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Ruth Dailey climbs into a P-38. The Lockheed P-38 Lightning is a -era American piston-engined.

Developed for the, the P-38 had distinctive and a central containing the cockpit and armament. Allied propaganda claimed it had been nicknamed the fork-tailed devil (: der Gabelschwanz-Teufel) by the and 'two planes, one pilot' ( 2飛行機、1パイロット, Ni hikōki, ippairotto) by the Japanese. The P-38 was used for interception,,,,,, radar and visual pathfinding for bombers and evacuation missions, and extensively as a long- when equipped with under its wings. The P-38 was used most successfully in the and the as the aircraft of America's top, (40 victories), (38 victories) and (27 victories). In the, the P-38 was the primary long-range fighter of until the appearance of large numbers of toward the end of the war. The P-38 was unusually quiet for a fighter, since the exhaust was muffled by the. It was extremely forgiving and could be mishandled in many ways but the rate of roll in the early versions was too low for it to excel as a dogfighter.

The design came immediately before WWII as a replacement for the aging Luger. The pistol was the. 01-01000, 1st Issue, high polish, black checkered grips, no suffix on serial number. AC40, Walther, 5942a-9965b, New German Alpha-Numerica serial number system used for remainder of the war. Jan 17, 2014. The science of Walther P-38 serial numbers is very subtle and fascinating. Keep in mind that WWII serial numbers are all alphanumeric with Walther production starting with an 'ac', Mauser made guns starting with 'byf' or 'svw', and Spreewerk pieces coded 'cyq'. After World War 2 in 1957, Walther started.

The P-38 was the only American fighter aircraft in high-volume production throughout American involvement in the war, from to. At the end of the war, orders for 1,887 more were cancelled. Contents • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Design and development [ ] designed the P-38 in response to a February 1937 specification from the. Circular Proposal X-608 was a set of aircraft performance goals authored by and for a twin-engine, high-altitude 'interceptor' having 'the tactical mission of interception and attack of hostile aircraft at high altitude.' In 1977, Kelsey recalled he and Saville drew up the specification using the word interceptor as a way to bypass the inflexible Army Air Corps requirement for pursuit aircraft to carry no more than 500 lb (230 kg) of armament including ammunition, as well as the restriction of single-seat aircraft to one engine. Kelsey was looking for a minimum of 1,000 lb (450 kg) of armament.

Kelsey and Saville aimed to get a more capable fighter, better at dog-fighting and at high-altitude combat. Specifications called for a maximum airspeed of at least 360 mph (580 km/h) at altitude, and a climb to 20,000 ft (6,100 m) within six minutes, the toughest set of specifications USAAC had ever presented.

The unbuilt XP1015 was designed to the same requirement, but was not advanced enough to merit further investigation. A similar single-engine proposal was issued at the same time, Circular Proposal X-609, in response to which the was designed. Both proposals required liquid-cooled engines with turbo-superchargers and gave extra points for. P-38 armament, concentrated in the nose of the aircraft The Lockheed design team, under the direction of and, considered a range of twin-engine configurations, including both engines in a central fuselage with push–pull propellers. The eventual configuration was rare in terms of contemporary fighter aircraft design, with only the preceding, the contemporary Luftwaffe reconnaissance aircraft, and the later night fighter having a similar. The Lockheed team chose twin booms to accommodate the tail assembly, engines, and turbo-superchargers, with a central nacelle for the pilot and armament.

The XP-38 gondola mockup was designed to mount two.50-caliber (12.7 mm) with 200 rounds per gun (rpg), two.30-caliber (7.62 mm) Brownings with 500 rpg, and a T1 Army Ordnance 23 mm (.90 in) with a rotary magazine as a substitute for the non-existent 25 mm aircraft autocannon specified by Kelsey and Saville. In the YP-38s, a with 15 rounds replaced the T1. The 15 rounds were in three five-round clips, an unsatisfactory arrangement according to Kelsey, and the M9 did not perform reliably in flight.

Further armament experiments from March to June 1941 resulted in the P-38E combat configuration of four M2 Browning machine guns, and one 20 mm (.79 in) autocannon with 150 rounds. Clustering all the armament in the nose was unusual in U.S. Aircraft, which typically used wing-mounted guns with trajectories set up to crisscross at one or more points in a. Nose-mounted guns did not suffer from having their useful ranges limited by pattern convergence, meaning that good pilots could shoot much farther.

A Lightning could reliably hit targets at any range up to 1,000 yd (910 m), whereas the wing guns of other fighters were optimized for a specific range. The was about 650 rounds per minute for the 20×110 mm cannon round (130-gram shell) at a muzzle velocity of about 2,850 ft/s (870 m/s), and for the.50-caliber machine guns (51-gram rounds), about 850 rpm at 2,900 ft/s (880 m/s) velocity. Combined rate of fire was over 4,000 rpm with roughly every sixth projectile a 20 mm shell. The duration of sustained firing for the 20 mm cannon was approximately 14 seconds while the.50-caliber machine guns worked for 35 seconds if each magazine was fully loaded with 500 rounds, or for 21 seconds if 300 rounds were loaded to save weight for long distance flying. The Lockheed design incorporated tricycle undercarriage and a bubble canopy, and featured two 1,000 hp (750 kW) 12-cylinder Allison V-1710 engines fitted with to eliminate the effect of engine, with the turbochargers positioned behind the engines, the exhaust side of the units exposed along the dorsal surfaces of the booms. Counter-rotation was achieved by the use of 'handed' engines, which meant the crankshaft of each engine turned in the opposite direction of its counterpart, a relatively easy task for as the V-1710. The P-38 was the first American fighter to make extensive use of stainless steel and smooth, flush-riveted butt-jointed aluminum skin panels.

It was also the first military airplane to fly faster than 400 mph (640 km/h) in level flight. XP-38 and YP-38 prototypes [ ] Lockheed won the competition on 23 June 1937 with its Model 22 and was contracted to build a prototype XP-38 for US$163,000, though Lockheed's own costs on the prototype would add up to US$761,000.

Construction began in July 1938, and the XP-38 first flew on 27 January 1939 at the hands of Ben Kelsey. One of 13 YP-38s constructed Kelsey then proposed a speed dash to on 11 February 1939 to relocate the aircraft for further testing., commander of the USAAC, approved of the record attempt and recommended a cross-country flight to New York.

The flight set a speed record by flying from California to New York in seven hours and two minutes, not counting two refueling stops, but the aircraft was downed by carburetor icing short of the runway in and was wrecked. However, on the basis of the record flight, the Air Corps ordered 13 YP-38s on 27 April 1939 for US$134,284 each. (The 'Y' in 'YP' was the USAAC's designation for a, while the 'X' in 'XP' was for.) Lockheed's Chief angrily characterized the accident as an unnecessary publicity stunt, but according to Kelsey, the loss of the prototype, rather than hampering the program, sped the process by cutting short the initial test series. The success of the aircraft design contributed to Kelsey's promotion to captain in May 1939. Mechanized P-38 in.

