The P-38 I would say was the plane that if it was introduced earlier, wasn’t hamstrung politically or restricted in engine performance could have change things earlier, the first prototype crashed and was destroyed, the ones sent to England were not as powerful as the original concept, same old story like the Warthog, it was a deviation in tradition and was not liked.
There were reports that it may have been the first to actually have broken the sound barrier in a power dive.
Those twin-tailed devils are a nice-looking airplane. I’m not really qualified to evaluate the planes but it seems that everything that I have read or heard is that the Lightning, the Mustang, and the Corsair were great planes.
Nope, the P-38 was not the fastest, however compressibility was discovered because of the P-38.
The designer, Kelly Johnson, my favorite, who also designed the F-104, P-80, and the SR-71.
Yes I forget the name the Japs gave the P-38 they respected that Plane, The Handy work of MR Johnson.
Me too. See #47.
The the winner is the Me 262
The Lightning was an awesome aircraft by all accounts. The only negative comments I ever heard revolved around the counter-rotation of the props and the recommended bail-out procedure, which involved climbing out over the fuselage and diving over the boom, making broken legs a virtual certainty.
The P-38 was initially designed to be a bomber interceptor. The USAAF wanted a plane that could get to 20,000 feet right now! Hence the two engines and the 4 .50 cal MGs and the 20mm cannon in the nose.
The initial orders were for a low quantity of aircraft, a couple of hundred of so and the P-38 was not designed with mass production in mind. It wasn't until I think the "H" models that the P-38 was set-up for ease of production.
The Lightning excelled in all theaters except for Europe. There have been many theories as to why the P-38 came up short in the ETO. The two most popular that I recall seeing had to do with the British avgas and the fact that in the ETO it was flat out cold.
The Germans in North Africa nicknamed the Lightning, "Der Gabelschwanz Teufel" or "Fork-Tailed Devil.
As mentioned by a previous poster the twin engine reliabilty and the seven league boots of the P-38 made it popular in the Pacific Theater. Nothing like having a spare engine on those long overwater flights!
Somebody mentioned the P-38 with the picture on it. Here ya go, a P-38 done up as Richard Bong's, 40 confirmed kills, aircraft.
And a personal favorite of mine since I was a wee lad:-)Looks lack a mass of PO'ed hornets.
Regards
alfa6 ;>}