5 thoughts on “P-80-forced-landing”

1. I believe this picture is an excerpt from a longer article about four YP-80s that were deployed to Europe at the end of 1944 and the beginning of 1945. The planes did not see combat before Germany surrendered. After being returned from Europe, one of the four planes made an emergency landing in Letart, WV. My late father was a witness to the incident. The Army Air Force gave out very little information about the plane at the time, but locals knew that the jet was repaired, transported on a barge down the Ohio River to Cheshire, Ohio, and was flown away by using a long, straight stretch of highway as a runway. I’m pretty sure the above picture was actually taken in Ohio prior to the takeoff, as you can see a paved highway. From what I understand, the roads weren’t paved near the landing site in WV at the time. One thing I still don’t know is the reason for the emergency landing.

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   1. Thank you, Mike. Please see “This Day in Aviation” for 30 December 1944. The YP-80A that made the emergency landing in West Virginia (no, I don’t know why, either) was destroyed in a crash near Brandenburg, Kentucky, 2 August 1945.

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      1. Thanks Bryan. Yes, I learned about the Kentucky crash recently. I’ve come to the conclusion that flying the early P-80s was not the safest activity. The courage and sacrifice of the P-80 test pilots eventually led to a plane the Air Force relied upon heavily in Korea.

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         1. As in the earliest days of aviation, the test pilots of the late ’40s and early ’50s paid a very high price for every advancement in knowledge. As Otto Lilienthal said as he lay dying after crashing on of his gliders, “Sacrifices must be made.” (https://www.thisdayinaviation.com/9-august-1896/)

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2. I forgot to mention that the emergency landing happened on July 5th, 1945.

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