Planes start at the back of the building on the far right (without wings, so that section of the line is narrower). When they reach the end of that line, they shift to the center line, grow wings, and move backward down this line. Upon reaching the end, they are then shifted to the line at the left, and progress forward to the end of the line.

Manufacture of YP-38s fell behind schedule, at least partly because of the need for mass-production suitability making them substantially different in construction from the prototype. Another factor was the sudden required expansion of Lockheed's facility in, taking it from a specialized civilian firm dealing with small orders to a large government defense contractor making,,,, and designing the for. The first YP-38 was not completed until September 1940, with its maiden flight on 17 September. The 13th and final YP-38 was delivered to the Air Corps in June 1941; 12 aircraft were retained for flight testing and one for destructive stress testing.

The YPs were substantially redesigned and differed greatly in detail from the hand-built XP-38. They were lighter and included changes in engine fit. The propeller rotation was reversed, with the blades spinning outward (away from the ) at the top of their arc, rather than inward as before. This improved the aircraft's stability as a gunnery platform. High-speed compressibility problems [ ]. View of a P-38G cockpit. Note the yoke, rather than the more-usual stick.

Test flights revealed problems initially believed to be tail. During high-speed flight approaching Mach 0.68, especially during dives, the aircraft's tail would begin to shake violently and the nose would tuck under, steepening the dive. Once caught in this dive, the fighter would enter a high-speed and the controls would lock up, leaving the pilot no option but to bail out (if possible) or remain with the aircraft until it got down to denser air, where he might have a chance to pull out. During a test flight in May 1941, USAAC Major Signa Gilkey managed to stay with a YP-38 in a compressibility lockup, riding it out until he recovered gradually using.

Lockheed engineers were very concerned at this limitation but first had to concentrate on filling the current order of aircraft., the Army Air Corps was renamed the (USAAF), and a total of 65 Lightnings were finished for the service by September 1941 with more on the way for the USAAF, the (RAF), and the Free French Air Force operating from England. By November 1941, many of the initial assembly-line challenges had been met, which freed up time for the engineering team to tackle the problem of frozen controls in a dive. Lockheed had a few ideas for tests that would help them find an answer. The first solution tried was the fitting of spring-loaded servo tabs on the elevator trailing edge designed to aid the pilot when control yoke forces rose over 30 pounds-force (130 N), as would be expected in a high-speed dive. At that point, the tabs would begin to multiply the effort of the pilot's actions.

The expert test pilot, 43-year-old Ralph Virden, was given a specific high-altitude test sequence to follow and was told to restrict his speed and fast maneuvering in denser air at low altitudes, since the new mechanism could exert tremendous leverage under those conditions. A note was taped to the instrument panel of the test craft underscoring this instruction. On 4 November 1941, Virden climbed into YP-38 #1 and completed the test sequence successfully, but 15 minutes later was seen in a steep dive followed by a high-G pullout. The tail unit of the aircraft failed at about 3,500 ft (1,000 m) during the high-speed dive recovery; Virden was killed in the subsequent crash. The Lockheed design office was justifiably upset, but their design engineers could only conclude that servo tabs were not the solution for loss of control in a dive.

Lockheed still had to find the problem; the Army Air Forces personnel were sure it was flutter and ordered Lockheed to look more closely at the tail. In 1941 flutter was a familiar engineering problem related to a too-flexible tail, but the P-38's was completely skinned in aluminum rather than fabric and was quite rigid. At no time did the P-38 suffer from true flutter. To prove a point, one elevator and its vertical stabilizers were skinned with metal 63% thicker than standard, but the increase in rigidity made no difference in vibration. Army Kenneth B.

Wolfe (head of Army Production Engineering) asked Lockheed to try external mass balances above and below the elevator, though the P-38 already had large mass balances elegantly placed within each vertical stabilizer. Various configurations of external mass balances were equipped, and dangerously steep test flights were flown to document their performance. Explaining to Wolfe in Report No. 2414, Kelly Johnson wrote 'the violence of the vibration was unchanged and the diving tendency was naturally the same for all conditions.' The external mass balances did not help at all. Nonetheless, at Wolfe's insistence, the additional external balances were a feature of every P-38 built from then on. P-38 pilot training manual compressibility chart shows speed limit vs.

Johnson said in his autobiography that he pleaded with to do model tests in its wind tunnel. They already had experience of models thrashing around violently at speeds approaching those requested and did not want to risk damaging their tunnel. Arnold, head of Army Air Forces, ordered them to run the tests, which were done up to Mach 0.74. The P-38's dive problem was revealed to be the moving back toward the tail when in high-speed airflow.

The solution was to change the geometry of the wing's lower surface when diving in order to keep lift within bounds of the top of the wing. In February 1943, quick-acting dive flaps were tried and proven by Lockheed test pilots.

The dive flaps were installed outboard of the engine nacelles, and in action they extended downward 35° in 1.5 seconds. The flaps did not act as a speed brake; they affected the pressure distribution in a way that retained the wing's lift. Late in 1943, a few hundred dive flap field modification kits were assembled to give North African, European and Pacific P-38s a chance to withstand compressibility and expand their combat tactics. Unfortunately, these crucial flaps did not always reach their destination.

In March 1944, 200 dive flap kits intended for (ETO) P-38Js were destroyed in a mistaken incident in which an RAF fighter shot down the (mistaken for an ) taking the shipment to England. Back in Burbank, P-38Js coming off the assembly line in spring 1944 were towed out to the ramp and modified in the open air. The flaps were finally incorporated into the production line in June 1944 on the last 210 P-38Js. Despite testing having proved the dive flaps effective in improving tactical maneuvers, a 14-month delay in production limited their implementation, with only the final half of all Lightnings built having the dive flaps installed as an assembly-line sequence. Johnson later recalled: I broke an ulcer over compressibility on the P-38 because we flew into a speed range where no one had ever been before, and we had difficulty convincing people that it wasn't the funny-looking airplane itself, but a fundamental physical problem.

We found out what happened when the Lightning shed its tail and we worked during the whole war to get 15 more kn [28 km/h] of speed out of the P-38. We saw compressibility as a brick wall for a long time. Then we learned how to get through it. Was another early aerodynamic problem. It was difficult to distinguish from compressibility as both were reported by test pilots as 'tail shake'. Buffeting came about from airflow disturbances ahead of the tail; the airplane would shake at high speed. Leading edge wing slots were tried as were combinations of between the wing, cockpit and engine nacelles.

Air tunnel test number 15 solved the buffeting completely and its fillet solution was fitted to every subsequent P-38 airframe. Fillet kits were sent out to every squadron flying Lightnings.

The problem was traced to a 40% increase in air speed at the wing-fuselage junction where the thickness/chord ratio was highest. An airspeed of 500 mph (800 km/h) at 25,000 ft (7,600 m) could push airflow at the wing-fuselage junction close to the speed of sound. Filleting solved the buffeting problem for the P-38E and later models. Another issue with the P-38 arose from its unique design feature of outwardly rotating (at the 'tops' of the propeller arcs) counter-rotating propellers. Losing one of two engines in any twin-engine non- aircraft on takeoff creates sudden drag, yawing the nose toward the dead engine and rolling the wingtip down on the side of the dead engine.

