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Major Richard Bong scored his 40 kills flying P-38s in
the Pacific. P-38s were also used in the famous mission that
intercepted and shot down Japanese admiral Isoroku Yamamoto over
Bougainville. The P-38's high speed and large nose section
(which was a good location for recon cameras) made the plane a
natural for photographic reconnaissance missions. P-38s that
were used in this role were re-designated as F-4s and F-5s
This American fighter
shot down more Japanese planes than any other. And in April,
1943, a Lightning shot down the plane carrying Admiral Yamamoto,
the man who had planned the
Pearl Harbor attack. Called by the
Germans Der Gabelschwanz Teutel ("The Devil with the Cleft
Tail"), the Lightning was a controversial plane, loved and hated
at the same time by the men who flew it. The aircraft was in
production from 1940 to 1945, and a total of 9,923 P-38s were
built in several versions. The plane was employed on all fronts
and in several roles that had not been anticipated in the
original design, including photographic reconnaissance missions
as well as duty as a fighter-bomber and as a night fighter. It
was a very fine plane. The two leading American World War II
aces, Major Richard Bong (40 enemy planes down) and Major Thomas
B. McGuire (38 planes down), scored their last victories in the
P-38. Bong, in fact, shot down all his adversaries in a P-38.
| Two engines were essential to achieve the performance that was asked
for, and in order to accommodate the engines and their superchargers, a
two-tailed plane was designed. The radiators and the main landing gear
were also installed in the tail elements. The small fuselage housed the
cockpit, the forward wheel, and the aircraft's heavy armament. All the
guns (the plane originally carried a 23-mm. cannon and four heavy
machine guns) were located in the nose, thereby solving the problem of
concentration of fire and aiming. |
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The specifications that led to the design of this original
combat plane were issued in 1937 by Army authorities. (Considering the efforts
that the Germans and the British made to put a heavy two-engine fighter into the
field, the American design was certainly the best.) What was asked for was a
high-altitude interceptor that could reach 360 m.p.h. at 20,000 feet and 290
m.p.h. at 1,500 feet, with an ascent time of six minutes. Many companies that
were approached considered the specifications impossible, but Lockheed's head
designers, H. L. Hibbard and Clarence ("Kelly") Johnson, examined several
possible solutions before settling on the least orthodox one.
On June 23, 1937, a first prototype was
ordered, and the XP-38 took to the air one and a half years
later, on January 27, 1939. Military authorities were still
skeptical about the plane's capabilities, so on February 11 the
prototype was flown across the American continent, from coast to
coast, in the record time of seven hours and two minutes,
including two refueling stops. On landing, however, the plane
crashed because of trouble with the wing flaps and one of the
engines. Nevertheless, the military authorities were so
impressed that a pre-series order was placed two months later
for 13 aircraft. This order was followed by two others, for a
total of 673 planes.
The first P-38s were nearly identical
with the prototype, but the next ones, the P-38Ds, had the final configuration:
Self-sealing fuel tanks were installed, and the horizontal tail system was
adjusted for better control. In November, 1941, the P-38E replaced the earlier
version on the assembly line. This model had a 20-mm. gun and more ammunition.
While 210 of these planes were being built, Lockheed readied another version for
export. Great Britain had ordered 667 in March, 1940. These planes did not have
turbo superchargers, and their performance was not considered satisfactory; the
RAF refused to accept delivery.
The next model was the P-38F, which went
into production in early 1942. This version had more powerful
engines and wing racks for bombs or supplementary fuel tanks.
This was the first model to see large-scale combat, in Europe in
mid-1942 and in North Africa in November of the same year. The G
and H versions followed, with 1,082 of the former and 601 of the
latter. The next version, the J, was the second largest
production series (2,970 planes) and one of the best performers.
It had more powerful engines, larger payload, and greater range.
The radiators were also modified, and so was the appearance of
the engine housings. The largest production series was the
P-38L, with even more powerful engines. A total of 3,923 were
built. The P-38Js and P-38Ls were also used as bombers, and the
nose was transparent for sighting. The last Lightning was the
P-38M, which was designed for night fighting. A radar operator
was housed in a second cockpit behind the pilot.
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Aircraft
