P-38 LIGHTNING
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The 'Lockheed P-38 Lightning' was a World War II American fighter aircraft. Developed to a United States Army Air Corps requirement, the P-38 had distinctive twin booms and a single, central nacelle containing the pilot and armament. The aircraft was used in a number of different roles, including dive bombing, level bombing, ground strafing, photo reconnaissance missions,[3] and extensively as a long-range escort fighter when equipped with droppable fuel tanks under its wings. The P-38 was used most extensively and successfully in the Pacific Theater of Operations and the China-Burma-India Theater of Operations, where it was flown by the American pilots with the highest number of aerial victories to this date. America's top aces Richard Bong earned 40 victories (in a Lightning he called ''Marge''), and Thomas McGuire (in ''Pudgy'') scored 38. In the South West Pacific theater, it was a primary fighter of United States Army Air Forces until the appearance of large numbers of P-51D Mustangs toward the end of the war.[4][5]
Design and development
Lockheed YP-38 (1943)
Lockheed designed the P-38 in response to a 1937 United States Army Air Corps request for a high-altitude interceptor aircraft, capable of 360 miles per hour at an altitude of 20,000 feet (580 km/h at 6100m).[6] The Bell P-39 Airacobra and the Curtiss P-40 Warhawk were designed to the same requirement.
The Lockheed design team, under the direction of Hall Hibbard and “Kelly†Johnson, considered a range of configurations,[7] before incorporating a number of designs different from existing fighter aircraft. The Lockheed team chose twin booms to accommodate the tail assembly and the engines, with a central nacelle for the pilot and armament. The nose was designed to carry two Browning .50" (12.7mm) machine guns with 200 rounds per gun, two .30" (7.62mm) Brownings with 500 rounds per gun, and an Oldsmobile 37mm cannon with 15 rounds. Clustering all the armament in the nose meant, unlike most other US aircraft (which used wing-mounted guns, where the trajectories were set up to criss-cross at several points in a "convergence zone"), Lightning pilots needed to aim more precisely. For example, Dick Bong, the United States' highest-scoring World War II air-ace, would fly directly at his targets to make sure he hit them, in some cases flying through the debris of his target. However, the nose-mounted guns did not suffer from having their useful ranges limited by pattern convergence, meaning good pilots could shoot much farther. A Lightning could reliably hit targets at any range up to 1,000 yards, whereas other fighters had to pick a single convergence range between 100 and 250 yards. The clustered weapons had a "buzz-saw" effect on the receiving end, making the aircraft effective for strafing as well.
The design was the first fighter to utilize tricycle undercarriage, and featured two 1000 hp (746 kW) turbo-supercharged 12-cylinder Allison V-1710 engines fitted with counter-rotating propellers to eliminate the effect of engine torque, with the superchargers positioned behind them in the booms.
P-38J flying over California.
Lockheed won the competition on 23 June 1937 with its ' Model 22', and was contracted to build a prototype 'XP-38'.[8] Construction began in July 1938 and the XP-38 first flew on 27 January 1939.[9] The 11 February 1939 flight to relocate the aircraft for testing at Wright Field was extended by General Henry "Hap" Arnold, commander of the USAAC, to demonstrate the performance of the aircraft. It set a cross-continent speed record by flying from California to New York in seven hours and two minutes,[10] but landed short of the Mitchel Field runway in Hempstead, New York, and was wrecked. However, on the basis of the record flight, the Air Corps ordered 13 'YP-38's on 27 April 1939.
Manufacture of the YP-38s fell behind schedule – the first aircraft was not completed until September 1940, first flying on 16 September 1940,[11] the last delivered to the Air Corps in June 1941. They were substantially redesigned and differed greatly in detail from the hand-built XP-38. They were lighter, included changes in engine fit, and the propeller rotation was reversed, with the blades rotating outwards (away) from the cockpit at the top of their arc rather than inwards as before. This improved the aircraft's stability as a gunnery platform.
Test flights revealed a problem that initially looked like tail flutter. During high-speed flight approaching Mach 0.68, especially during dives, the airplane's tail would begin to shake violently and the nose would drop. Once caught in this dive the plane would enter a compressibility stall and the controls would lock up, leaving the pilot no option but to bail out (if he could) or stick with the plane until it got down to denser air where he might have a chance to pull out. During one flight on 4 November 1940, the tail structure fell apart during a high-speed dive, killing YP-38 test pilot Ralph Virden. On another, USAAC Major Signa Gilkey managed to stay with a YP-38 in a compressibility lockup, riding it out until he reached denser air, where he recovered using elevator trim. In 1940, flutter was a familiar engineering problem related to a too-flexible tail, though the P-38's empennage was completely skinned in aluminum (not fabric) and was quite rigid. At no time did the P-38 suffer from true flutter.[12] To prove a point, one elevator and its vertical stabilizers were skinned with metal 63% thicker than standard; the increase in rigidity made no difference in vibration. Army Lt. Colonel Kenneth B. Wolfe (head of Army Production Engineering) asked Lockheed to try external mass balances above and below the elevator, though the P-38 already had large mass balances elegantly placed within each vertical stablizer. Various configurations of external mass balances were equipped and test flights flown to document their performance and in Report No. 2414, Kelly Johnson wrote "...The violence of the vibration was unchanged and the diving tendency was naturally the same for all conditions."[13] The tests were a bust. Nonetheless, at Wolfe's insistence, the additional external balances were a feature of every P-38 built from then on.[14]
P-38 pilot training manual compressibility chart shows speed limit vs. altitude
The compressibility problem was ultimately sidestepped by changing the geometry of the P-38's wing when diving. In 1943, quick-acting dive flaps were incorporated into the production line. The flaps were installed outboard of the engine nacelles and in action they extended downward 35° in 1½ seconds. The flaps did not act as a speed brake, they affected the center of pressure distribution so that the wing would not lose its lift.[15]
Johnson later recalled:
Buffeting was another early aerodynamic problem, difficult to sort out from compressibility as both were reported by test pilots as 'tail shake'. Buffeting came about from airflow disturbances ahead of the tail; the airplane would shake at high speed. Leading edge wing slots were tried as were combinations of filleting between the wing, cockpit and engine nacelles. Air tunnel test number 15 solved the buffeting completely and its fillet solution was fitted to every subsequent P-38 airframe. The problem was traced to a 40% increase in air speed at the wing-fuselage junction where the chord/thickness ratio was highest. An airspeed of 500 mph at 25,000 feet could push airflow at the wing-fuselage junction close to the speed of sound. Filleting forever solved the buffeting problem for the P-38E and later models.[12]
Mechanized P-38 conveyor lines.
