T-33A-1-LO designation? Info needed on T-33 Albania.

Thanks, just what I needed, now I have some info to go with the couple of photos my parents brought back from their trip to Albania. Although some sources said it was a recce plane, I expected it to be a normal ferry flight since it is a T-33.

It was not shot down but force landed in the unfinished runway of today’s Tirana airport that was being built at that time mostly by political prisoners. In fact three MiG 15 bis of the AAF were vectored on the T-33 the second time it entered the Albanian airpasce (it entered a first time, went out of it and than entered again in a sort of S flying path). The MiG-s approached it while the T-33 pilot being quite low on fuel was trying to find a suitable landing ground.

The poor Albanian prisoners cheered up while the plane was circling the airfield, assuming the West was finally comming to their rescue. Evidently they were completely mesmerised when the plane landed and the pilot was soon afer surrounded by armed guards and escorted away.

But was it shot down (appears to have been virtually undamaged, the weather and local children did more damage over the years), forced to land, or just ran out of fuel?

The T-33 was on a transit flight to become a hack for some USAFE unit in Greece, being originally based at some US base in France. The pilot’s navigation left a bit to be desired, and oops.

Alright! Thanks, I feel a bit stupid, I actually visited that website, but was blinded by the amount of info there, so missed the basic scheme. But now it makes perfect sense, thanks Papa Lima.

Anyone with some information on the events surrounding this aircraft on 23 Dec 1957, Albania?

This basic scheme is summarized as follows:

(prefix)(type)-(chron. num.)(variant)-(production block)-(factory)
where “type” is a letter indicating basic category of aircraft (P for pursuit, B for bomber, C for transport, etc) and “chron. num” is thechronological number of the aircraft of that particular type. The “prefix” was not always used; it designated special features or roles (such as X for experimental). The “variant” was a letter in the sequence A, B, C,….which indicated the version of that particular aircraft in order of its entry into service.

The “production-block” number was introduced in 1942 to keep track of relatively minor modifications of aircraft not deemed to be sufficiently significant to merit a separate variant letter.

The “factory” code was an innovation also introduced at the beginning of World War 2 to keep track of the large numbers of aircraft manufacturers coming on line in support of the war effort. It was a two-letter code which indicated the plant where the aircraft was manufactured. Often, the same aircraft would be built by two or more different manufacturers.

From http://home.att.net/~jbaugher1/Fdesig.html

So we have:
T-33A-1-LO
Trainer type 33 first batch made at the Lockheed factory