Combat
Aircraft of the Pacific War
LockheedP-38Lightning
Thisvery unconventional aircraft was
the first US Army Air Corps fighter to achieve speeds of 400 mph. Although
it was rather inferior in maneuverability to its great rivals the P-47
Thunderbolt and P-51 Mustang - as well as to its Axis opponents - it was
nonetheless surprisingly handy for an aircraft of its size. Its twin-engined
configuration enabled an unusually heavy gun armament to be concentrated
in an ideal position in the nose, and this, combined with the P-38's speed
and range, made it a very effective fighter.
In February 1939 the Arny Air Corps had issued a specification for
a long-range pursuit interceptor and escort fighter, calling for a speed
of 360 mph at 20,000 ft with an endurance (at this speed and altitude)
of one hour.Lockheed, which had never
produced a purely military design, jumped in with both feet and created
a revolutionary fighter bristling with technical innovations and posing
considerable technical difficulties and risks.
Powered by two as then untried Allison engines, with GEC turbochargers
recessed into the tops of the tail booms, it had a tricycle landing gear,
small central nacelle mounting a 23mm Madsen cannon and four 0.5 Brownings
firing parallel directly ahead of the pilot, twin fins, Fowler flaps, cooling
radiators on the flanks of the booms and induction intercoolers in the
leading edges of the wings. This box of tricks ran into a ditch on
its first taxi test, and - two weeks after its first flight - undershot
at Mitchell Field in New York State, and was demolished. What made headlines,
however, was that it had flown to New York in just over 7 hours, with only
two refuelling stops - a performance which, in 1939, was astounding.
The Air Corps' enthusiasm overcame doubts and high cost, and by 1941
the first YP-38 was being tested.. In March 1940 the British Purchasing
Commission ordered 143 of the first production model of the P-38, but the
State Department prohibited export of the F2 Allison engine. The
British aircraft - designated the "Lightning 1" - was therefore given early
C15 engines lacking turbochargers, and was a failure - the RAF eventually
rejecting it.
Self-sealing fuel tanks were introduced with the P-38D.With
the P-38E the United States adopted the name "Lightning" from the British
variant, as well as the RAF's 20mm Hispano cannon.
On 7 December 1941 - within minutes of the US declaration of war -
a
P-38E shot down a Luftwaffe Focke-Wulf 200C Condor maritime bomber near
Iceland, and subsequently the Lightning was in the thick of fighting in
North Africa and the Mediterranean, in North-Western Europe, and the Pacific.
When it was deployed in the Pacific the Lightning was the first allied
fighter to have a clear superiority in performance over front-line Japanese
fighters. The P-38 made a particularly important contribution to
allied operations in the South Pacific, operating from the island of Guadalcanal
under the Solomons Air Command - its most notable exploit being the shooting
down in May 1943 - over Bougainville - of a transport aircraft carrying
the famed Japanese Commander-in-Chief Admiral Yamamoto. The sixteen
Lightnings involved (of 339 Fighter Squadron / 237 Fighter Group)
achieved this after flying 550 miles - at near the extreme limit of their
operational range.
Although the Lightning was replaced by the the P-47 and P-51 as long-range
escort in the US bomber campaign over Europe, in the Pacific it continued
to be favoured as a front-line fighter, and it was deployed in large numbers
up to the end of hostilities in August 1945.
Data
Origin
Lockheed Aircraft Corporation
Type
Single-seat long-range fighter
Dimensions
Span:
52'
(15.9 metres)
Length:
37'
10" (11.53 metres)
Height:
12'
10" (3.9 metres)
Weight
(P-38F)
Empty:
12,700 lb (5,765 kg)
Loaded:
18,000 lb (8,163 kg)
Engines (P-38F): Two
1,325 hp Allison V-1710 liguid-cooled vee-12
Armament
(P-38F)
1 x
20mm Cannon plus 4 x 0.5
inch Colt-Browning M2 machine-guns - all in nose
Underwing racks for up to 2,000 lb of ordnance
Performance
Maximum speed 391-414 mph (630-665 km/hour)
Initial climb (typical) 2,800 feet per minute
Service ceiling 42,000 - 43,000 feet(13,000
metres)
Range 1,090 miles (3,060 kilometres)
E-mail -
odyssey@dircon.co.uk
Acknowledgments
The
P-38 profile drawing is reproduced, with thanks,from
'Combat Aircraft of World
War II" by Bill Gunston (Spring/Salamander Books)
This work was also the main
source for text and data