Another issue with the P-38 was that both engines were "critical" engines — losing one on takeoff, which often occurred, created "critical torque", rolling the plane towards the live engine's wingtip, rather than the dead engine's. Normal training in flying twin-engine aircraft when losing an engine on takeoff, would be to push the remaining engine to full throttle; in the P-38, the resulting critical torque produced such an uncontrollable asymmetric roll the aircraft would flip over and slam into the ground. Eventually, procedures were devised to allow a pilot to deal with the situation by reducing power on the running engine, feathering the prop on the dead engine, and then increasing power gradually until the aircraft was in stable flight.
The engine sounds were a unique, rather quiet "whuffle," because the exhausts were muffled by the General Electric turbosuperchargers on the twin Allison V12s. There were early problems with cockpit temperature regulation; pilots were often too hot in the tropics as the canopy could not be opened without severe buffeting, and were often too cold in northern Europe, as the distance of the engines from the cockpit prevented effective heating. Later variants received modifications to solve these problems.
P-38 at sunset.
On 20 September 1939, before the YP-38s had been built and flight tested, the USAAF ordered 66 initial production P-38 Lightnings, 30 of which were delivered to the USAAF in mid-1941, but not all these aircraft were armed. The unarmed aircraft were subsequently fitted with four .50s (instead of the two .50 and two .30 of their predecessors) and a 37 mm cannon. They also had armor glass, cockpit armor and fluorescent cockpit controls.[17] One was completed with a pressurized cabin on an experimental basis and designated 'XP-38A'.[18] Due to reports the USAAF was receiving from Europe, the remaining 36 in the batch were upgraded with small improvements such as self-sealing fuel tanks and enhanced armor protection to make them combat-capable. The USAAF specified that these 36 aircraft were to be designated 'P-38D'. As a result, there never were any P-38Bs or P-38Cs. The P-38D's main role was to work out bugs and give the USAAF experience with handling the type.[19]
In March 1940, the French and the British ordered a total of 667 P-38s, designated 'Model 322F' for the French and 'Model 322B' for the British. The aircraft would be a variant of the P-38E, without turbo-supercharging (due to a U.S. government export prohibition), and twin right-handed engines instead of counter-rotating, for commonality with the large numbers of Curtiss Tomahawks both nations had on order. After the fall of France in June 1940, the British took over the entire order and re-christened the plane ''Lightning I''. Three were delivered in March 1942 and, after discovering, without their superchargers and when using lower-octane British aircraft fuel, they had a maximum speed of 300 miles per hour (480 km/h) and poor handling characteristics, the entire order was canceled. The remaining 140 Lightning Is were completed for the USAAF with counter-rotating engines but still minus turbo-superchargers. They were relegated to United States Army Air Forces training units under the designation 'RP-322'.[20] These aircraft helped the USAAF train new pilots to fly a powerful and complex new fighter. The RP-322 was a fairly fast aircraft (some of the fastest post-war racing P-38s were virtually identical in layout to the P-322-II)[21] at low altitude and well suited as a trainer. The other positive result of this fiasco was to give the aircraft the name "Lightning". Lockheed originally dubbed the aircraft Atalanta in the company tradition of naming their planes after mythological and celestial figures, but the RAF name won out.
Operational service
P-38s deck-loaded on CVE, ready for shipment, cocooned against salt, at New York.
The first unit to receive P-38s was the 1st Fighter Group. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, the unit joined the 14th Pursuit Group in San Diego to provide West Coast defense.[22]
Entry to the war
The first Lightning to see active service was the F-4 version, a P-38E in which the guns were replaced by four cameras. They joined the 8th Photographic Squadron out of Australia on 4 April 1942. Three F-4s were operated by the Royal Australian Air Force in this theater for a short period beginning in September 1942.
On 29 May 1942, 25 P-38s began operating in the Aleutian Islands in Alaska. The fighter's long range made it well-suited to the campaign over the almost 1,200 mile (2,000 km)–long island chain, and it would be flown there for the rest of the war. The Aleutians were one of the most rugged environments available for testing the new aircraft under combat conditions. More Lightnings were lost due to severe weather and other conditions than enemy action, and there were cases where Lightning pilots, mesmerized by flying for hours over gray seas under gray skies, simply flew into the water. On 9 August 1942, two P-38Es of the 343rd Fighter Group, Eleventh Air Force, at the end of a 1,000 mile (1,600 km) long-range patrol, happened upon a pair of Japanese Kawanishi H6K "Mavis" flying boats and destroyed them, making them the first Japanese aircraft to be shot down by Lightnings.
European theater
P-38 participating in the Normandy campaign as evidenced by the D-Day invasion stripes.
