Lockheed F-94 Starfire

The Lockheed F-94 Starfire was an early jet all-weather interceptor and the first U.S. Air Force fighter to enter service with an afterburner. Developed quickly from the two-seat T-33 trainer, itself a derivative of the F-80 Shooting Star, the Starfire added a radar in the nose and a radar operator behind the pilot to give Air Defense Command a night- and bad-weather fighter at the start of the 1950s. The prototype first flew in 1949, and the type saw combat in the Korean War, becoming the first American jet all-weather fighter to fight there.

Early F-94A and B models used the Allison J33 and carried machine guns; the heavily revised F-94C Starfire adopted the more powerful Pratt & Whitney J48 and an all-rocket armament. Built by Lockheed, the Starfire bridged the gap between wartime piston interceptors and the dedicated supersonic interceptors that would follow later in the decade.