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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 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.
A P-38 Lightning, 42-68006, of the 11th Ferrying Squadron, 5th Ferrying Group, Love Field, Dallas, Texas, piloted by 2nd Lieutenant Chester R. Gunkel of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, crashes into Bald Rock at Cheaha State Park in Alabama, killing Gunkel. The plane was en route from Love Field to Atlanta, Georgia. [182]
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]
The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress July 9, 1918, takes pleasure in presenting the Distinguished Service Cross to Captain (Air Corps) Cyril Filcher Homer, United States Army Air Forces, for extraordinary heroism in connection with military operations against an armed enemy while serving as Pilot of a P ...
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.
The US would enter WWII with one of the most effective heavy fighters in history, the Lockheed P-38 Lightning. It was designed as a twin-engine bomber interceptor to climb quickly and carry heavy armament at high speed, with the lighter Bell P-39 Airacobra meeting the single-engine version of the same requirement.
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.