After the Battle of Midway, the USAAF began redeploying fighter groups to Britain as part of Operation BOLERO, and Lightnings of the 1st Fighter Group were flown across the Atlantic ''via'' Iceland. On 14 August, a P-38F and a P-40 operating out of Iceland shot down a Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor over the Atlantic. This was the first ''Luftwaffe'' aircraft destroyed by the USAAF.[23]
P-38 Lightnings had a number of lucky escapes, exemplified by the arrival of the 71st fighter squadron at Goxhill (Lincolnshire, England) in July 1942. The official handover ceremony was scheduled for mid-August, but on the day before the ceremony, Goxhill experienced its only air raid of the war. A single German bomber flew overhead and dropped a very well aimed bomb right on the intersection between the two newly concreted runways, but it didn’t explode and the aircraft were able to continue their mission. (As it turned out, the bomb could not be removed and, for the duration of the war, aircraft had to pass over it every time they took off.)
After 347 sorties with no enemy contact, the 1st, 14th and 82nd Fighter Groups were transferred to the 12th Air Force in North Africa as part of the force being built up for Operation TORCH. On 19 November 1942, Lightnings escorted B-17s on a raid over Tunis. On 5 April 1943, 26 P-38Fs of the 82nd destroyed 31 enemy aircraft, helping to establish air superiority in the area, and earning it the German nickname "der Gabelschwanz-Teufel" – the Fork-Tailed Devil. The P-38 remained active in the Mediterranean for the rest of the war.
Experiences over Germany had shown a need for long-range escort fighters to protect the Eighth Air Force's heavy bomber operations. The P-38Hs of the 55th Fighter Group were transferred to the Eighth in England in September 1943, and were joined by the 20th, 364th and 479th Fighter Groups soon after.
In the Mediterranean Theater, Italian pilots started to face P-38s from late 1942 and considered the type a formidable foe even compared to other lethal fighters including the Supermarine Spitfire. A small number of P-38s fell into the hands of German and Italian units and were subsequently tested and used in combat. Col. Tondi used a P-38, possibly an "E" variant, that landed in Sardinia due to a navigational error. Tondi claimed at least one B-24, downed on 11 August 1943. The P-38 eventually was acquired by Italy for postwar service.
The P-38 performed well in the ETO despite being outnumbered 10 to 1 and suffering frequent engine failures, attributed to parts that could not tolerate the low-grade European fuel. Many of the aircraft's problems were addressed by the P-38J, but by September 1944, all but one of the Lightning groups in the Eighth Air Force had converted to the P-51. The Eighth did continue to operate F-5s with more success.
Pacific theater
Col. MacDonald and Al Nelson in the Pacific.
The P-38 was used most extensively and successfully in the Pacific theater, where it proved ideally suited, combining excellent performance with very long range. The P-38 was credited with destroying more Japanese aircraft than any other USAAF fighter. Freezing cockpits were not a problem in the tropics. In fact, since there was no way to open a window while in flight as it caused buffeting by setting up turbulence through the tailplane, it was often too hot, and pilots would fly stripped down to shorts, tennis shoes, and parachute. While the P-38 could not out-maneuver the Mitsubishi Zero and most other Japanese fighters, its speed and rate of climb gave American pilots the option of choosing to fight or run, and its focused firepower was even more deadly to lightly-armored Japanese warplanes than to the Germans'. Jiro Horikoshi, designer of the Zero, wrote: "The peculiar sound of the P-38's twin engines became both familiar and hated by the Japanese all across the South Pacific."
On 2-4 March 1943, P-38s flew top cover for Fifth Air Force and Australian bombers and attack-planes during the Battle of the Bismarck Sea, a crushing defeat for the Japanese. Two P-38 aces from the 39th Fighter Squadron were killed on the second day of the battle: Bob Faurot and Hoyt "Curley" Eason (a veteran with five victories who had trained hundreds of pilots, including Dick Bong).
General George C. Kenney, commander of the USAAF Fifth Air Force operating in New Guinea, could not get enough P-38s, though since they were replacing serviceable but inadequate P-39s and P-40s, this might seem like guarded praise. Lightning pilots began to compete in racking up scores against Japanese aircraft.
Isoroku Yamamoto
Main articles: Death of Isoroku Yamamoto
The Lightning figured in one of the most significant operations in the Pacific theater, the interception, on 18 April 1943, of Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, the architect of Japan's naval strategy in the Pacific, including the attack on Pearl Harbor. When American codebreakers found out that he was flying to Bougainville Island to conduct a front-line inspection, 16 Lightnings were sent on a long-range fighter-intercept mission, flying from Guadalcanal at heights from 10-50 ft (3-15 m) above the ocean to avoid detection. The Lightnings met Yamamoto's Mitsubishi G4M "Betty" bomber and escorting Zeros just as they arrived. Four attacked the bombers, downing the Betty over the jungle, while the other 12 provided top cover.[24]
Service record
The P-38's service record shows mixed results. On the negative side, most variants were certainly harder to fly than the best single-engine fighters, and in early models, pilots suffered from cold in northern climates and from heat in equatorial climates. Also, the twin Allisons had problems – a good portion of Lightnings were lost during the war due to engine difficulties rather than by enemy gunfire, which contributed to the plane's relatively low kill-ratio of 1.4 to 1 in the ETO where the P-38 scored 2500 confirmed enemy kills to 1750 combat losses of all kinds including flak, pilot error and equipment malfunction. It's estimated that the pure air-to-air kill ratio in the ETO would be about 2:1 in favor of the P-38. [25]Up until the -J-25 variant, P-38s were easily avoided by German fighters because of the lack of dive flaps to counter compressibility in dives. German fighter pilots not wishing to fight would perform the first half of a Split S and continue into steep dives because they knew the Lightnings would be reluctant to follow.
