The Lockheed T-33 Shooting Star (or T-Bird) was an American subsonic jet trainer.
It was manufactured by Lockheed and made its maiden flight in 1948.
The T-33 was developed from the Lockheed P-80/F-80 and was designated the T-33A.
It was first used by the US Navy as the TO-2, then as the TV-2 and after 1962 as the T-33B.
The German Air Force received 192 T-33As as initial equipment from 1956 to 1959 as part of the Mutual Defense Assistance program. The first flight of a T-33A in the colors of the new Luftwaffe was publicly staged on September 24, 1956 in Fürstenfeldbruck, where it was an American machine that was only given the German national insignia for the press event. The largest user of the T-33 was the Flugführerschule (FFS) B in Fürstenfeldbruck, which received 122 machines and was responsible for the advanced training of prospective jet pilots of the responsible air force. With the restructuring of jet pilot training in the Air Force and the associated relocation of training in the USA at the beginning of the 1960s, the T-33 was increasingly used as a liaison aircraft and for internal training and exercise.
The machines achieved almost 200,000 flight hours in the Luftwaffe before they were finally taken out of service in 1976, before some of them were transferred to Greece and Turkey.
plastic model kit
1:48 scale
unbuilt / unpainted
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