Delaware Valley Historical Aircraft Association

History

By Bob Esposito

The TV-1 in the DVHAA Collection is USN Bureau #33824 (former USAF F-80C, s/n: 47-221). This aircraft was accepted by the US Navy on July 19th, 1948. Squadron assignments included: VF-52, NAS North Island, CA 1948-49, ATU-6, NAS Corpus Christi, TX 1949, JTU-1 NAS Whiting Field, FL, 1949-1951, ATU-3 NAS Kingsville, TX, 1951-52, ATU-200 NAS Kingsville, TX, 1952-54, NART St. Louis 1954, NART Oakland, CA 1954-56, Delivered to NAS Willow Grove, March 1956 (stricken off and not flown again). Total flight time on this airframe came to 1731 hours.

The US Navy received an initial batch of three P-80A's from the USAF during 1945. One of these (Bu# 29668) was fitted with an arrestor hook and used for deck landing trials aboard the USS Franklin D. Roosevelt. USMC Major General (then Major) Marion E. Carl (yes, that Marion E. Carl!) made a number of full length deck run takeoff's and the first two recorded catapult launches of any jet aircraft in the world. However, all said and done, the P-80 was not deemed carrier suitable for a number of reasons, particularly the fact that it responded too slow to power changes required to safely land aboard ship, and the airframe was not stressed for carrier operations anyway.

#33824 was one of fifty P-80C's obtained from the USAF in 1948 for use as advanced jet trainers. Initially the Navy designated them "TO-1"'s, and then changed the designation to "TV-1". The T-33's that came later were designated the TV-2. None of the TV-1's were fitted with arresting gear. Despite their training role, 16 of the TV-1s were used to outfit a Marine fighter squadron (VMF-311) in late 1948.