On the positive side, having two engines was a built-in insurance policy. Many pilots made it safely back to base after having an engine fail en route or in combat. On March 3, 1944, the first Allied fighters reached Berlin on a frustrated escort mission. Lt. Col. Jack Jenkins of 55FG led the group of P-38H pilots, arriving with only half his force after flak damage and engine trouble took their toll. On the way in to Berlin, Jenkins reported one rough-running engine and one good one, causing him to wonder if he'd ever make it back. The B-17s he was supposed to escort never showed up, having turned back at Hamburg. Jenkins and his wingman were able to drop tanks and outrun enemy fighters to return home with three good engines between them.[26]
In the ETO, P-38s made 130,000 sorties with a loss of 1.3% overall, comparing favorably with ETO P-51s which posted a 1.1% loss. The majority of the P-38 sorties were made in the period prior to Allied air superiority in Europe when pilots fought against a very determined and skilled enemy.[25] Rated as the third best Allied fighter in Europe by Lt. Colonel Mark Hubbard,[28] the Lightning's greatest virtues were long range, heavy payload, high speed, fast climb-rate and concentrated firepower. The P-38 was a formidable interceptor and attack aircraft and, in the hands of a good pilot, dangerous in air-to-air combat.
In the Pacific theater, the P-38 downed over 1,800 Japanese aircraft, with more than 100 pilots becoming aces by downing five or more enemy. American fuel supplies contributed to a better engine performance and maintenance record, and range was increased with leaner mixtures. In the second half of 1944, the P-38L pilots out of Dutch New Guinea were flying 950 miles, fighting for 15 minutes and returning to base.[29] Such long legs were invaluable until the P-47N and P-51D entered service.
Postwar operations
The end of the war left the USAAF with thousands of P-38s, rendered obsolete by the jet-age. One hundred late-model P-38L and F-5 Lightnings were acquired by Italy through an agreement dated April 1946. Delivered, after refurbishing, at one per month, they finally were all sent to the AMI by 1952. The Lightnings served in 4 Stormo and other units including 3 Stormo, flying reconnaissance over the Balkans, ground attack, naval cooperation and air superiority missions. Due to unfamiliarity in operating heavy fighters, old engines and pilot errors, a large number of P-38s were lost in at least 30 accidents, many of them fatal. Despite this, many Italian pilots liked the P-38, because of its excellent visibility on the ground and stablity at takeoff. P-38s were phased out in 1956, none survived the inevitable scrapyard.[30]
Surplus P-38s were also used by foreign air forces with a dozen sold to Honduras. The vast majority of wartime Lightnings were put up for sale for $1,200 USD apiece, and the rest were scrapped.
Lockheed test pilot Tony LeVier was among those who bought a P-38, turning it into an air racer. The Lightning was a popular contender in the air races from 1946 through 1949, with brightly colored Lightnings making screaming turns around the pylons.
F-5s were bought by aerial survey companies and used for aerial mapping. From the 1950s on, the use of the Lightning steadily declined, and only a little more than two dozen still exist, with few still flying. One example is a P-38L owned by the Lone Star Flight Museum in Galveston in Texas, painted in the colors of Charles MacDonald's ''Putt Putt Maru.'' Two other examples are F-5G's which were owned and operated by Kargl Aerial Surveys in 1946, and are now located in Chino, California (Yank's Air Museum), and Mcminnville, Oregon (Evergreen Aviation Museum).
Variants
| Variant | Produced | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| XP-38 | 1 | Prototype |
| YP-38 | 13 | Evaluation planes |
| P-38 | 30 | Initial production plane |
| XP-38A | 1 | Pressurized cockpit |
| P-38D | 36 | |
| P-38E | 210 | |
| F-4 | 100+ | recons based on P-38E |
| Model 322 | 3 | RAF planes |
| RP-322 | 147 | USAAF trainers |
| P-38F | 527 | |
| F-4A | 20 | recons based on P-38F |
| P-38G | 1,082 | |
| F-5A | 180 | recons based on P-38G |
| XF-5D | 1 converted F-5A | |
| P-38H | 601 | |
| F-5C | 123 | based on P-38H |
| P-38J | 2,970 | new radiator style |
| F-5B | 200 | based on P-38J |
| F-5E | 605 | P-38J/L conversion |
| P-38K | 1 | paddle props |
| P-38L-LO | 3,810 | |
| P-38L-VN | 113 | |
| F-5F | based on P-38L | |
| P-38M | 75 | night-fighter |
| F-5G |
Over 10,000 Lightnings were manufactured in all; it was one of the few US combat aircraft that had been in production throughout the entire duration of American participation in World War II. The Lightning had a major effect on other aircraft, such as the fact that its wing, in a scaled-up form, was used on the L-049 Constellation.[32]
The first combat-capable Lightning was the 'P-38E', which featured improved instruments, and electrical and hydraulic systems. Part-way through production, the older Hamilton Standard Hydromatic hollow steel propellers were replaced by new Curtiss Electric duraluminum propellers. The definitive armament configuration, featuring four 12.7 mm machine guns with 500 rounds per gun and a Hispano 20 mm cannon with 150 rounds instead of the unreliable Oldsmobile 37 mm gun, was standardized.
While the machine guns had been arranged symmetrically in the nose on earlier variants, they were "staggered" in the P-38E and later versions, with the muzzles protruding from the nose in the relative lengths of roughly 1:4:6:2. This was done to ensure a straight ammunition-belt feed into the weapons, as the earlier arrangement led to jamming.
