United States ONLY Operational Jet of WW2

the second world war was the beginning of the age of jet aircraft Germany is perhaps most famously remembered for their role in the evolution of these planes their jet fighters and bombers would take to the Skies over Europe and wage a new war on the Allies but have you ever heard of the p80 shooting star this aircraft would be America's first operational jet fighter to be deployed into combat in today's video we look at the p80 shooting star during World War II if you enjoy this video and want to see more hit that subscribe button it's free and really helps the channel reach more history lovers like you the German meser Smith me262 was one of Hitler's famed Wonder Weapons and in an age of piston engines a jet powered aircraft certainly had the upper hand in most cases so once the Allies became aware of the me262 in 1943 they began working on their own versions for once the United States were behind the eightball the British were already advanced in their own testing of jet powered aircraft in the Years prior they agreed to supply the US with their hulford Goblin jet engines this therefore allowed the Americans to focus solely on building an aircraft rather than development of their own jet engine which would come later in May 1943 Loi began working on the development of the p8 incredibly they managed to turn around a prototype aircraft within 140 days this aircraft had straight Wings unlike the swept wings of the me262 also different to the meser Smith's jet engines being mounted on the wings the p80 designers chose to position the engine within the fuselage with the intakes on either side it had an overall length of 34 ft or 10 1/2 M and a wingspan of 38 ft or nearly 12 m a single pilot would operate the aircraft as testing began the performance of the p80 and its potential for the United States war effort became clear it managed to exceed 500 M or 800 km an hour its maneuverability was fairly decent but the testing was plagued by crushed aircraft and the death of at least two test pilots one of which was the top scoring Ace and Medal of Honor recipient major Richard bong who died in California testing the p80s capabilities following testing numerous variants were created and changes to the aircraft design and jet engine would see the first 12 aircraft Ready for War in late 1944 four of the shooting stars were sent to Europe with two going to England and two to Italy unfortunately a British test pilot was also killed in one of the two aircraft during a flight in January 1945 for the other two in Italy they actually did see operational combat service they took part in reconnaissance flights during February and March 1945 but by this time Germany was well and truly on the ropes and they had limited aircraft available for the skies so the p80 wouldn't actually see any combat during the war due to its very late introduction however an order of 2,000 aircraft was still sent through to loed and by 1950 around 1,700 variants of the shooting star had been delivered interestingly in 1946 the p80 would become the first jet powered aircraft to cross the United States from coast to coast in a time a little over 4 hours the aircraft would see its first actual combat during the Korean War but with the superior enemy Mig 15s other United States jet aircraft were preferred by this time still this was a very interesting plane and the first operational American jet powered aircraft what did you think about the p8 shooting star if introduced to combat earlier in the war how do you think it would have performed let us know your thoughts in the comment section down below as always guys thanks for watching be sure to hit that subscribe button if you want to expand your knowledge and join the growing Premier history community