Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The North American Aviation P-51 Mustang is an American long-range, ... the Lockheed P-38 Lightning was considered to be most appropriate, ...
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 Lockheed P-38 Lighting is an American two-engine fighter used by the United States Army Air Forces and other Allied air forces during World War II. Of the 10,037 planes built, 26 survive today, 22 of which are located in the United States, and 10 of which are airworthy.
Aircraft such as the P-38, P-40, P-51A, and North American P-82E used close-coupled propeller reduction gears, a feature of the V-1710-F series. The accessory end had a one- or two-speed engine-driven supercharger that might have a second stage with or without an intercooler , the ignition magnetos and the customary assortment of oil and fuel ...
They were equipped with Lockheed P-38 Lightning aircraft in February and trained until May 1944 when the group entered combat. Their missions consisted of dive-bombing radar installations and flak towers, and escorted bombers for attacks on bridges and marshalling yards in France as the Allies prepared for the invasion of Normandy. [3]
— 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 ...
After training with Lockheed P-38 Lightnings, it deployed to the European Theater of Operations, and began flying combat missions in late May 1944. It converted to the North American P-51 Mustang later in 1944.
Kelsey co-authored the technical specifications which led to the development of the P-39 Airacobra and the P-38 Lightning. He worked around Air Corps strictures to initiate the development of drop tanks for American fighters. Kelsey was the driving force behind a program of advanced airfoil research which eventually resulted in the P-51 Mustang.