The first P-38E rolled out of the factory in October 1941. Over a hundred P-38Es were completed in the factory or converted in the field to a photo-reconnaissance variant, the 'F-4', in which the guns were replaced by four cameras. Most of these early reconnaissance Lightnings were retained stateside for training, but the F-4 was the first Lightning to be used in action in April 1942. After 210 P-38Es were built, they were followed, starting in April 1942, by the 'P-38F', which incorporated racks inboard of the engines for fuel tanks or a total of 2,000 pounds (900 kg) of bombs. A total of 527 P-38Fs were built.
The P-38F was followed in early 1943 by the 'P-38G', utilizing more powerful Allisons of 1,400 hp (1,040 kW) each and equipped with a better radio. The P-38G was followed in turn by the 'P-38H', with further uprated Allisons (1,425 hp [1,060 kW] each), an improved 20 mm cannon and a bomb capacity of 3,200 pounds (1,450 kg). These models were also field-modified into 'F-4A' and 'F-5A' reconnaissance aircraft. An F-5A was modified to an experimental two-seat reconnaissance configuration, with additional cameras in the tail booms.
Early variants did not enjoy a high reputation for maneuverability, though they could be agile at low altitudes if flown by a capable pilot, using the P-38's forgiving stall characteristics to their best advantage. From the P-38F-15 model onwards, a "combat maneuver" setting was added to the P-38's Fowler flaps. When deployed at the eight-degree maneuver setting, the flaps allowed the P-38 to out-turn many contemporary single-engined fighters at the cost of some added drag. However, early variants were hampered by high aileron control forces and a low initial rate of roll.
Lightning in maturity: P-38J, P-38L
Four P-38s flying in formation.
The definitive 'P-38J' was introduced in August 1943. The turbocharger intercooler system on previous variants had been housed in the leading edges of the wings and had proven vulnerable to combat damage and could explode if the wrong series of controls were mistakenly activated. In the P-38J model, the streamlined engine nacelles of previous Lightnings were changed to fit the intercooler radiator between the oil coolers, forming a "chin" that visually distinguished the J model from its predecessors. While the P-38J used the same V-1710-89/91 engines as the H model, the new core-type intercooler more efficiently lowered intake manifold temperatures and permitted a substantial increase in rated power. The leading edge of the outer wing was fitted with 55-gallon fuel tanks, filling the space formerly occupied by intercooler tunnels.
The final 210 J models, designated P-38J-25-LO, alleviated the compressibility problem through the addition of a set of electrically-actuated dive recovery flaps just outboard of the engines on the bottom centerline of the wings. With these improvements, a USAAF pilot reported a dive speed of almost 600 miles per hour (970 km/h), although the reported air speed was later corrected for compressibility error, and the actual dive speed was lower.[33]
The P-38J-25-LO production block also introduced hydraulically-boosted ailerons, one of the first times such a system was fitted to a fighter. This significantly improved the Lightning's rate of roll and reduced control forces for the pilot. With a truly satisfactory Lightning in place, Lockheed ramped up production, working with subcontractors across the country to produce hundreds of Lightnings each month.
There were two 'P-38K's developed in 1942–1943. The first was a modified P-38E test mule fitted with paddle-bladed "high activity" Hamilton Standard propellers similar to those used on the P-47. The new propellers required spinners of greater diameter, and the thrust line was also slightly higher. New cowlings were fashioned to properly blend the spinners into the nacelles. The aircraft also received the chin intercoolers developed for the P-38J.
The first prototype's performance led to the development on the second aircraft, a modified P-38G-10-LO (re-designated P-38K-1-LO) fitted with the aforementioned propellers and new Allison V-1710-75/77 (F15R/L) powerplants rated at 1,875 bhp at War Emergency Power. In tests, the P-38K-1 achieved 432 mph at military power and was predicted to exceed 450 mph at War Emergency Power with a similar increase in rate of climb, load, ceiling and range. However, the War Production Board refused to authorize P-38K production due to the two to three-week halt in production necessary to implement cowling modifications for the revised spinners and higher thrust line.
The P-38L was the most numerous variant of the Lightning, with 3,923 built, 113 by Consolidated-Vultee in their Nashville plant. It entered service with the USAAF in June of 1944, in time to support the Allied invasion of France on D-Day. Lockheed production of the Lightning was distinguished by a suffix consisting of a production block number followed by "LO," for example "P-38L-1-LO", while Consolidated-Vultee production was distinguished by a block number followed by "VN," for example "P-38L-5-VN."
The P-38L was the first Lightning fitted with zero-length rocket launchers. Seven HVARs (high velocity aircraft rockets) on pylons beneath each wing, and later, ten rockets on each wing on "Christmas tree" launch racks. The P-38L also had strengthened stores pylons to allow carriage of 2,000 pound (900 kg) bombs or 300 US gallon (1,140 liter) drop tanks.
F-5B, reconnaissance version of P-38.
Lockheed modified 200 P-38J airframes in production to become unarmed 'F-5B' photo-reconnaissance aircraft, while hundreds of other P-38Js and P-38Ls were field-modified to become 'F-5E's, 'F-5F's, and 'F-5G's. A few P-38Ls were field-modified to become two-seat 'TP-38L' familiarization trainers.
Late model Lightnings were delivered unpainted, as per USAAF policy established in 1944. At first, field units tried to paint them, since pilots worried about being too visible to the enemy, but it turned out the reduction in weight was a minor plus in combat.
The P-38L-5, the most common sub-variant of the P-38L, had a modified cockpit heating system which consisted of a plug-socket in the cockpit into which the pilot could plug his heat-suit wire for improved comfort. These Lightnings also received the uprated V-1710-111/113 (F30R/L) engines, and this dramatically lowered the amount of engine failure problems experienced at high altitude.
