Lockheed P-38L Lightning
In 1938, growing concern about the ability of German fighters, especially the Messerschmitt Bf 109, led the US Army Air Corps to issue a specification for a high-altitude interceptor capable of 360 mph and reaching 20,000 feet in six minutes. Two engines were preferable, though engine choices were restricted to the Allison V-1710 engine; tricycle landing gear, which was rare at the time, was also preferable. The specification led to the Lockheed P-38 Lightning.
Lockheed designers Hall Hibbard and Kelly Johnson decided to discard conventional designs and went for a (for the time) unique twin-boom configuration: the engines would be located on the wing and extended back in booms to a twin tail; the booms would contain the large superchargers the Allison engines needed for high-altitude operation. The pilot would sit in a centrally-mounted “gondola” between the engines, with the armament concentrated in the nose. Because the armament was centrally located and did not need to converge ahead of the fighter, this would give the P-38 longer range and accuracy. To increase its hitting power, it was decided to use a combination of the standard .50 caliber machine gun and the license-built Hispano 20mm. The guns were synchronized, with the 20mm firing after roughly every sixth bullet of the machine guns.
Because torque was always a problem with twin propeller engined aircraft, the propellers were designed to counter-rotate away from each other, solving the problem of torque. To increase performance, aluminum and stainless steel were used in construction, with flush rivets, the first fighter to do so. It worked: the first XP-38 flew in January 1939 and reached 400 mph on a cross-country flight the next month. The USAAC was impressed and ordered 13 YP-38 pre-production aircraft. Due to the need to expand Lockheed’s facility in California, the difficulty in manufacturing such a radical aircraft, and that Lockheed was still using outdated “hand-made” production techniques (as opposed to assembly lines), the YP-38s were delayed until June 1941.
The P-38 ran into problems. The aircraft’s high speed had led to compressibility in dives, where the aircraft would continue accelerating as wind speed over the wings exceeded the speed of sound; controls would lock, leaving the pilot with no choice but to bail out at high speed from a fighter already notorious for being difficult to bail out of. The tail was also prone to buffeting at high speeds. Lockheed tried in vain to solve the problem, and it was not until the P-38J model came out several years later that compressibility was mitigated by the addition of dive brakes. Another problem was pilot comfort: while European P-38 pilots complained of being terribly cold (due to the lack of an adequate cockpit heating system), Pacific P-38 pilots were unbearably hot, because of the proximity of the engines, and usually flew in shorts, tennis shoes, and parachutes. Engine failure on takeoff also tended to end in fatal crashes; Lockheed determined that this was due to pilots using the traditional method of going to full power on the operating engine, which would cause the P-38 to go into a flat spin, and that feathering the dead propeller and gradually easing the operating engine to full power would solve the problem.
Nonetheless, the P-38 had acquired the reputation of a pilot killer and the RAF cancelled its order—though the RAF had dubbed the aircraft the Lightning, which stuck (Lockheed’s original name had been the Atalanta).
Despite its misgivings, the USAAF quickly put the Lightning in production, as the United States had entered World War II. The aircraft was first committed to operations over Iceland and the Aleutians, where its long range—longer than any other American fighter at the time—proved useful. An Iceland-based P-38 shot down the first German aircraft downed by the USAAF during the war. In Europe, however, the P-38 was to have mixed results. While its range, speed, and heavy armament proved devastating to its opponents, leading German pilots to nickname the P-38 the Gabelschwanzteufel (Fork-Tailed Devil), its performance at high altitude was not as good as other Allied fighters, it had a poor rate of roll, and the P-38’s design gave it a terrible blind spot below and behind the aircraft. German pilots not wishing to dogfight the Lightning could dive away, knowing P-38 pilots would be reluctant to follow due to the compressibility problem. As a result, aside from reconnaissance duties (which the P-38 excelled at), the 8th Air Force replaced its P-38 force with P-51s by mid-1944.
Its range and stability led to experiments in using the P-38 as an attack aircraft, but results were mixed: while one on occasion P-38s were able to achieve precision bombing accuracy rivaled only by the deHavilland Mosquito, a raid on the Ploesti oilfields by Lightnings ended in the force being wiped out. Several Lightnings were modified by removing the armament and replacing it with a perspex nose for a navigator; these were known as “Dropsnoots” and used in the pathfinder role.
