Shooting Stars in Southern Skies: The Lockheed F-80 and T-33 in Latin American Service
By Matt Bittner
Author: Dan Hagedorn and Rob van Lijf
Publisher: European Airlines
ISBN: 978-82-93450-34-4
Binding: Hardcover
Pages: 176
While in the past not much was written in a single volume on the acquisition of United States (US) aircraft after WWII by Latin America countries, European Airlines and Dan Hagadorn are setting the record straight. With a number of Latin American countries obtaining the P-80 and T-33 this book tells of their acquisition by country, in order:
- The Very First Shooting Star's in Latin America, The Caribbean Air Command
- Enter the T-33 - Cuba
- Peruvian Pressure
- "Canadair's" for Colombia
- Peruvian Pressure
- Dominican Republic, Briefly
- Chile
- The Buffer State - Uruguay
- Brazil
- Shooting Stars on the Equator (Ecuador)
- Enter Mexico
- Central American Debut - Guatelamala
- Nicaragua Counters
- Limited Use Indeed - Honduras
- The Venezuelan-Salvadoran Connection
- Shooting Stars Over the Andes (Bolivia)
- And Finally, Paraguay
While the F-80 wasn't provided for in great numbers and didn't serve long, the T-33 had a better, longer life. In fact, Mexico and Bolivia are still flying them today. There is quite the wealth of information on these aircraft, each country having a table of all the airframes - when known - broken out by initial USAF/USN/Canadair serials and the transition of each aircraft into that country's air force. Numerous photos, most in color, help to round out the narrative of each aircraft.
Naturally there are color profiles. A lot of them and there are plenty of options for the modeler. In fact, a lot of the Latin America T-33s were very colorful, some of them in multicolor camouflage schemes. While the two aircraft are well represented in the other scales, it's not so in 1/144. The only two I know of are from OzMods - which requires modeling skill - and F-Toys which are difficult to find and can be expensive. In addition, I know of no 1/144 Latin America decals. Shame, really.
Overall this is a nicely done book. It's easy to read and the best resource for Latin American Shooting Stars. Highly recommended.
Many thanks go to European Airlines for the opportunity to review this book.