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The Lockheed Corporation designed the P-38 in response to a February 1937 specification from the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC). Circular Proposal X-608 was a set of aircraft performance goals authored by First Lieutenants Benjamin S. Kelsey and Gordon P. Saville for a twin-engined, high-altitude "interceptor" having "the tactical mission of interception and attack of hostile aircraft at ...
The aircraft is named after the Second World War vintage Lockheed P-38 Lightning, with which it shares its dual tail layout. [1] [2] The aircraft is made from aluminum tubing, with the wing leading edge made from birch plywood, supported by foam and wooden wing ribs. The wings and tail surfaces are covered in doped aircraft fabric.
Colonel Charles Henry "Mac" MacDonald (November 23, 1914 – March 3, 2002) was a United States Air Force officer and a fighter ace of World War II. [1] [2] MacDonald commanded the 475th Fighter Group for 20 months in his P-38 Lightning, "Putt Putt Maru", and became the third ranking fighter ace in the Pacific during World War II.
— The famous P-38 Lightning Fighter plane flown by World War II ace of aces Richard I. Bong — and decorated with a photograph of its namesake "Marge" — was discovered last week nose-down in ...
The P-38 was quickly declared obsolete in 1946 and the last USAF flight was in 1948. This was an extremely complicated aircraft to maintain. The P-38 Lightning has been consistently on the civil registry since 1946 since the first aircraft were released from the military.
Italian P-38s made their operational debut on 9 September 1948, when a single F-5 took photographs of objectives in the Balkans. [6] Because of the big dimensions of this fighter, the old engines, and pilot errors, a very high number of P-38s were lost in accidents. At least thirty crashes of P-38s in Italian service claimed a number of victims.
P-38 Lightning 1941: YP-38 through P-38D 222: P-38 Lightning P-38E through P-38H 322: P-322 Lightning Export variant, impressed into U.S. service at war's outbreak 422: P-38 Lightning P-38J through P-38M 522: XP-49: Nov 11, 1942: Advanced fighter prototype, based on P-38 622: XP-38A Lightning Jun 6, 1944: Pressurized conversion of a P-38 822: P ...
The British Westland Whirlwind (four 20 mm cannon) and the American Lockheed P-38 Lightning (one 20 mm cannon and four .50 cal), both twin-engined fighters, carried the entirety of their gun armament in the nose, a configuration which concentrated the firepower at a broader range of distances, and did not require left–right harmonisation. [4]