Lockheed F-94 Starfire

The Lockheed F-94 Starfire is a first-generation jet-powered all-weather day and night interceptor designed and produced by Lockheed Corporation. Put into production in 1949, it was the first operational United States Air Force fighter equipped with an afterburner and the first jet-powered all-weather fighter to enter combat, during the Korean War. It was built to a 1948 USAF specification for an interceptor to replace piston-engined types, and was a relatively simple conversion of the Lockheed T-33 Shooting Star trainer, with a larger nose holding guns, radar and an automatic fire-control system and an afterburner added to the Allison J33 engine. The prototype YF-94 first flew on 16 April 1949 and the F-94A reached Air Defense Command service in May 1950, followed by the F-94B and the F-94C with a thinner wing and a Pratt and Whitney J48 engine. It had a brief operational life, replaced from the mid-1950s by the Northrop F-89 Scorpion and the North American F-86D Sabre.