Normal training in flying twin-engine aircraft when losing an engine on takeoff is to push the remaining engine to full throttle to maintain airspeed; if a pilot did that in the P-38, regardless of which engine had failed, the resulting engine torque and force produced a sudden uncontrollable yawing roll, and the aircraft would flip over and hit the ground. Eventually, procedures were taught to allow a pilot to deal with the situation by reducing power on the running engine, feathering the prop on the failed engine, and then increasing power gradually until the aircraft was in stable flight.

Single-engine takeoffs were possible, though not with a full fuel and ammunition load. This same design feature was present from its earliest days on both the Luftwaffe twin-engine ground-attack aircraft, and from the fourth prototype onwards of the otherwise troubled A heavy bomber. The engines were unusually quiet because the were by the turbo-superchargers on the twin. There were early problems with cockpit temperature regulation; pilots were often too hot in the tropical sun as the canopy could not be fully opened without severe buffeting and were often too cold in northern Europe and at high altitude, as the distance of the engines from the cockpit prevented easy heat transfer. Later variants received modifications (such as electrically heated flight suits) to solve these problems. P-38 rear view On 20 September 1939, before the YP-38s had been built and flight tested, the USAAF ordered 66 initial production P-38 Lightnings, 30 of which were delivered to the USAAF in mid-1941, but not all these aircraft were armed.

The unarmed aircraft were subsequently fitted with four.50 in (12.7 mm) machine guns (instead of the two.50 in/12.7 mm and two.30 in/7.62 mm of their predecessors) and a 37 mm (1.46 in) cannon. They also had armored glass, cockpit armor and cockpit controls. One was completed with a pressurized cabin on an experimental basis and designated XP-38A. Due to reports the USAAF was receiving from Europe, the remaining 36 in the batch were upgraded with small improvements such as and enhanced armor protection to make them combat-capable.

The USAAF specified that these 36 aircraft were to be designated P-38D. As a result, there never were any P-38Bs or P-38Cs. The P-38D's main role was to work out bugs and give the USAAF experience with handling the type. In March 1940, the and the, through the, ordered a total of 667 P-38s for US$100M, designated Model 322F for the French and Model 322B for the British.

The aircraft would be a variant of the P-38E. The overseas Allies wished for complete commonality of Allison engines with the large numbers of both nations had on order, and thus ordered the Model 322 twin right-handed engines instead of counter-rotating ones and without turbo-superchargers. Performance was supposed to be 400 mph (640 km/h) at 16,900 ft (5,200 m). After the fall of France in June 1940, the British took over the entire order and gave the aircraft the ' Lightning.'

By June 1941, the War Ministry had cause to reconsider their earlier aircraft specifications based on experience gathered in the and. British displeasure with the Lockheed order came to the fore in July, and on 5 August 1941 they modified the contract such that 143 aircraft would be delivered as previously ordered, to be known as 'Lightning (Mark) I,' and 524 would be upgraded to US-standard P-38E specifications with a top speed of 415 mph (668 km/h) at 20,000 ft (6,100 m) guaranteed, to be called 'Lightning II' for British service. Later that summer an RAF test pilot reported back from Burbank with a poor assessment of the 'tail flutter' situation, and the British cancelled all but three of the 143 Lightning Is. As a loss of approximately US$15M was involved, Lockheed reviewed their contracts and decided to hold the British to the original order. Negotiations grew bitter and stalled. Everything changed after the 7 December, 1941 after which the United States government seized some 40 of the Model 322s for defense; subsequently all British Lightnings were delivered to the USAAF starting in January 1942.

The USAAF lent the RAF three of the aircraft, which were delivered by sea in March 1942 and were test flown no earlier than May at Swaythling, the and the. The A&AEE example was unarmed, lacked turbochargers and restricted to 300 mph (480 km/h); though the undercarriage was praised and flight on one engine described as comfortable. These three were subsequently returned to the USAAF; one in December 1942 and the others in July 1943.

Of the remaining 140 Lightning Is, 19 were not modified and were designated by the USAAF as RP-322-I ('R' for 'Restricted', because non-counter-rotating propellers were considered more dangerous on takeoff), while 121 were converted to non-turbo-supercharged counter-rotating V-1710F-2 engines and designated P-322-II. All 121 were used as; a few were still serving that role in 1945. A few RP-322s were later used as test modification platforms such as for smoke-laying canisters. The RP-322 was a fairly fast aircraft below 16,000 ft (4,900 m) and well-behaved as a trainer. One result of the failed British/French order was to give the aircraft its name. Lockheed had originally dubbed the aircraft from Greek mythology in the company tradition of naming planes after mythological and celestial figures, but the RAF name won out.

Range extension [ ] The strategic bombing proponents within the USAAF, called the by their ideological opponents, had established in the early 1930s a policy against research to create long-range fighters, which they thought would not be practical; this kind of research was not to compete for bomber resources. Aircraft manufacturers understood that they would not be rewarded if they installed subsystems on their fighters to enable them to carry to provide more fuel for extended range. Lieutenant Kelsey, acting against this policy, risked his career in late 1941 when he convinced Lockheed to incorporate such subsystems in the P-38E model, without putting his request in writing.

It is possible that Kelsey was responding to Colonel 's observation that the US sorely needed a high-speed, long-range plane. Along with a specifying some P-38Es be produced without guns but with photo reconnaissance cameras, to be designated the F-4-1-LO, Lockheed began working out the problems of drop tank design and incorporation. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, eventually about 100 P-38Es were sent to a modification center near, or to the new Lockheed assembly plant B-6 (today the ), to be fitted with four K-17 cameras. All of these aircraft were also modified to be able to carry drop tanks.

P-38Fs were modified as well. Every Lightning from the P-38G onward was drop tank-capable off the assembly line. In March 1942, General Arnold made an off-hand comment that the US could avoid the by flying fighters to the UK (rather than packing them onto ships). Pressed the point, emphasizing his interest in the solution. Arnold was likely aware of the flying radius extension work being done on the P-38, which by this time had seen success with small drop tanks in the range of 150 to 165 US gal (570 to 620 L), the difference in capacity being the result of subcontractor production variation. Arnold ordered further tests with larger drop tanks in the range of 300 to 310 US gal (1,100 to 1,200 L); the results were reported by Kelsey as providing the P-38 with a 2,500-mile (4,000 km) ferrying range.

Because of available supply, the smaller drop tanks were used to fly Lightnings to the UK, the plan called. Led by two, the first seven P-38s, each carrying two small drop tanks, left on June 23, 1942 for in Scotland. Their first refueling stop was made in far northeast Canada. The second stop was a rough airstrip in Greenland called, and the third refueling stop was in Iceland. Other P-38s followed this route with some lost in mishaps, usually due to poor weather, low visibility, radio difficulties and navigational errors.

