Designed by Clarence Johnson in the space of only 143 days, the Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star was the first operational jet fighter for the USAAF which although developed during World War II was too late to see combat. The P-80 was of conventional design, retaining the straight wing configuration that was common place with contemporary fighters but its performance figures were good enough to claim to a number of aviation landmarks, first of which was to claim the world speed record in mid 1947. Deployed to Europe during the Berlin Airlift, the P-80 quickly found itself involved in the Korean War where perhaps its most legendary accomplishment took place: on 8 November 1950, a P-80 piloted by Lt. Russell J. Brown shot down a Chinese MiG-15 in what was to become the very first jet versus jet combat in the history of aviation. Still, they were mostly relegated to ground attack duties given the superior dogfighting abilities of the F-86 and were slowly retired from front line service after the war although Air National Guard units still flew it as late as 1961. Foreign operators included Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Uruguay, and Yugoslavia while its T-33 trainer derivative would be used by over 40 countries.

First flown as the XP-80 on 8 January 1944, the prototype was powered by Halford H.1 turbojets which were later replaced by the J33 in the initial production P-80A. Numerous variants followed starting with the P-80B with provision for underwing ordinance as well as ejection seats, and the P-80C with more powerful turbines even more weapons capability. Finally, the TF-80C tandem two seat trainer was later known as the T-33 (T2V Seastar in USN service) and was exported worldwide with license production undertaken in Japan and Canada. All P-80s and their variants were redesignated after 1948 ast he F-80.