L-133 "Starjet" | |
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Role | Fighter |
National origin | United States |
Manufacturer | Lockheed Corporation |
Primary user | United States Army Air Forces |
The Lockheed L-133 was an exotic design started in 1939 which was proposed to be the first jet fighter of the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) during World War II. The radical design was to be powered by two axial-flow turbojets with an unusual blended wing-body canard design capable of 612 mph (985 km/h) in level flight. The USAAF rejected the 1942 proposal, but the effort speeded the development of the USAAF's first successful operational jet fighter, the P-80 Shooting Star, which did see limited service near the end of war. The P-80 was a less radical design with a single British-based Allison J33 engine, with a conventional tail.