Pathfinders, Night Fighter and other variants
The Lightning was modified for other roles. In addition to the F-4 and F-5 reconnaissance variants, a number of P-38Js and P-38Ls were field-modified as formation bombing "pathfinders" or "droopsnoots", fitted with a glazed nose with a Norden bombsight, or a H2X radar "bombing through overcast" nose. A pathfinder would lead a formation of other P-38s, each overloaded with two bombs; the entire formation releasing when the pathfinder did.
A number of Lightnings were modified as night fighters. There were several field or experimental modifications with different equipment fits that finally led to the "formal" 'P-38M' night fighter, or ''Night Lightning''. Seventy-five P-38Ls were modified to the Night Lightning configuration, painted flat-black with conical flash hiders on the guns, an AN/APS-6 radar pod below the nose, and a second cockpit with a raised canopy behind the pilot's canopy for the radar operator. The headroom in the rear cockpit was limited, requiring radar operators who were preferably short in stature.
The additional external clutter imposed surprisingly little penalty on the P-38M's performance, and it remained faster than the purpose-built Northrop P-61 Black Widow night fighter. The Night Lightnings saw some combat duty in the Pacific towards the end of the war, but, verifiably, none engaged in combat.
Lockheed 422 P-38M Night Lightning (44-27234 c/n 422-8238).
One of the initial production P-38s had its turbochargers removed, with a secondary cockpit placed in one of the booms to examine how flightcrew would respond to such an "asymmetric" cockpit layout. One P-38E was fitted with an extended central nacelle to accommodate a tandem-seat cockpit with dual controls, and was later fitted with a laminar flow wing.
Very early in the Pacific War, a scheme was proposed to fit Lightnings with floats to allow them to make long-range ferry flights. The floats would be removed before the aircraft went into combat. There were concerns that salt spray would corrode the tailplane, and so one P-38E was modified with a raised tailplane and a rearward-facing second seat for an observer to monitor the effectiveness of the new arrangement. This P-38E was never actually fitted with floats, and the idea was quickly abandoned as the US Navy proved to have enough sealift capacity to keep up with P-38 deliveries to the South Pacific.
Still another P-38E was used in 1942 to tow a Waco troop glider as a demonstration. However, there proved to be plenty of other aircraft, such as C-47s, available to tow gliders, and the Lightning was spared this duty.
Standard Lightnings were even used as crew and cargo transports in the South Pacific. They were fitted with pods attached to the underwing pylons, replacing drop tanks or bombs, that could carry a single passenger in a lying-down position, or cargo. This was a very uncomfortable way to fly. Some of the pods weren't even fitted with a window to let the passenger see out or bring in light, and one fellow who hitched a lift on a P-38 in one of these pods later said that "whoever designed the damn thing should have been forced to ride in it."
Lockheed proposed a carrier-based 'Model 822' version of the Lightning for the United States Navy. The Model 822 would have featured folding wings, an arresting hook, and stronger undercarriage for carrier operations. The Navy wasn't interested, as they regarded the Lightning as too big for carrier operations and didn't like liquid-cooled engines anyway, and the Model 822 never went beyond the paper stage. However, the Navy did operate four land-based F-5Bs in North Africa, inherited from the USAAF and redesignated 'FO-1'.
A P-38J was used in experiments with an unusual scheme for mid-air refueling, in which the fighter snagged a drop tank trailed on a cable from a bomber. The USAAF managed to make this work, but decided it wasn't practical. A P-38J was also fitted with experimental retractable snow ski landing gear, but this idea never reached operational service either.
After the war, a P-38L was experimentally fitted with armament of three machine guns. The .60 caliber cartridge had been developed early in the war for an infantry "anti-tank rifle," a type of weapon developed by a number of nations in the 1930s when tanks were lighter but, by 1942, the idea of taking on a tank with a large-caliber rifle was considered to be somewhere between "outdated" and "suicidal."
The cartridge wasn't abandoned, with the Americans designing a derivative of the German MG 151 15 mm aircraft automatic cannon around it and designating the weapon the "T17," but though 300 of these guns were built and over six million .60 caliber rounds were manufactured, they never worked out all the bugs, and the T17 never saw operational service. The cartridge was "necked up" to fit 20 mm projectiles and became a standard US ammunition after the war. The T17-armed P-38L did not go beyond unsuccessful trials.
Another P-38L was modified after the war as a "super strafer," with eight machine guns in the nose and a pod under each wing with two .50 in guns, for a total of 12 machine guns. Nothing came of this conversion, either.
A P-38L was modified by Hindustan Aeronautics in India as a fast VIP transport, with a comfortable seat in the nose, leather-lined walls, accommodations for refreshments and a glazed nose to give the passenger a spectacular view.
Operators
P-38s of 449th Fighter Squadron, Chengkung, 1945.
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Noted or surviving P-38s
P-38J Lightning ''YIPPEE''
YIPPEE
The 5,000th Lightning built, a P-38J, was painted bright vermilion red, and had the name ''YIPPEE'' painted on the underside of the wings in big white letters as well as the signatures of hundreds of factory workers. This aircraft was used by Lockheed test pilots Milo Burcham and Tony LeVier in remarkable flight demonstrations, performing such stunts as slow rolls at treetop level with one prop feathered to show that the P-38 was not the unmanageable beast of legend. Their exploits did much to reassure pilots that the Lightning might be a handful, but it was no "widow maker."
