By the end of February 1945 all of these aircraft had left the Lockheed plant and were engaged in development operations.
The first production P-80A was received by the Air Force in February 1945 and the following month was in quantity production. The view at this time was that the aircraft was going to be needed for combat operations in both the far east and the European theatre. The Germans were using the ME 262; and the P-80 initially received the same high priority production schedule as the B-29. In spite of this, however, what kept the P-80 out of World War 2, apart from a brief appearance in Italy: was primarily a shortage of spares and engines.
The P-80 went into squadron service in the Spring of 1946. Eventually, after further problems had been overcome; the F-80 Shooting Star in it's later models, the F-80B and F-80C, became one of the successes of the Korean War; and was deployed by the United States Air Force to it's squadrons all over the world. When production of the F-80C ceased in 1950, 1,731 of the aircraft had been produced and delivered to the Air Force.
The second YP-80A prototype, 44-84988, was completed in 1944 as the XF-14; a reconnaissance version of the basic fighter. It had a redesigned nose that rotated forward for servicing and carried only vertical seeing cameras. It was unarmed. The XF-14 was followed by the XFP-80A which was a reconnaissance version of the P-80A; and was further modified to include side looking oblique and forward looking cameras. The RF-80A was designated as such in 1948 and carried three or four cameras capable of side, downward and forward observation. A later modification was the installation of a wire recorder for use on visual reconnaissance missions. Such a recorder enabled the pilot to record, for example, moving objects that would not necessarily have been apparent on film.
The RF-80A saw service in Korea, together with the RF-80C; and the aircraft acquitted itself well. In spite of a great deal of very dangerous and difficult work, only one RF-80 was shot down. The 67th Tactical Reconnaissance Wing flew literally hundreds of sorties down "Mig Alley" alone and unarmed.
In 1952, the United Air Force brought the RF-80A to Europe. This was part of the prolonged build up in the U.S. Forces which had commenced in July 1949 with the arrival of the F-80's of the 56th Fighter Group. Under the leadership of General Curtis E. LeMay, Commander of U.S.A.F.E.; the build up of front line aircraft was to continue well into the 1950's and beyond. New and reconstructed bases were established in Germany, France and the United Kingdom to house the new wings and squadrons brought in to counter the threat of the Soviet Union and it's allies; a threat that had become terrifyingly real with the blockade of Berlin in June 1948.
In pace with the massive build up in Europe, there developed the necessity to introduce tactical reconnaissance to support the army and airforce in the battlefield arena; both in terms of photographing battlefield targets, visual reporting of troop and armour movements, and artillery support. Later, the electronic mission was to grow in importance; from the identifying and monitoring of Warsaw Pact radar and other 'electronic emissions' to the development of effective countermeasures.
The 117th Tactical Reconnaissance Wing came to Europe on 27th January 1952, when the tired and somewhat disgruntled men and women disembarked from the U.S.S. General Haan at Bremerhaven in North Germany. The visit was due to locate to Toul Rosiere in France, but Toul was not finished so the three squadrons of the wing were dispersed to Furstenfeldbruck, Neubiberg and Weisbaden. The 157th and the 160th Tactical Reconnaissance Squadrons (Photo Jet); both of which had recently converted to the Lockheed RF-80A, went to Neubiberg and Furstenfeldbruck, respectively.
The RF-80A's were flown from the United States over the northern route. The flight was a very broken one. Flying from Lawson A.F.B. in Georgia, the aircraft first flew to Dow A.F.B. in Main and thence to Goose Bay, Labrador, Blue West One in Greenland, Keflavik in Iceland, Prestwick in Scotland, Burtonwood in England and then onward to Germany. Exercise Fox Able 14, as the movement was called, was relatively successful. There were no accidents, although the pilots complained bitterly about inadequate survival clothing and bad weather forecasting. The RF-80's of the 160 TRS had actually taken off from Dow and arrived at Goose Bay, only to discover that they couldn't land, due to snow. Fortunately, they had enough fuel to return to Dow. On approach to Keflavik, Col.Maynard T. Swartz suffered the bends at 32,000 feet, when a nitrogen bubble lodged in his brain. Fortunately, he was led down by his wingman and was talked down by colleagues on the ground.