Nearly 200 of the P-38Fs (and a few modified Es) were successfully flown across the Atlantic in July–August 1942, making the P-38 the first USAAF fighter to reach Britain and the first fighter ever to be delivered across the Atlantic under its own power. Kelsey himself piloted one of the Lightnings, landing in Scotland on 25 July.

Operational history [ ]. Cocooned Lockheed P-38 Lightnings and North American Aviation P-51 Mustangs line the decks of a U.S. Navy Escort 'Jeep' Carrier (CVE) ready for shipment to Europe from New York. The first unit to receive P-38s was the.

After the attack on Pearl Harbor, the unit joined the 14th Pursuit Group in San Diego to provide West Coast defense. Entry to the war [ ] The first Lightning to see active service was the F-4 version, a P-38E in which the guns were replaced by four K17 cameras. They joined the 8th Photographic Squadron in on 4 April 1942. Three F-4s were operated by the in this theater for a short period beginning in September 1942.

On 29 May 1942, 25 P-38s began operating in the in. The fighter's long range made it well-suited to the campaign over the almost 1,200 miles (1,900 km)-long island chain, and it was flown there for the rest of the war. The Aleutians were one of the most rugged environments available for testing the new aircraft under combat conditions. More Lightnings were lost due to severe weather and other conditions than enemy action; there were cases where Lightning pilots, mesmerized by flying for hours over gray seas under gray skies, simply flew into the water. On 9 August 1942, two P-38Es of the 343rd Fighter Group,, at the end of a 1,000 miles (1,600 km) long-range patrol, happened upon a pair of Japanese 'Mavis' flying boats and destroyed them, making them the first Japanese aircraft to be shot down by Lightnings. European theater [ ].

Reconnaissance P-38 with bold black and white participating in the After the, the USAAF began redeploying fighter groups to Britain as part of Operation Bolero and Lightnings of the 1st Fighter Group were flown across the Atlantic via. On 14 August 1942, Elza Shahan of the 27th Fighter Squadron, and Second Lieutenant Joseph Shaffer of the 33rd Squadron operating out of Iceland shot down a Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor over the Atlantic. Shahan in his P-38F downed the Condor; Shaffer, flying either a P-40C or a P-39, had already set an engine on fire. This was the first Luftwaffe aircraft destroyed by the USAAF. After 347 sorties with no enemy contact, the 1st, 14th and 82nd Fighter Groups were transferred to the 12th Air Force in North Africa as part of the force being built up for. On 19 November 1942, Lightnings escorted a group of bombers on a raid over Tunis. On 5 April 1943, 26 P-38Fs of the 82nd claimed 31 enemy aircraft destroyed, helping to establish air superiority in the area and earning it the German nickname ' der Gabelschwanz Teufel' – the Fork-Tailed Devil.

The P-38 remained active in the Mediterranean for the rest of the war. It was in this theatre that the P-38 suffered its heaviest losses in the air. On 25 August 1943, 13 P-38s were shot down in a single sortie by without achieving a single kill.

On 2 September, 10 P-38s were shot down, in return for a single kill, the 67-victory ace (who was also the leading 'Lightning' killer in the Luftwaffe with 17 destroyed)., third highest scoring German pilot on the Western front with 112 victories, recalled: 'The P-38 fighter (and the B-24) were easy to burn. Once in Africa we were six and met eight P-38s and shot down seven. One sees a great distance in Africa and our observers and flak people called in sightings and we could get altitude first and they were low and slow.'

General der Jagdflieger was unimpressed with the P-38, declaring 'it had similar shortcomings in combat to our, our fighters were clearly superior to it.' Said that P-38s 'were not difficult at all.

They were easy to outmaneuver and were generally a sure kill'. Experiences over Germany had shown a need for long-range escort fighters to protect the 's heavy bomber operations. The P-38Hs of the 55th Fighter Group were transferred to the Eighth in England in September 1943, and were joined by the 20th, 364th and 479th Fighter Groups soon after. P-38s soon joined Spitfires in escorting the early Fortress raids over Europe. Because its distinctive shape was less prone to cases of mistaken identity and,, Commander of the 8th Air Force, chose to pilot a P-38 during the so that he could watch the progress of the air offensive over France. At one point in the mission, Doolittle flick-rolled through a hole in the cloud cover, but his, then-Major General, was looking elsewhere and failed to notice Doolittle's quick maneuver, leaving Doolittle to continue on alone on his survey of the crucial battle.

Of the P-38, Doolittle said that it was 'the sweetest-flying plane in the sky'. P-38s of the 370th Fighter Group A little-known role of the P-38 in the European theater was that of fighter-bomber during the invasion of Normandy and the Allied advance across France into Germany. Assigned to the IX Tactical Air Command, the and its P-38s initially flew missions from England, dive-bombing radar installations, enemy armor, troop concentrations and.

The 370th's group commander Howard F. Nichols and a squadron of his P-38 Lightnings attacked 's headquarters in July 1944; Nichols himself a 500 lb (230 kg) bomb through the front door.

The 370th later operated from France, flying ground attack missions against gun emplacements, troops, supply dumps and tanks near in July and in the – area in August 1944. The 370th participated in ground attack missions across Europe until February 1945 when the unit changed over to the P-51 Mustang. On 12 June 1943, a P-38G, while flying a special mission between and or, perhaps, just after strafing the radar station of Capo Pula, landed on the airfield of Capoterra (), in, from navigation error due to a compass failure. Chief test pilot colonnello (Lieutenant Colonel) Angelo Tondi flew the aircraft to airfield where the P-38G was evaluated. On 11 August 1943, Tondi took off to intercept a formation of about 50 bombers, returning from the bombing of (). Tondi attacked B-17G 'Bonny Sue', s.n.

42-30307, that fell off the shore of, near, while six airmen parachuted out. According to US sources, he also damaged three more bombers on that occasion. On 4 September, the 301st BG reported the loss of B-17 'The Lady Evelyn,' s.n. 42-30344, downed by 'an enemy P-38'.

War missions for that plane were limited, as the Italian petrol was too corrosive for the Lockheed's tanks. Other Lightnings were eventually acquired by Italy for postwar service. In a particular case when faced by more agile fighters at low altitudes in a constricted valley, Lightnings suffered heavy losses.

On the morning of 10 June 1944, 96 P-38Js of the 1st and 82nd Fighter Groups took off from Italy for, the third-most heavily defended target in Europe, after Berlin and Vienna. Instead of bombing from high altitude as had been tried by the, USAAF planning had determined that a dive-bombing surprise attack, beginning at about 7,000 feet (2,100 m) with bomb release at or below 3,000 feet (900 m), performed by 46 P-38s, each carrying one 1,000-pound (500 kg) bomb, would yield more accurate results. All of and a few aircraft in 82nd Fighter Group were to fly cover, and all fighters were to strafe targets of opportunity on the return trip; a distance of some 1,255 miles (2,020 km), including a circuitous outward route made in an attempt to achieve surprise. Some 85 or 86 fighters arrived in Romania to find enemy airfields alerted, with a wide assortment of aircraft scrambling for safety. P-38s shot down several, including heavy fighters, transports and observation aircraft. At Ploiești, defense forces were fully alert, the target was concealed by, and was very heavy—seven Lightnings were lost to anti-aircraft fire at the target, and two more during strafing attacks on the return flight. German Bf 109 fighters from I./JG 53 and 2./JG 77 fought the Americans.

