F-80 Shooting Star Units of the Korean War (Thompson Warren (Author))(Paperback / softback)

A fully illustrated study of the US Korean War fighter that fought in the first ever jet-versus-jet engagement in the history of aviation. Filled with first-hand accounts and rare color photographs taken by the veterans themselves, this is the engrossing story of the pioneering F-80 Shooting Star. Built within a 180-day time limit in 1943, the F-80 Shooting Star first saw service in Italy in the final year of World War 2, and consequently was sent to bases in the US, Europe and the Far East after VJ Day. It was the latter groups based in Japan that initially bore the brunt of the early fighting in Korea, engaging MiG-15s in the world's first jet-versus-jet combat. Flown principally by the 8th and 49th Fighter Bomber Wings, the F-80 served until the end of the war, completing an astonishing 98,515 combat sorties, shooting down 17 aircraft (including three of the
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