The mission of the 117th TRW was to provide tactical, visual, photographic and electronic reconnaissance by both day and night, as was required by the military forces within the European command. The RF.80's were responsible for the daylight operations.
On 3rd March 1952; the two RF.80A squadrons commenced operations, flying familiarisation flights over their new homeland. At the end of March, the 157 TRS was required to provide visual reconnaissance for an army manoeuvre. In fact, all operations during March and early April were visual as there was, at the time, a shortage of camera spares and inadequate processing facilities. Even when photographic missions began in earnest in April, these two factors were to have a marked effect on success. Unfortunately, another adverse indication in these early days was the shortage of aircraft spares; some of which were not even stocked in Europe!
In June 1952, the 117th was involved in Exercise 'June Primer'. This exercise took place in an area bordered by a line drawn from Cherbourg to Geneva in the east and in the west by this Swiss, Austrian and Russian occupation zone borders. The two RF-80 squadrons had to complete a number of varying missions, including vertical photography of prospective paratroop air drop zones, oblique photos of the Rhine and Danube river bridges, vertical photography of the airfields of Jever, Fassburg, Celle, Sundorf and Gutersloh and various visual missions on behalf of the seventh army, including artillery adjustment for the 816th field artillery. The 157th TRS had had wire recorders fitted to five of its RF-80's prior to June Primer and these greatly facilitated the latter missions.
Of considerable note at this time was that the 117th TRW succeeded in June Primer and other missions in spite of being disadvantaged by the problems outlined earlier.
On July 10th, 1952, the 117th Tactical Reconnaissance Wing was returned on paper to the United States and all it's assets in Europe were taken over by the newly reactivated 10th tactical Reconnaissance Wing. The 157th T.R.S. became the 32nd TRS and the 160th TRS was redesignated the 38th TRS Both units remained with their RF-80's at Fursty and Neubiberg respectively.
In the early days of the 10th TRW, the biggest impediment to mission success was the European weather. Quite a backlog of missions built up and, at this time, a far reaching decision was made to look further afield for a more suitable environment to train and practice. Captain's Moak and Ramsey of the 32nd TRS flew to North Africa to photograph Sidi Salamaine and Nousseur Air Bases in Morocco. These two bases shortly came into regular use as 'fair weather fields'.
Like the 117th, however, the 10th TRW was dogged by supply problems. In November 1952, of the eighteen RF-80's of the 32 TRS; only one was flyable; the remaining seventeen all needing flap activators. The accident rate at this time was quite high, also. Between July and September, six RF-80's were damaged in accidents: three had made emergency landings in fields and three had been damaged when one aircraft had jumped its chocks and collided with two others. One of those which had made an emergency landing was put down with considerable skill by Captain Dixon in a field near Augsburg. Proudly exiting his relatively undamaged machine, he was horrified to witness a worried German farmer throwing a heavy chain, which was attached to a tractor, around his vertical stabilizer. Difficulties with the language and his obvious dismay did not deter the farmer from dragging his aircraft from the vicinity of a nearly haystack, by the tail. The result of this was severe damage to the entire rear of the aircraft.
On 19th July 1953, thirty two more RF-80's arrived in Sembach, Germany as part of the 66th Tactical Reconnaissance Wing. Both the 302nd TRS and the 303rd TRS were attached to the 66th flying the RF-80's. At this time, also, the 10th TRW squadrons located to Spangdahlem, in Germany.
The 302nd TRS commenced operations just three days after arrival at Sembach. For both the 66 TRW and 19 TRW., the months of July to September were very successful in mission terms. This was due, in the main, to the relatively good weather in Northern Europe. On 23nd July ' Operation Coronet' commenced and the RF-80's flew 261 missions.
One of the problems facing U.S.A.F.E. Command, having two similarly equipped tactical reconnaissance wings at their disposal, was to avoid mission and operations duplication. A decision was made that the 10th TRW should confine itself to the allied zones of Germany and the 66th TRW to the allied zones of Austria.
The autumn and winter of 1953 brought appalling weather conditions to northern Europe and a multitude of problems to all the tactical units of U.S.A.F.E. The mission backlog of all the squadrons of the 10th and 66th TRW became acute. All exercises were severely compromised; often by the aircraft being not able to get off the ground. The cameras of the RF-80's had to be rotated and spend one day per week in the hot box to thoroughly dry out. Excessive condensation between the lenses, because of extremes of temperature, had the potential of causing a fungal growth which forced the lenses apart and severely impaired the camera's effectiveness. It was during the time that regular deployments to North Africa began, when, in November, several RF-80's of the 302 TRS deployed them.