Sixteen aircraft of the 71st Fighter Squadron were challenged by a large formation of Romanian single-seater fighters. The fight took place below 300 feet (100 m) in a narrow valley.

Herbert Hatch saw two IAR 81Cs that he misidentified as hit the ground after taking fire from his guns, and his fellow pilots confirmed three more of his kills. However, the outnumbered 71st Fighter Squadron took more damage than it dished out, losing nine aircraft. In all, the USAAF lost 22 aircraft on the mission.

The Americans claimed 23 aerial victories, though Romanian and German fighter units admitted losing only one aircraft each. Eleven enemy locomotives were strafed and left burning, and flak emplacements were destroyed, along with fuel trucks and other targets. Results of the bombing were not observed by the USAAF pilots because of the smoke. The dive-bombing mission profile was not repeated, though the 82nd Fighter Group was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation for its part.

After some disastrous raids in 1944 with B-17s escorted by P-38s and, Jimmy Doolittle, then head of the U.S. Eighth Air Force, went to the RAE, Farnborough, asking for an evaluation of the various American fighters. Test pilot Captain,, recalled: We had found out that the Bf 109 and the FW 190 could fight up to a Mach of 0.75, three-quarters the speed of sound. We checked the Lightning and it couldn't fly in combat faster than 0.68. So it was useless. We told Doolittle that all it was good for was photo-reconnaissance and had to be withdrawn from escort duties. And the funny thing is that the Americans had great difficulty understanding this because the Lightning had the two top aces in the Far East.

After evaluation tests at Farnborough, the P-38 was kept in fighting service in Europe for a while longer. Although many failings were remedied with the introduction of the P-38J, by September 1944, all but one of the Lightning groups in the Eighth Air Force had converted to the P-51 Mustang. The Eighth Air Force continued to conduct reconnaissance missions using the F-5 variant. Pacific theater [ ]. Wartime poster encouraging greater production of P-38s The P-38 was used most extensively and successfully in the Pacific theater, where it proved ideally suited, combining excellent performance with exceptional range and the added reliability of two engines for long missions over water. The P-38 was used in a variety of roles, especially escorting bombers at altitudes of 18,000–25,000 ft (5,500–7,600 m).

The P-38 was credited with destroying more Japanese aircraft than any other USAAF fighter. Freezing cockpit temperatures were not a problem at low altitude in the tropics. In fact the cockpit was often too hot since opening a window while in flight caused buffeting by setting up turbulence through the. Pilots taking low altitude assignments often flew stripped down to shorts, tennis shoes, and parachute. While the P-38 could not out-turn the and most other Japanese fighters when flying below 200 mph (320 km/h), its superior speed coupled with a good rate of climb meant that it could use, making multiple high-speed passes at its target.

In addition, its tightly grouped guns were even more deadly to lightly armored Japanese warplanes than to German aircraft. The concentrated, parallel stream of bullets allowed aerial victory at much longer distances than fighters carrying wing guns. It is therefore ironic that, the United States' highest-scoring World War II air ace (40 victories solely in P-38s), would fly directly at his targets to make sure he hit them (as he himself acknowledged his poor shooting ability), in some cases flying through the debris of his target (and on one occasion colliding with an enemy aircraft which was claimed as a 'probable' victory). The twin Allison engines performed admirably in the Pacific. MacDonald and Al Nelson in the Pacific with MacDonald's P-38J. General, commander of the USAAF Fifth Air Force operating in, could not get enough P-38s; they had become his favorite fighter in November 1942 when one squadron, the 39th Fighter Squadron of the 35th Fighter Group, joined his assorted P-39s and P-40s.

The Lightnings established local air superiority with their first combat action on 27 December 1942. Kenney sent repeated requests to Arnold for more P-38s, and was rewarded with occasional shipments, but Europe was a higher priority in Washington. Despite their small force, Lightning pilots began to compete in racking up scores against Japanese aircraft. On 2–4 March 1943, P-38s flew top cover for and Australian bombers and attack aircraft during the, in which eight Japanese troop transports and four escorting destroyers were sunk. Two P-38 aces from the 39th Fighter Squadron were killed on the second day of the battle: Bob Faurot and Hoyt 'Curley' Eason (a veteran with five victories who had trained hundreds of pilots, including Dick Bong).

In one notable engagement on 3 March 1943 P-38s escorted 13 as they bombed the Japanese convoy from a medium altitude of 7,000 feet which dispersed the convoy formation and reduced their concentrated anti-aircraft firepower. A B-17 was shot down and when Japanese Zero fighters machine-gunned some of the B-17 crew members that bailed out in parachutes, three P-38s promptly engaged and shot down five of the Zeros..

Isoroku Yamamoto [ ]. Main article: The Lightning figured in one of the most significant operations in the Pacific theater: the interception, on 18 April 1943, of, the architect of Japan's naval strategy in the Pacific including the attack on Pearl Harbor. When American found out that he was flying to to conduct a front-line inspection, 16 P-38G Lightnings were sent on a long-range fighter-intercept mission, flying 435 miles (700 km) from at heights of 10–50 ft (3.0–15.2 m) above the ocean to avoid detection. The Lightnings met Yamamoto's two 'Betty' fast bomber transports and six escorting Zeros just as they arrived at the island.

The first Betty crashed in the jungle and the second ditched near the coast. Two Zeros were also claimed by the American fighters with the loss of one P-38. Japanese search parties found Yamamoto's body at the jungle crash site the next day. Service record [ ]. Pilot and aircraft armorer inspect ammunition for the central 20 mm cannon The P-38's service record shows mixed results, which may reflect more on its employment than on flaws with the aircraft. The P-38's engine troubles at high altitudes only occurred with the Eighth Air Force.

One reason for this was the inadequate cooling systems of the G and H models; the improved P-38 J and L had tremendous success flying out of Italy into Germany at all altitudes. Until the -J-25 variant, P-38s were easily avoided by German fighters because of the lack of dive flaps to counter compressibility in dives. German fighter pilots not wishing to fight would perform the first half of a and continue into steep dives because they knew the Lightnings would be reluctant to follow.

On the positive side, having two engines was a built-in insurance policy. Many pilots made it safely back to base after having an engine failure en route or in combat. On 3 March 1944, the first Allied fighters reached Berlin on a frustrated escort mission. Lieutenant Colonel Jack Jenkins of led the group of P-38H pilots, arriving with only half his force after flak damage and engine trouble took their toll.

On the way into Berlin, Jenkins reported one rough-running engine, causing him to wonder if he would ever make it back. The B-17s he was supposed to escort never showed up, having turned back at Hamburg. Jenkins and his wingman were able to drop tanks and outrun enemy fighters to return home with three good engines between them. P-38J 42-68008 flying over Southern California.

