Lockheed P-38 Lightning

The History of the Lockheed P-38 Lightning

The Lockheed P-38 Lightning, nicknamed "The Fork Tail Devil" by the Germans, was the brainchild of Lockheed engineer Kelly Johnson. The "Lightning" name was presumably given to the plane by the British, who briefly considered the fighter for their own inventory.

The famous and easily recognizable P-38 would serve the U.S. Armed Forces during World War II, especially in air battles over the Pacific, and became one of America's classic and most recognizable warplanes.

Approximately 10,038 P-38 Lightnings were eventually produced, nearly 4,000 of which were P-38L models.

The Lightning's two-arm design was a far cry from most military aircraft in the air at the time, as most aircraft engineers opted for the more traditional single-fuselage monoplane route. A new specification by the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC) in 1937 required the use of advanced high-speed interceptors with excellent range. So the unique double boom design is used to power not one, but two fully functional engines.

Each engine (spinning three-bladed propeller) will be housed in its own slender 'boom' unit with turbocharger assist for extra power at high operating altitudes, and the single-seat cockpit is located between two Inside the central nacelle between the booms. The engines were also arranged to be "counter-rotating", meaning each counteracted the other's inherent torque - counteracting the "pull" effect that had been present in single-engine designs since the early days of piston engines. A short wing surface - essentially the wing root - connects the outriggers to the bowl-shaped cockpit at the front of the aircraft, while a wide horizontal lift plane connects the outriggers at the rear of the aircraft.

Part of the specs also required the fighter to be fully armed, so the P-38 was designed with a base armament of 1 x 37mm gun (later downgraded to 20mm caliber) and 4 x 12.7mm Browning machine guns, all nose mounted. The plane's dual-arm arrangement meant that the nose gave the pilot unrestricted visibility, so placing all weapons in a single armature was a logical choice. All in all, the revolutionary Lightning was a heavy machine, classified as a fighter, but in the same weight class as the light bomb platforms of the time.

The landing gear is fully retractable and, further deviating from the standard, consists of a tricycle arrangement with a pair of single-wheel main legs and a single-wheel nose landing gear leg.

The British made their own designation of the valuation model received. These include the Lightning Mk. I (non-turbo P-38E) and Lightning Mk. II (P-38G) models. The latter was later surpassed by the Americans on the production line after the Empire of Japan declared war.

The unique design of the P-38 can support and oppose the pilot in a given melee. Many Japanese pilots reported in post-war reports that the P-38 was difficult to spot from the front or rear due to its slender front and rear profiles. However, the silhouette of the aircraft is more prominent and larger when viewed from above or below, making the aircraft instantly recognisable even from long distances - even in the most basic air combat, the focus is on spotting the enemy first, avoiding one to gain an advantage.

As such, finding the P-38's dual-arm design before it engaged the enemy provided Axis pilots with a number of advantages.

The P-38 Lightning would kill more enemies in the Pacific than any other aircraft type, which is impressive considering how many battles took place on the carrier during the war. Early combat operations forced the use of hydraulic control systems to help pilots out of steep falls, a feat previously they could only rely on their own strength and knowledge of the system. Although the P-38 is naturally fast in level flight, the P-38 can be accelerated to 550 mph as a defensive maneuver to prevent chasing an enemy in a steep dive.

The addition of auxiliary flight controls made the P-38 one of the world's first documented production examples of use on an aircraft, and in many ways reflects the importance of the advancement, such as the discovery of "flying fire" controls reflecting the Most commonly seen in modern fighter jets.

The dominance of the P-38 in Europe and the Pacific began to take second place as more capable aircraft began to arrive more and more, mainly in Europe. As a result, the P-38 was increasingly relegated to strike action, with less and less need for bomber escort or air supremacy. It's a different story in the Pacific, when the endless ocean surface calls for long-range fighter jets like the P-38 from established air bases.

No less than 27 squadrons are deployed in this theater, and 7 of the top 8 Pacific aces use the P-38.

Ultimately, the P-38 Lightning became the iconic symbol of Lockheed's first foray into military aircraft design (and production) and its huge success. In the decades that followed, the P-38 also became a hugely popular classic at airshows around the world, showcasing its war-winning design and unique performance and acrobatic abilities.

Several other unique attempts to "support" existing systems did not go beyond the prototype stage. These include the XP-49 "Super Lightning" and the XP-58 "Chain Lightning" - detailed elsewhere on this page.

On April 18, 1943, probably the most high-profile mission involving P-38s in WWII, one of the P-38s shot down a seemingly ordinary Japanese G4M transport aircraft "Betty" - thus It was a Japanese commander - Commander-in-Chief Yamamoto Gosoku, who was undoubtedly an irreplaceable blow to Japan's war effort. Lieutenant Thomas Lanphier, credited with shooting down Admiral Yamamoto's plane, later became a Lockheed test pilot.

The Lightning legend lives on in Lockheed's history, and the company later named its new F-35 multirole fighter platform the Lightning II, ensuring that a distinguished legacy in aviation continues for generations to come.

American ace Richard Bong earned his legacy in the P-38. His 40 aerial kills (all while flying Lightning in the Pacific theater) were the most of any American pilot during the war. He survived the war and later died on August 6, 1945, while flying the P-80A Meteor as a Lockheed test pilot.

The plane's main fuel pump failed and Bong was not at the correct altitude for a safety parachute landing.

Specification

Basic

Production

Roles

Dimensions

Weight

Performance

Performance

Armor

The An-12 is still in active use today (2013) but it's terrible accident record had precluded its use across some airspaces of the world. The series has seen nearly 200 recorded accidents during its service lifetime.

In fact, an An-12 has recently been linked to a December 2013 crash in Russia, killing five of its crew memebers.

The Antonov An-12 "Cub" series was eventually formally replaced in Soviet/Russian service (among others) by the larger, jet-powered Ilyushin IL-76 "Candid" line which, itself, continues in service today (2013).

Antonov An-12 (Cub) Specification

BASICS

MANUFACTURING

ROLES

DIMENSIONS

WEIGHTS

POWER

PERFORMANCE

ARMAMENT

VARIANTS