Glacier Girl
P-38 ''Glacier Girl''
P-38F-1-LO s/n 41-7630 (now called ''Glacier Girl''), flown by 1st Lt. Harry L. Smith, Jr., 94th Fighter Squadron, was one of six P-38 fighters of the 1st Fighter Group escorting two B-17 bombers on a ferry flight to the United Kingdom as part of Operation Bolero on July 15, 1942. While en route over Greenland, bad weather caused the eight aircraft to turn back, the entire flight attempting to land together before they ran out of fuel. Although one P-38 overturned, the flight successfully belly-landed. The crews were rescued within a few days, but the airplanes were abandoned and, over the years, covered by ice.
A few attempts to salvage the airplanes were made but were unsuccessful. Eventually, Roy Shoffner, a businessman from Middlesboro, Kentucky, acquired the salvage rights and in 1992, 50 years after the planes landed, a P-38 recovery mission was undertaken. Using photos taken by the original crews while they were awaiting rescue as well as modern seismographic equipment, the salvage workers located the buried squadron and selected the least damaged of the planes. They reached it by boring a hole using hot water through the layer of ice 268 feet thick. The airplane was transported to Middlesboro, where a ten-year restoration began using many parts from late model aircraft. Nicknamed ''Glacier Girl'', the restored P-38F Lightning made its first post-restoration flight on 26 October 2002. See Glacier Girl. [34]
Unknown
A lone P-38 is interred indefinitely at the EAA Museum in Oshkosh, Wisconsin in an exhibit featuring the exploits of Majors Richard I. "Dick" Bong. It is unknown if it is flight ready or only a rolling shell.
Porky II
Another surviving P-38J at the Planes of Fame Museum in Chino, California (s/n 4-23314) painted in the colors of "Porky II" (after 2006, repainted as "23 Skidoo") is still airworthy.
Noted P-38 pilots
Major Richard Bong in his P-38.
The American ace of aces and his closest competitor both flew Lightnings as they tallied 40 and 38 victories each. Majors Richard I. "Dick" Bong and Thomas J. "Tommy" McGuire of the USAAF competed for the top position, a rivalry made interesting by the contrast in personalities of the two men. Both Bong and McGuire were unbelievably aggressive and fearless in the air. After dogfights, their P-38s would be warped out of shape by overstress. On the ground, they were completely different men. Dick Bong was a modest, quiet, almost shy man, while the egotistical McGuire was "an unpleasant individual with a talent much bigger than he was," as one of his colleagues remembered him.
Bong was rotated back to the States as America's ace of aces, after making 40 kills. He was killed on 6 August 1945, the day the atomic bomb was dropped on Japan, when his P-80 Shooting Star jet fighter flamed out on takeoff. McGuire had been killed in air combat in January 1945, over the Philippines, after racking up 38 confirmed kills, making him the second-ranking American ace. Both men were awarded the Medal of Honor.
The famed aviator, Charles Lindbergh, worked in the South Pacific for Lockheed as an operational test pilot, where he shot down at least one Japanese aircraft with his P-38. He was instrumental in extending the range of the P-38 through improved throttle settings, or engine-leaning techniques, and notably by reducing engine RPM to 1600 rpm, which had prior been considered dangerous, because it was thought this would upset the fuel mixture and cause an explosion.[35]
The seventh-ranking American ace, Charles MacDonald, also flew a Lightning against the Japanese, scoring 27 kills in his famous aircraft, the "Putt Putt Maru."
A P-38 piloted by Clay Tice was the first American aircraft to land in Japan after VJ-Day, when he and his wingman set down on Nitagahara because his wingman was low on fuel.
Since F-5s operated alone, when their missions went wrong, they generally disappeared without a trace. The noted aviation pioneer and writer Antoine de Saint-Exupery vanished in an F-5 while on a flight over the Mediterranean, from Corsica to mainland France, on 31 July 1944. In 2000, a French scuba diver found the wreckage of a Lightning in the Mediterranean off the coast of Marseille, and it was confirmed in April 2004 as Saint-Exupery's.
The RAF's legendary photo-recon "ace," Wing Commander Adrian Warburton DSO DFC, was the pilot of a Lockheed F-5B borrowed from the USAAF that took off on 12 April 1944 to photograph targets in Germany. W/C Warburton failed to arrive at the rendezvous point and was never seen again. In 2003, his remains were recovered from his wrecked USAAF F-5B Lightning in Germany.
Specifications (P-38L)
Lockheed P-38L Lightning at the National Museum of the United States Air Force.
Popular culture
The Lockheed P-38 has been the "star" of a number of contemporary movies including:
★ ''A Guy Named Joe'' (1943) has Spencer Tracy returning as a guiding spirit looking after young P-38 pilot Van Johnson.
★ ''Flight Characteristics of the Lockheed P-38 Lightning'' (1943, color, 34:00). Lockheed's top World War II test pilots do the checkout on this very thorough pilot training film.
★ ''Yamamoto shot down!'' (1944, B&W, 4:00) The P-38 Squadron that shot down Admiral Yamamoto in an incredible long distance interception in the Pacific, is depicted. The film includes purported P-38 gun camera footage of the Admiral's Betty bomber going down in flames.
★ ''Dick Bong: Pacific Ace'' (1944, B&W, 4:00) This short documentary film pays tribute to Richard "Dick" Bong, the leading American P-38 ace of World War II.
★ ''P-38 Reconnaissance Pilot'' (1944, B&W, 29:00) Starring William Holden as Lt. "Packy" Cummings, this short feature shows that photo recon pilots (photo Joes) had one of the riskiest, highest impact jobs in the war.
★ ''Angel in Overalls'' (1945, B&W, 15:00) This film was developed to show US Lockheed P-38 production line workers in a wide variety of roles.
References
Ruth Dailey, WASP climbs into a P-38.
1. Donald, David, ed. "Lockheed P-38 Lightning." ''The Encyclopedia of World Aircraft''. Etobicoke, Ontario, Canada: Prospero Books, 1997. ISBN 1-85605-375-X.
