The Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star was 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, production models were flying, and two pre-production models did see very limited service in Italy just before the end of World War II. Designed with straight wings, the type saw extensive combat in Korea with the United States Air Force (USAF) as the F-80.
The original XP-80 prototype Lulu-Belle
XP-80A Gray Ghost in flight
Operational P-80Bs at Langley AFB
The Lockheed Corporation was an American aerospace manufacturer. Lockheed was founded in 1926 and merged in 1995 with Martin Marietta to form Lockheed Martin. Its founder, Allan Lockheed, had earlier founded the similarly named but otherwise-unrelated Loughead Aircraft Manufacturing Company, which was operational from 1912 to 1920.
P-38J Lightning Yippee
P-38 Lightning assembly line at the Lockheed plant, Burbank, California, in World War II. In June 1943, this assembly line was reconfigured into a mechanized line, which more than doubled the rate of production. The transition to the new system was accomplished in only eight days. During this time production never stopped. It was continued outdoors.
A Lockheed L-049 Constellation sporting the livery of Trans World Airlines at the Pima Air & Space Museum
The Lockheed U-2, which first flew in 1955, provided intelligence on Soviet bloc countries.