Please reference paragraph 5.
The 1st Fighter Group in World War II, by John D. Mullins, the aircraft were
"...brought over in early April by a Wright Field contingent, "for testing under combat conditions in a remote location" ' and were quickly dubbed the "33rd Air Force". This taken from another discussion between the original poster and Mr. Mullins, the author of the book, states,
"One of the 1st FG pilots, Major Ed LaClare, logged two flights on the YP-80A. Mr. James Bertoglio, then a photographer with the 94th FS, who provided most of the pictures (for the book), clearly remembers one mission being flown "up north", i.e. toward the front line. Bertoglio also recalled the oddity of the aircraft being flown by both test and
operational pilots, but being maintained exclusively by civilian personnel (Lockheed?).
In Bill Yenne's book
Lockheed, reference is made to YP-80s
"flying a few patrols but encountering no enemy aircraft."Now we can look into secondary sources...so take these for what they're worth...
From the Jets45 website:
In December 1944 Four YP80As were deployed to Europe to boost the morale of the USAAF combat crews, the four YP-80A's were sent to England for tests and demonstrations were two crashed the first in mid December killing it's pilot and another in November 1945. Two were sent to Italy in April 1945, where they actually took part in operational sorties.From another discussion forum. Here, the original poster is a rather well-known aviation historian...
Spurred by the appearance of the German jet and rocket fighters, the USAAF decided to show the bomber crews that had to deal, day in and day out, with the new menace that 'help was on the way' and that also 'the good guys' had not been sitting idle and were developing the new 'blowtorch technology'.
The code word "Extraversion" was assigned to the Project, on November 13, 1944, pursuant to verbal request by Col. George E. Price (head of the project), by The War Department, Headquarter of the Army Air Forces, Washington D.C.
I have a copy of the original letter, signed by R.C. Wilson, Colonel AC, Chief, Aircraft Projects Br., Materiel Division, AC/AS, Materiel & Services, where the aircraft are indicated as "...special XP-80A project for ETO and MTO."
The four aircraft, earmarked for this Project were actually all YP-80As.
S/N 44-83026, c/n 1005 (ETO)
S/N 44-83027, c/n 1006 (ETO)
S/N 44-83028, c/n 1007 (MTO)
S/N 44-83029, c/n 1008 (MTO)
There is stong evidence this project received the highest priority from 'the powers that be', so much so that, in some cases, the lack of spares/items had to be made good by cannibalization performed on some of the aircraft used in the development program.
The ETO aircraft were disassembled, boxed and shipped as deck cargo to Burtonwood, England, on Dec. 15, 1944, arriving in the U.K on December 30. It took a whole month, to reassemble and get the two aircraft ready, the extremely cold weather being appearently a major factor.
The two pilots, Col. Marcus Cooper and Major Fredric Austin Borsodi, of the Air Technical Service Command HQ, based at Wright Field, arrived sometimes in January 1945, and Col. Cooper took 44-86026 on the type's first flight outside the U.S.
Maj. Borsodi was at the controls of the same aircraft, on Jan.28, when a failure in tension of the tail-pipe flange caused part of the hot gasses to exhaust inside the after section of the fuselage,with varying degree of damage to the tail surfaces and rear empenage disintegration. Borsodi lost control of the aircraft which crashed on farmland, near Bold. Borsodi was killed.
44-83027 was loaned to The Rolls Royce Engine Company, for flight tests of their B.41 (Nene) engine and was destroyed in an accident on Nov. 14, 1945.
Although the MTO aircraft performed far better, at least from the operational point of view, much less is known as of their operational service. I have obtained a copy of the two Individual Aircraft History Cards and their contents can be best described as 'skimpy and vague'.
44-83028 is shown as departing the Con-U.S. on Dec. 26, 1944 for overseas destination code DUKO, MET (Italy, 12th A.F.). It is then listed as being back to the Con-U.S. (an Air Materiel Command in Buffalo, NY) on June 16, 1945
44-83029 is shown as departing the Con-U.S. for an unreported overseas destination on Dec. 26, 1944, returning from same on Jun. 16, 1945.
A well known photograph of the two aircraft formating Ner Mt. Vesuvius, near Naples, taken by what appears to be an Olive Drab painted F-6 Photo-Mustang, has appeared in several publications.
Some considerations: although the MTO aircraft were shipped 11 days after the ETO aircraft were, the far less inclement weather of Southern Italy makes it - my humble opinion only - not unlikely the MTO aircraft were first flown around the same time their ETO counterparts first flew.
Another rumor has it that they were shipped to the relatively safer MTO to intercept the Arado Ar.234, that were flying recon missions from Udine, in Northern Italy. However, considering there are no records of German jets operating from, or over Italy, before February 1945, this cannot be!
I want to take advantage of this forum to thank Mr. Dan Hagerdon of the Archives Reference team of the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum and Mr. David A. Giordano of the Modern Military Records, Textual Archives Services Division of the Natl. Archives & Records Adm., in College Park, MD, for providing me with the best information on the MTO Project Extraversion aircraft I've been, so far, able to obtain.
I hope I'll be able, someday, to write the full story of this fascinating a so little known piece of WW2 history.
Now, I personally know Dan Hagerdon, and at the time (1995-96) David Giordano actually provided me with documentation on a naval project I was working on - so these are real people, and it is obvious that the OP was doing real research.
I will yield the floor to listen to your cited sources that counter these claims.