2. Knaack, Marcelle Size. ''Encyclopedia of US Air Force Aircraft and Missile Systems: Volume 1 Post-World War II Fighters 1945-1973''. Washington, DC: Office of Air Force History, 1978. ISBN 0-912799-59-5.
3. '' P-38 Lightning''. Access date: 21 January 2007.
4. Stanaway, John. ''P-38 Lightning Aces of the Pacific and CBI'' (Osprey Aircraft of the Aces No 14). London: Osprey Publishing, 1997. ISBN 1-85532-633-7.
5. '' PTO/CBI Pilots of WWII, Top American aces of the Pacific & CBI: 5th, 13th and 14th Air Force fighter pilots, Mostly P-38 Lightning pilots, also some P-47, P-40, and P-51 aces'' Access date: 8 May 2007.
6. '' Lockheed P-38 Lightning''. Access date: 21 January 2007.
7. '' Development of the P-38''. Access date: 21 January 2007. Quote = A diagram of the configurations considered.
8. O'Leary, Michael. " Conquering the Sky!" ''Air Classics, April 2005.'' Access date: 26 January 2007.
9. '' Lockheed P-38J Lightning''. Access date: 23 January 2007.
10. Lockheed P-38 Lightning - USA. Access date: 21 January 2007.
11. '' Early Years''. Access date: 21 January 2007.
12. Bodie 2001, p. 58.
13. Bodie 2001, p. 57.
14. Baugher, Joe. '' Lockheed YP-38 Lightning''. Access date: 29 January 2007.
15. Bodie 2001, p. 174-175.
16. Bodie 2001, p. 58.
17. Baugher, Joe. '' Lockheed P-38 Lightning''. Access date: January 29, 2007.
18. Baugher, Joe. '' Lockheed XP-38A Lightning''. Access date: 29 January 2007.
19. Baugher, Joe. '' Lockheed P-38D Lightning''. Access date: 29 January 2007.
20. Baugher, Joe. '' Lightning I for RAF''. Access date: 29 January 2007.
21. Bodie 2001, p. 64.
22. Baugher, Joe. '' P-38 in European Theatre''. Access date: 04 February 2007.
23. Stanaway, John C. ''P-38 Lightning Aces of the ETO/MTO''. New York: Osprey, 1997. ISBN 1-85532-698-1.
24. Stanaway, John C. ''P-38 Lightning Aces of the Pacific and CBI.'' New York: Osprey, 1997, p. 14. ISBN 1-85532-633-7.
25. Bodie 2001, p. 214.
26. Bodie 2001, p. 223.
27. Bodie 2001, p. 214.
28. Bodie 2001, p. 217.
29. Bodie 2001, p. 234.
30. Sgarlato
31. '' Lockheed P-38 Lightning''. Access date: 23 January 2007
32. Johnson, Clarence L. "Kelly". ''Kelly: More Than My Share of it All.'' Washington, DC: Smithsonian Books, 1985. ISBN 0-87474-491-1.
33. Baugher, Joe. '' Lockheed P-38J Lightning''. Access date: 29 January 2007.
34. '' Glacier Girl''. Access date: 21 January 2007.
35. Kirkland 2003, p. 29-35.
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★ Abela, Stephen. ''Airfield Tales: Lincolnshire’s wartime legacy''. (Video documentary), 2006. Airfield Tales: Lincolnshire’s wartime legacy
★ Bodie, Warren M. ''The Lockheed P-38 Lightning: The Definitive Story of Lockheed's P-38 Fighter''. Hayesville, North Carolina: Widewing Publications, 2001. ISBN 0-96293-595-6.
★ Caidin, Martin. ''Fork-tailed Devil.'' New York: Ballantine Books, 1983. ISBN 0-345-31292-9.
★ Cain, Charles W. and Jerram, Mike. ''Fighters of World War II.'' New York: Exeter Books, 1979. ISBN 0-89673-026-3.
★ Christy, Joe and Ethell, Jeffrey L. ''P-38 Lightning at War''. New York: Scribners,1977. ISBN 0-684-15740-3.
★ Dorr, Robert F. and Donald, David. ''Fighters of the US Air Force: From World War I Pursuits to the F-117''. New York: Military Press, 1990. ISBN 0-517-66994-3.
★ Ethell, Jeffrey L. ''P-38 Lightning in World War II Color''. St. Paul, Minnesota: Motorbooks International, 1994. ISBN 0-87938-868-4.
★ Francillon, René J. ''Lockheed Aircraft since 1913''. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1987. (Originally published by Putnam Aeronautical Books, London). ISBN 0-97021-897-2.
★ Gunston, Bill. ''Aircraft of World War II''. New York: Crescent Books, 1980. ISBN 0-517-31680-3.
★ Gunston, Bill. ''The Illustrated History of Fighters''. New York: Pocket Books, 1981. ISBN 0-671-05655-7.
★ Kirkland, Richard. ''War Pilot: True Tales of Combat and Adventure''. New York: Ballantine Books, 2003. ISBN 0-34545-812-5.
★ Sgarlato, Nico."I P-38 Italiani." ''Aerei Nella Storia n.21'', December 2000.
External links
★ United States Air Force Museum P-38 page
★ Usaaf.com P-38 photos
★ The Flying Bulls P-38 Restoration at Ezell Aviation
★ Lost Squadron Museum, home of "Glacier Girl," a P-38 recovered and restored to flying condition after being embedded in ice for 50 years
★ P-38 Lightning Online: photos, pilots, strategies, the good and the bad about the famed Lightning
★ P-38 National Association and Museum
★ Whatever happened to the Lockheed P-38K?
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