In the ETO, P-38s made 130,000 sorties with a loss of 1.3% overall, comparing favorably with ETO P-51s, which posted a 1.1% loss, considering that the P-38s were vastly outnumbered and suffered from poorly thought-out tactics. The majority of the P-38 sorties were made in the period prior to Allied air superiority in Europe, when pilots fought against a very determined and skilled enemy. Lieutenant Colonel Mark Hubbard, a vocal critic of the aircraft, rated it the third best Allied fighter in Europe.

The Lightning's greatest virtues were long range, heavy payload, high speed, fast climb and concentrated firepower. The P-38 was a formidable fighter, interceptor and attack aircraft. In the Pacific theater, the P-38 downed over 1,800 Japanese aircraft, with more than 100 pilots becoming aces by downing five or more enemy aircraft. American fuel supplies contributed to a better engine performance and maintenance record, and range was increased with leaner mixtures. In the second half of 1944, the P-38L pilots out of Dutch New Guinea were flying 950 mi (1,530 km), fighting for fifteen minutes and returning to base.

Such long legs were invaluable until the P-47N and P-51D entered service. Postwar operations [ ] The end of the war left the USAAF with thousands of P-38s rendered obsolete by the jet age. The last P-38s in service with the United States Air Force were retired in 1949. A total of 100 late-model P-38L and F-5 Lightnings were acquired by Italy through an agreement dated April 1946. Delivered, after refurbishing, at the rate of one per month, they finally were all sent to the AMI by 1952. The Lightnings served in 4 Stormo and other units including 3 Stormo, flying reconnaissance over the Balkans, ground attack, naval cooperation and air superiority missions.

Due to old engines, pilot errors and lack of experience in operating heavy fighters, a large number of P-38s were lost in at least 30 accidents, many of them fatal. Despite this, many Italian pilots liked the P-38 because of its excellent visibility on the ground and stability on takeoff.

The Italian P-38s were phased out in 1956; none survived the scrapyard. Surplus P-38s were also used by other foreign air forces with 12 sold to and 15 retained by China. Six F-5s and two unarmed black two-seater P-38s were operated by the Dominican Air Force based in San Isidro Airbase, Dominican Republic in 1947. The majority of wartime Lightnings present in the continental U.S.

At the end of the war were put up for sale for US$1,200 apiece; the rest were scrapped. P-38s in distant theaters of war were bulldozed into piles and abandoned or scrapped; very few avoided that fate.

The CIA 'Liberation Air Force' flew one P-38M to support the. On 27 June 1954, this aircraft dropped bombs that destroyed the British cargo ship, which was loading Guatemalan cotton and coffee for in. In 1957, five Honduran P-38s bombed and strafed a village occupied by Nicaraguan forces during a border dispute between these two countries concerning part of. P-38s were popular contenders in the air races from 1946 through 1949, with brightly colored Lightnings making screaming turns around the pylons at and. Lockheed test pilot Tony LeVier was among those who bought a Lightning, choosing a P-38J model and painting it red to make it stand out as an and.

Lefty Gardner, former B-24 and B-17 pilot and associate of the, bought a mid-1944 P-38L-1-LO that had been modified into an F-5G. Gardner painted it white with red and blue trim and named it White Lightnin '; he reworked its turbo systems and intercoolers for optimum low-altitude performance and gave it P-38F style air intakes for better streamlining. White Lightnin ' was severely damaged in a crash landing during an air show demonstration and was bought, restored and repainted with a brilliant chrome finish by the company that owns. The aircraft is now located in Austria. F-5s were bought by companies and employed for mapping. From the 1950s on, the use of the Lightning steadily declined, and only a little more than two dozen still exist, with few still flying.

One example is a P-38L owned by the in, painted in the colors of 's Putt Putt Maru. Two other examples are F-5Gs which were owned and operated by Kargl Aerial Surveys in 1946, and are now located in at Yanks Air Museum, and in.

Dell Datasafe Local Backup Serial Keygen Cracks. The earliest-built surviving P-38,, was recovered from the Greenland ice cap in 1992, fifty years after she crashed there on a ferry flight to the UK, and after a complete restoration, flew once again ten years after her recovery. Ground crew members of the 459th Fighter Squadron, nicknamed the 'Twin Dragon Squadron', working on a Lockheed P-38 at an air base in, India – January 1945 P-38Fs and P-38Gs [ ] After 210 P-38Es were built, they were followed, starting in April 1942, by the P-38F, which incorporated racks inboard of the engines for fuel tanks or a total of 2,000 lb (910 kg) of.

Early variants did not enjoy a high reputation for maneuverability, though they could be agile at low altitudes if flown by a capable pilot, using the P-38's forgiving stall characteristics to their best advantage. From the P-38F-15 model onwards, a 'combat maneuver' setting was added to the P-38's. When deployed at the 8° maneuver setting, the flaps allowed the P-38 to out-turn many contemporary single-engined fighters at the cost of some added drag. However, early variants were hampered by high aileron control forces and a low initial rate of roll, and all such features required a pilot to gain experience with the aircraft, which in part was an additional reason Lockheed sent its representative to England, and later to the Pacific Theater.

The aircraft was still experiencing extensive teething troubles as well as being victimized by 'urban legends', mostly involving inapplicable twin engine factors which had been designed out of the aircraft by Lockheed. In addition to these, the early versions had a reputation as a 'widow maker' as it could enter an unrecoverable dive due to a sonic surface effect at high sub-sonic speeds. The 527 P-38Fs were heavier, with more powerful engines that used more fuel, and were unpopular in the air war in Northern Europe. Since the heavier engines were having reliability problems and with them, without external fuel tanks, the range of the P-38F was reduced, and since drop tanks themselves were in short supply as the fortunes in the Battle of the Atlantic had not yet swung the Allies' way, the aircraft became relatively unpopular in minds of the bomber command planning staffs despite being the longest ranged fighter first available to the 8th Air Force in sufficient numbers for long range escort duties. Nonetheless,, then commander of the 8th Air Force in the UK, said of the P-38F: 'I'd rather have an airplane that goes like hell and has a few things wrong with it, than one that won't go like hell and has a few things wrong with it.' Lockheed P-38G-1-LO Lightning, serial 42-12723 The P-38F was followed in early 1943 by the P-38G, using more powerful Allisons of 1,400 hp (1,000 kW) each and equipped with a better radio. A dozen of the planned P-38G production were set aside to serve as prototypes for what would become the P-38J with further uprated Allison V-1710F-17 engines (1,425 hp (1,063 kW) each) in redesigned booms which featured chin-mounted intercoolers in place of the original system in the leading edge of the wings and more efficient radiators.

Lockheed subcontractors, however, were initially unable to supply both of Burbank's twin production lines with a sufficient quantity of new core intercoolers and radiators. War Production Board planners were unwilling to sacrifice production, and one of the two remaining prototypes received the new engines but retained the old leading edge intercoolers and radiators. As the P-38H, 600 of these stop-gap Lightnings with an improved 20 mm cannon and a bomb capacity of 3,200 lb (1,500 kg) were produced on one line while the near-definitive P-38J began production on the second line.