1954 saw both the 10th TRW and the 66th TRW facing reequipment. It was acknowledged that the RF-80 was obsolete and replacement would need to be found. In March, the accident rate to the RF-80's of the 32 TRS bore witness to the acute problems that were being experienced with these aircraft. On the 5th March, aircraft 45-8459 caught fire over Belgium and crashed. On 12th March, Col. William Rodenbach barely succeeded in landing his machine after losing an engine access door. On 20th March, aircraft 45-8465 crashed at Bitburg, killing the pilot. It was decided to replace the RF-80A with the Republic RF-84F Thunderflash. This conversion was due to commence in 1955 and in the latter part of 1954, pilots from the 32, 38, 302 and 303 T.R.S. commenced training at R.A.F. Bentwaters and at Amarillo, Texas, in the U.S.A.
However, during the latter part of 1954 and early 1955, more favourable weather did allow the RF-80's to complete a relatively high number of successful missions. The 302 TRS took part in exercise Blue Danube and sent four aircraft to Vaerlose in Denmark for a 25 day joint training exercise with the Danish Air Force. The 302 TRS deployed to Giebelstadt and photographed some 21 army required targets and 15 weather recce missions. This visit was also given the task of taking oblique photos of castles and other places in Germany for publicity purposes.
The Spring of 1955 saw some uncharacteristically good weather in Northern Europe, and both the 38th and 302 TRS' broke all previous records in terms of missions flown. Deployments to sunnier climes continued unabated during the early months of 1955. In February, four RF-80's of the 32nd TRS detached to Morocco for ten days, and six RF-80's went to Wheelus in Libya.
On 17th May 1955, the 66th TRW held an Armed Forces Day at Sembach. An RF-80 four ship display team was put into the show and, by all accounts, acquitted itself very well.
In June 1955, there occurred an exercise which underlined how sorely needed was a replacement for the RF-80. Exercise Carte Blanche was one of the largest exercises staged by the NATO Powers and was designed to test the latest concepts in dispersal, tactical air control and execution of alert plans in the event of an atomic war. For the purposes of the exercise, the 12th Air Force and the 4th Allied Tactical Air Force were pitted against the forces of the 2nd Allied Tactical Air Force. The 66th TRW was tasked with providing reconnaissance on behalf of the former antagonist. During the exercise, the 66th TRW flew a total of 613 missions, the 303rd TRS alone was responsible for 242 of these 94 photos and 148 visual.
The RF-80 did not fare well. They were frequently and fatally intercepted by the Venoms and the Meteors of the 2nd A.T.A.F. and some fourteen were 'shot down'. Invariably, the RF-80 flew single missions. The enemy attacked in pairs or even fours. 'Running for home' often became the unarmed RF-80's only tactic. They were working at the limit of their range and had insufficient fuel for significant evasive manoeuvering. The whole practice of sending the unarmed RF-80's against heavily defended airfields was highlighted by 'Carte Blanche'. It was tantamount to ordering the pilots' death!
'Exercise Beware' which took place later in 1955 intensified the frustration building up in the RF-80 squadrons. The object of 'Beware' was to test the United Kingdom's air defences. Incursions by the RF-80's were invariably greeted by the R.A.F. with glee, as their superior fighters wreaked havoc among the aging photo jets!
From August 1955, the RF-84F Thunderflash began to arrive at both Sembach and Spangdahlem, but the RF-80 was to soldier on for a further year. During the early part of 1956, the aircraft was paradoxically called upon to stand in for the RF-84F and the RB-57, which were experiencing teething problems. In February, the 303rd TRS sent four RF-80's to Wheelus to relieve the 30th TRS RB-57's who were unable to complete their part in operation 'Sunflash'. The RB-57's were grounded due to an elevator problem. Although by mid 1956 both the 10th and 66th photo set squadron had fully converted to the RF-84F, some recurring maintenance problems with these aircraft necessitated them keeping a few RF-80's for emergencies.
However, by the end of 1956, all RF-80's had left Europe and returned to the United States.