It would be in the Pacific where the P-38 would excel. Its high-altitude performance was secondary: in the Pacific, long range was the absolute necessity for any fighter, leading to 5th Air Force commander George Kenney demanding every P-38 the USAAF had. The P-38 could not manuever with the much lighter Japanese A6M Zeroes and Ki-43 Hayabusas, but its speed meant that the American pilot could choose to fight or not; the diving speed that had cursed the P-38 in Europe gave it the advantage in the Pacific, as a Japanese fighter would break up in a high-speed dive long before the P-38 entered compressibility. Finally, its heavy armament meant it was deadly to any Japanese fighter. Combined with exceptional pilots, the P-38 racked up a kill record second only to the US Navy’s F6F Hellcat; P-38s were flown by both of the USAAF’s top aces of the war, Richard Bong and Thomas McGuire. Pacific Lightnings were also modified into P-38M nightfighters, with a second cockpit and an undernose radar; these were uncomfortable to fly but surprisingly effective, though only an interim for the purpose-built P-61 Black Widow.
The jet age saw the end of the P-38 after war’s end, and the aircraft was rapidly withdrawn, with only a few remaining in Nationalist Chinese and Italian service until about 1956. The difficulty in maintaining the Lightning meant that, of 9900 built, only 32 remain intact today.
This model, built from the 1/72 Hasegawa kit, represents possibly the most famous P-38 of all: "Marge," the personal aircraft of top American ace Richard Bong. Bong, an early proponent and virtuoso of the P-38, would become not only the top American ace in the Pacific and of World War II, but of all time, with 40 kills--possibly more, as Bong was known to "give away" kills to less experienced pilots. Bong's P-38 was finished in bare metal, standard for P-38s after 1943 in the Pacific, and carries the red wingtips, spinners, and tail tips of the 49th Fighter Group. The olive drab antiglare panels on the inside of the P-38's engines were common. Bong scored most of his 40 victories in "Marge," named for his fiancee (and later wife) Margaret Vattendahl. Bong died in the crash of a P-80 Shooting Star only weeks before World War II ended in 1945. (For Marge's picture, Dad cut out a picture of her and pasted it onto decal film.)
Lockheed P-38L Lightning
In 1938, growing concern about the ability of German fighters, especially the Messerschmitt Bf 109, led the US Army Air Corps to issue a specification for a high-altitude interceptor capable of 360 mph and reaching 20,000 feet in six minutes. Two engines were preferable, though engine choices were restricted to the Allison V-1710 engine; tricycle landing gear, which was rare at the time, was also preferable. The specification led to the Lockheed P-38 Lightning.
Lockheed designers Hall Hibbard and Kelly Johnson decided to discard conventional designs and went for a (for the time) unique twin-boom configuration: the engines would be located on the wing and extended back in booms to a twin tail; the booms would contain the large superchargers the Allison engines needed for high-altitude operation. The pilot would sit in a centrally-mounted “gondola” between the engines, with the armament concentrated in the nose. Because the armament was centrally located and did not need to converge ahead of the fighter, this would give the P-38 longer range and accuracy. To increase its hitting power, it was decided to use a combination of the standard .50 caliber machine gun and the license-built Hispano 20mm. The guns were synchronized, with the 20mm firing after roughly every sixth bullet of the machine guns.
Because torque was always a problem with twin propeller engined aircraft, the propellers were designed to counter-rotate away from each other, solving the problem of torque. To increase performance, aluminum and stainless steel were used in construction, with flush rivets, the first fighter to do so. It worked: the first XP-38 flew in January 1939 and reached 400 mph on a cross-country flight the next month. The USAAC was impressed and ordered 13 YP-38 pre-production aircraft. Due to the need to expand Lockheed’s facility in California, the difficulty in manufacturing such a radical aircraft, and that Lockheed was still using outdated “hand-made” production techniques (as opposed to assembly lines), the YP-38s were delayed until June 1941.