The Eighth Air Force was experiencing high altitude and cold weather issues which, while not unique to the aircraft, were perhaps more severe as the upgrading the Allisons were having their own reliability issues making the aircraft more unpopular with senior officers out of the line. This was a situation unduplicated on all other fronts where the commands were clamoring for as many P-38s as they could get. Both the P-38G and P-38H models' performance was restricted by an intercooler system integral to the wing's leading edge which had been designed for the YP-38's less powerful engines. Heroes 6 Shades Of Darkness Keygen Download Pc. At the higher boost levels, the new engine's charge air temperature would increase above the limits recommended by Allison and would be subject to detonation if operated at high power for extended periods of time.

Reliability was not the only issue, either. For example, the reduced power settings required by the P-38H did not allow the maneuvering flap to be used to good advantage at high altitude.

All these problems really came to a head in the unplanned P-38H and sped the Lightning's eventual replacement in the Eighth Air Force; fortunately the Fifteenth Air Force were glad to get them. Some P-38G production was diverted on the assembly line to F-5A. An F-5A was modified to an experimental two-seat reconnaissance configuration as the XF-5D, with a plexiglas nose, two machine guns and additional cameras in the tail booms. P-38J, P-38L [ ]. Four P-38Hs flying in formation The P-38J was introduced in August 1943. The turbo-supercharger system on previous variants had been housed in the leading edges of the wings and had proven vulnerable to combat damage and could burst if the wrong series of controls were mistakenly activated. In the P-38J model, the streamlined engine nacelles of previous Lightnings were changed to fit the intercooler radiator between the oil coolers, forming a 'chin' that visually distinguished the J model from its predecessors.

While the P-38J used the same V-1710-89/91 engines as the H model, the new core-type intercooler more efficiently lowered intake manifold temperatures and permitted a substantial increase in rated power. The leading edge of the outer wing was fitted with 55 US gal (210 l) fuel tanks, filling the space formerly occupied by intercooler tunnels, but these were omitted on early P-38J blocks due to limited availability.

The final 210 J models, designated P-38J-25-LO, alleviated the compressibility problem through the addition of a set of electrically actuated dive recovery flaps just outboard of the engines on the bottom centerline of the wings. With these improvements, a USAAF pilot reported a dive speed of almost 600 mph (970 km/h), although the indicated air speed was later corrected for compressibility error, and the actual dive speed was lower. Lockheed manufactured over 200 retrofit modification kits to be installed on P-38J-10-LO and J-20-LO already in Europe, but the USAAF C-54 carrying them was shot down by an RAF pilot who mistook the Douglas transport for a German Focke-Wulf Condor.

Unfortunately, the loss of the kits came during Lockheed test pilot Tony LeVier's four-month morale-boosting tour of P-38 bases. Flying a new Lightning named 'Snafuperman', modified to full P-38J-25-LO specifications at Lockheed's modification center near Belfast, LeVier captured the pilots' full attention by routinely performing maneuvers during March 1944 that common Eighth Air Force wisdom held to be suicidal. It proved too little, too late, because the decision had already been made to re-equip with Mustangs. The P-38J-25-LO production block also introduced hydraulically boosted ailerons, one of the first times such a system was fitted to a fighter.

This significantly improved the Lightning's rate of roll and reduced control forces for the pilot. This production block and the following P-38L model are considered the definitive Lightnings, and Lockheed ramped up production, working with subcontractors across the country to produce hundreds of Lightnings each month. There were two P-38Ks developed from 1942 to 1943, one official and one an internal Lockheed experiment. The first was actually a battered RP-38E 'piggyback' test mule previously used by Lockheed to test the P-38J chin intercooler installation, now fitted with paddle-bladed 'high activity' Hamilton Standard Hydromatic propellers similar to those used on the P-47. The new propellers required spinners of greater diameter, and the mule's crude, hand-formed sheet steel cowlings were further stretched to blend the spinners into the nacelles. It retained its 'piggyback' configuration that allowed an observer to ride behind the pilot.

With Lockheed's AAF representative as a passenger and the maneuvering flap deployed to offset Army Hot Day conditions, the old 'K-Mule' still climbed to 45,000 feet (14,000 m). With a fresh coat of paint covering its crude hand-formed steel cowlings, this RP-38E acts as stand-in for the 'P-38K-1-LO' in the model's only picture. The 12th G model originally set aside as a P-38J prototype was re-designated P-38K-1-LO and fitted with the aforementioned paddle-blade propellers and new Allison V-1710-75/77 (F15R/L) powerplants rated at 1,875 bhp (1,398 kW) at War Emergency Power. These engines were geared 2.36 to 1, unlike the standard P-38 ratio of 2 to 1. The AAF took delivery in September 1943,. In tests, the P-38K-1 achieved 432 mph (695 km/h) at military power and was predicted to exceed 450 mph (720 km/h) at War Emergency Power with a similar increase in load and range. The initial climb rate was 4,800 ft (1,500 m)/min and the ceiling was 46,000 ft (14,000 m).

It reached 20,000 ft (6,100 m) in five minutes flat; this with a coat of camouflage paint which added weight and drag. Although it was judged superior in climb and speed to the latest and best fighters from all AAF manufacturers, the War Production Board refused to authorize P-38K production due to the two-to-three-week interruption in production necessary to implement cowling modifications for the revised spinners and higher thrust line. Some have also doubted Allison's ability to deliver the F15 engine in quantity. As promising as it had looked, the P-38K project came to a halt.

The P-38L was the most numerous variant of the Lightning, with 3,923 built, 113 by in their plant. It entered service with the in June 1944, in time to support the Allied invasion of France on. Lockheed production of the Lightning was distinguished by a suffix consisting of a production block number followed by 'LO,' for example 'P-38L-1-LO', while Consolidated-Vultee production was distinguished by a block number followed by 'VN,' for example 'P-38L-5-VN.'

The P-38L was the first Lightning fitted with zero-length rocket launchers. Seven (HVARs) on pylons beneath each wing, and later, five rockets on each wing on 'Christmas tree' launch racks which added 1,365 lb (619 kg) to the aircraft. [ ] The P-38L also had strengthened stores pylons to allow carriage of 2,000 lb (900 kg) bombs or 300 US gal (1,100 l) drop tanks. F-5A Lightning of the 7th Photo Group, 8th Air Force based. The national insignia was bordered in red with overall finish in synthetic haze. Lockheed modified 200 P-38J airframes in production to become unarmed F-5B photo-reconnaissance aircraft, while hundreds of other P-38Js and P-38Ls were modified at Lockheed's Dallas Modification Center to become F-5Cs, F-5Es, F-5Fs, and F-5Gs.

A few P-38Ls were field-modified to become two-seat TP-38L familiarization trainers. During and after June 1948, the remaining J and L variants were designated ZF-38J and ZF-38L, with the 'ZF' designator (meaning 'obsolete fighter') replacing the 'P for Pursuit' category. Late model Lightnings were delivered unpainted, as per USAAF policy established in 1944.

