Misawa tip tanks - when exactly introduced?

[pivokrevnik]

My question is pretty much already summed up in the thread title.

When exactly were the Misawa tip tanks introduced on P-80 in Korea?

I read somewhere on the internet about September 1950, but I want to be sure.

I only assume it was after start of the war?

I would like to model one of the Shooting Stars - namely "Ramblin-Reck-Tew" - which shot down north Korean Il-10 in the very first engagement in June 1950.

On the only photo I have this machine has Misawa tanks and HVAR rockets.

My assumption is, on the date of combat it had the original Lockheed tanks and no underwing pylons - being a pure interceptor at that time.

Right?

[AngstROM]

Good question! There is a photo of Lt. Dewald's 'Ramblin'-Reck-Tew' (with a miss-spelt caption!) on p. 41 of the Squadron In Action book, showing both rockets and Misawas installed, but no date is attributed. On that evidence(?), and the fact that 35th FBS moved around Korea during deployment, it would be tough to make that call. Even Joe Baugher doesn't seem to have a definitive answer!

[pivokrevnik]

yeah we both mention the same photo, but that was taken later - if nothing else, there is already a kill marking IIRC.

this is typical situation when I conduct extra research out of laziness, because the MIsawa tanks in the Sword kit require more adjustments and rescribing compared to the Lockheed ones (which are also a bit more aesthetic in my eyes)

[Admiral Puff]

I did some work on this a while back, and seem to recall such evidence as I could find (not that there was much) pointing to them being introduced just before the Korean unpleasantness began. My interest arose because two pilots from 77RAAF were assigned to an American F-80 unit just before the Squadron converted to Meteors, to get some experience of jet operations and US operating procedures. At least one of the aircraft they flew had Misawas. I filed it all safely away, but since then I've moved house and now can't find it. I'll keep looking and let you know if I have any joy.

[AngstROM]

From what I can ascertain, the ungainly Misawa tanks were broadly intended to increase the range (no, really?!) of aircraft based in Japan and headed for Korea -a hell of a commute! Given their size and weight relative to the P-80/F-80, the trade-off in performance must have been considerable; any interceptor missions vs. nippy North Korean MiGs would be interesting with that much fuel sloshing around on each wingtip...

[Graham Boak]

According to the official history of the USAF in Korea: General Partridge was looking for additional range for the P-80 (date unspecified), so gave the problem to the 49th Fighter-Bomber Wing at Misawa. Lts. E R Johnston and R Eckman devised the extended tank. Air Material Command was unwilling to approve because of overstressing the wingtips, but early in June 1950 FEAF established a programme to provide one pair for every F-80. "During the first weeks of combat only one flight in four could be continually equipped"

Source: The United States Air Force in Korea 1950-1953" by R F Futrell of the USAF Historical Division, First published 1961.

[pivokrevnik]

Thanks guys. I am going with the Misawas.

As I found in the meantime, whole thing seems to be more complicated:

- there are two types of Misawa attachment to wings - with and without large aerodynamical fairing. Sword kit has the fairing as integral part of the tanks, as photo of Ramblin Reck Tew shows it without fairing, I will have to remake it a bit.

- there seem to be two general types of Misawa tanks: long, shaped like symmetrical, straight barrels, or shorter, with more curved ends, which look more like just original Lockheed tanks with one central section added (which is literally the way how Misawas were made, according to some sources). Luckily R-R-T seems to have the longer ones on the photo, and these are provided with Sword kit.

As for the armament, anyone has detail photo or drawing of the rocket mountings placement? It seems that typical configuration at that time were two rockets under each wing (as is shown on the In Action photo).

There probably would be the large pylons as well (for bombs or napalm), provided with the kit, but those would be left empty.