The P-38 ran into problems. The aircraft’s high speed had led to compressibility in dives, where the aircraft would continue accelerating as wind speed over the wings exceeded the speed of sound; controls would lock, leaving the pilot with no choice but to bail out at high speed from a fighter already notorious for being difficult to bail out of. The tail was also prone to buffeting at high speeds. Lockheed tried in vain to solve the problem, and it was not until the P-38J model came out several years later that compressibility was mitigated by the addition of dive brakes. Another problem was pilot comfort: while European P-38 pilots complained of being terribly cold (due to the lack of an adequate cockpit heating system), Pacific P-38 pilots were unbearably hot, because of the proximity of the engines, and usually flew in shorts, tennis shoes, and parachutes. Engine failure on takeoff also tended to end in fatal crashes; Lockheed determined that this was due to pilots using the traditional method of going to full power on the operating engine, which would cause the P-38 to go into a flat spin, and that feathering the dead propeller and gradually easing the operating engine to full power would solve the problem.
Nonetheless, the P-38 had acquired the reputation of a pilot killer and the RAF cancelled its order—though the RAF had dubbed the aircraft the Lightning, which stuck (Lockheed’s original name had been the Atalanta).
Despite its misgivings, the USAAF quickly put the Lightning in production, as the United States had entered World War II. The aircraft was first committed to operations over Iceland and the Aleutians, where its long range—longer than any other American fighter at the time—proved useful. An Iceland-based P-38 shot down the first German aircraft downed by the USAAF during the war. In Europe, however, the P-38 was to have mixed results. While its range, speed, and heavy armament proved devastating to its opponents, leading German pilots to nickname the P-38 the Gabelschwanzteufel (Fork-Tailed Devil), its performance at high altitude was not as good as other Allied fighters, it had a poor rate of roll, and the P-38’s design gave it a terrible blind spot below and behind the aircraft. German pilots not wishing to dogfight the Lightning could dive away, knowing P-38 pilots would be reluctant to follow due to the compressibility problem. As a result, aside from reconnaissance duties (which the P-38 excelled at), the 8th Air Force replaced its P-38 force with P-51s by mid-1944.
Its range and stability led to experiments in using the P-38 as an attack aircraft, but results were mixed: while one on occasion P-38s were able to achieve precision bombing accuracy rivaled only by the deHavilland Mosquito, a raid on the Ploesti oilfields by Lightnings ended in the force being wiped out. Several Lightnings were modified by removing the armament and replacing it with a perspex nose for a navigator; these were known as “Dropsnoots” and used in the pathfinder role.
It would be in the Pacific where the P-38 would excel. Its high-altitude performance was secondary: in the Pacific, long range was the absolute necessity for any fighter, leading to 5th Air Force commander George Kenney demanding every P-38 the USAAF had. The P-38 could not manuever with the much lighter Japanese A6M Zeroes and Ki-43 Hayabusas, but its speed meant that the American pilot could choose to fight or not; the diving speed that had cursed the P-38 in Europe gave it the advantage in the Pacific, as a Japanese fighter would break up in a high-speed dive long before the P-38 entered compressibility. Finally, its heavy armament meant it was deadly to any Japanese fighter. Combined with exceptional pilots, the P-38 racked up a kill record second only to the US Navy’s F6F Hellcat; P-38s were flown by both of the USAAF’s top aces of the war, Richard Bong and Thomas McGuire. Pacific Lightnings were also modified into P-38M nightfighters, with a second cockpit and an undernose radar; these were uncomfortable to fly but surprisingly effective, though only an interim for the purpose-built P-61 Black Widow.
The jet age saw the end of the P-38 after war’s end, and the aircraft was rapidly withdrawn, with only a few remaining in Nationalist Chinese and Italian service until about 1956. The difficulty in maintaining the Lightning meant that, of 9900 built, only 32 remain intact today.
This model, built from the 1/72 Hasegawa kit, represents possibly the most famous P-38 of all: "Marge," the personal aircraft of top American ace Richard Bong. Bong, an early proponent and virtuoso of the P-38, would become not only the top American ace in the Pacific and of World War II, but of all time, with 40 kills--possibly more, as Bong was known to "give away" kills to less experienced pilots. Bong's P-38 was finished in bare metal, standard for P-38s after 1943 in the Pacific, and carries the red wingtips, spinners, and tail tips of the 49th Fighter Group. The olive drab antiglare panels on the inside of the P-38's engines were common. Bong scored most of his 40 victories in "Marge," named for his fiancee (and later wife) Margaret Vattendahl. Bong died in the crash of a P-80 Shooting Star only weeks before World War II ended in 1945. (For Marge's picture, Dad cut out a picture of her and pasted it onto decal film.)