At first, field units tried to paint them, since pilots worried about being too visible to the enemy, but it turned out the reduction in weight and drag was a minor advantage in combat. The P-38L-5, the most common sub-variant of the P-38L, had a modified cockpit heating system consisting of a plug-socket in the cockpit into which the pilot could plug his heat-suit wire for improved comfort. These Lightnings also received the uprated V-1710-112/113 (F30R/L) engines, and this dramatically lowered the amount of engine failure problems experienced at high altitude so commonly associated with European operations. Pathfinders, night-fighter and other variants [ ]. This section needs additional citations for. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (January 2011) () The Lightning was modified for other roles.

In addition to the F-4 and F-5 reconnaissance variants, a number of P-38Js and P-38Ls were field-modified as formation bombing 'pathfinders' or 'droopsnoots', fitted with a glazed nose with a, or a 'bombing through overcast' nose. A pathfinder would lead a formation of other P-38s, each overloaded with two 2,000 lb (907 kg) bombs; the entire formation releasing when the pathfinder did. 44-27234 a former P-38L converted as a P-38M Night Lightning. A number of Lightnings were modified as. There were several field or experimental modifications with different equipment fits that finally led to the 'formal' P-38M night fighter, or Night Lightning.

A total of 75 P-38Ls were modified to the Night Lightning configuration, painted flat-black with conical on the guns, an AN/APS-6 radar pod below the nose, and a second cockpit with a raised canopy behind the pilot's canopy for the radar operator. The headroom in the rear cockpit was limited, requiring radar operators who were preferably short in stature. The P-38M was faster than the purpose-built Northrop P-61 Black Widow night fighter. The night Lightnings saw some combat duty in the Pacific towards the end of the war but none engaged in combat.

One of the initial production P-38s had its turbo-superchargers removed, with a secondary cockpit placed in one of the booms to examine how flightcrew would respond to such an 'asymmetric' cockpit layout. One P-38E was fitted with an extended central nacelle to accommodate a tandem-seat cockpit with dual controls, and was later fitted with a laminar flow wing. P-38J Lightning YIPPEE YIPPEE [ ] The 5,000th Lightning built, a P-38J-20-LO, 44-23296, was painted bright vermilion red, and had the name YIPPEE painted on the underside of the wings in big white letters as well as the signatures of hundreds of factory workers. This and other aircraft were used by a handful of Lockheed test pilots including, and in remarkable flight demonstrations, performing such stunts as slow rolls at treetop level with one prop feathered to dispel the myth that the P-38 was unmanageable. In-flight footage of the YIPPEE P-38 can be seen in the pilot episode of the television series. Glacier Girl [ ]. Main article: On July 15, 1942, a flight of six P-38s and two B-17 bombers, with a total of 25 crew members on board, took off from Presque Isle Air Base in Maine headed for the U.K.

What followed was a harrowing and life-threatening landing of the entire squadron on a remote ice cap in Greenland. Miraculously, none of the crew was lost and they were all rescued and returned safely home after spending several days on the desolate ice. Fifty years later a small group of aviation enthusiasts decided to locate those aircraft, which had come to be known as 'The Lost Squadron', and to recover one of the lost P-38s. It turned out to be no easy task, as the planes had been buried under 25 stories of ice and drifted over a mile from their original location. The recovered P-38, dubbed 'Glacier Girl', was eventually restored to airworthiness. Surviving aircraft [ ]. Major in his P-38.

The American ace of aces and his closest competitor both flew Lightnings and tallied 40 and 38 victories respectively. Majors Richard I. 'Dick' Bong and of the USAAF competed for the top position. Both men were awarded the. McGuire was killed in air combat in January 1945 over the, after accumulating 38 confirmed kills, making him the second-ranking American ace. Bong was rotated back to the United States as America's ace of aces, after making 40 kills, becoming a test pilot.

He was killed on 6 August 1945, the day the atomic bomb was dropped on Japan, when his jet fighter flamed out on. (L–R) and discussing a mission on Biak Island in July 1944. Charles Lindbergh [ ] The famed aviator toured the South Pacific as a civilian contractor for, comparing and evaluating performance of single- and twin-engined fighters for. He worked to improve range and load limits of the, flying both routine and combat strafing missions in Corsairs alongside pilots. Everywhere Lindbergh went in the South Pacific, he was accorded the normal preferential treatment of a visiting colonel, although he had resigned his Air Corps Reserve colonel's commission three years before. In Hollandia, Lindbergh attached himself to the 475th FG, flying P-38s. Although new to the aircraft, Lindbergh was instrumental in extending the range of the P-38 through improved throttle settings, or engine-leaning techniques, notably by reducing engine speed to 1,600 rpm, setting the carburetors for auto-lean and flying at 185 mph (298 km/h) which reduced fuel consumption to 70 gal/h, about 2.6 mpg.

This combination of settings had been considered dangerous and would upset the fuel mixture, causing an explosion. While with the 475th, he held training classes and took part in a number of Army Air Corps combat missions. On 28 July 1944, Lindbergh shot down a 'Sonia' flown expertly by the veteran commander of 73rd Independent Flying, Captain Saburo Shimada. In an extended, twisting dogfight in which many of the participants ran out of ammunition, Shimada turned his aircraft directly toward Lindbergh who was just approaching the combat area. Lindbergh fired in a defensive reaction brought on by Shimada's apparent head-on. Hit by cannon and machine gun fire, the 'Sonia's' propeller visibly slowed, but Shimada held his course.

Lindbergh pulled up at the last moment to avoid collision as the damaged 'Sonia' went into a steep dive, hit the ocean and sank. Lindbergh's wingman, ace Joseph E. 'Fishkiller' Miller, Jr., had also scored hits on the 'Sonia' after it had begun its fatal dive, but Miller was certain the kill credit was Lindbergh's. The unofficial kill was not entered in the 475th's war record. On 12 August 1944, Lindbergh left Hollandia to return to the United States. Charles MacDonald [ ] The seventh-ranking American ace, Charles H.

MacDonald, flew a Lightning against the Japanese, scoring 27 kills in his famous aircraft, the Putt Putt Maru. Robin Olds [ ]. M2 machine gun armament in the nose of the P-38.

Main article: Documentaries [ ] • Flight Characteristics of the Lockheed P-38 Lightning (1943, color, 34:00). Lockheed's top World War II test pilots do the checkout on this very thorough pilot training film. • Sheet Metal Repairs to the P-38 Lightning (1945, b & w, 19:00). This educational production and training film from Lockheed shows standard aviation tooling and methods that are still used today for aluminum aircraft repair.

Film by TM Technologies. • Yamamoto shot down! (1944, B&W, 4:00) The P-38 Squadron that shot down in an incredible long distance interception in the Pacific, is depicted. The film includes purported P-38 gun camera footage of the Admiral's Betty bomber going down in flames. • Dick Bong: Pacific Ace (1944, B&W, 4:00) This short documentary film pays tribute to Richard 'Dick' Bong, the leading American P-38 ace of World War II. • Angel in Overalls (1945, B&W, 15:00) This film was developed to show U.S. Lockheed P-38 workers in a wide variety of roles.

See also [ ].