World War II Database

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

ww2dbaseThe P-38 Lightning fighters were uniquely designed by Clarence "Kelly" Johnson's design team, the "Skunk Works", at Lockheed as a response to the 1937 United States Army Air Corps request for an interceptor. The prototype flew on 27 Jan 1939 with its distinctive twin booms. By Feb the prototype was already a record setter, flying across the United States from California to New York in only 7 hours and 2 minutes; the design's speed remain unmatched until the arrival of jet aircraft. Although the record setting trans-continental flight ended in a crash landing, the US Army Air Force placed an order for 66 fighters. The first batch of production Lightning aircraft came off of the production line in Sep 1940 with some design differences from the prototype; they were lighter in weight and the propellers were rotating in the opposite directions (both now spin away from the cockpit). In Jun 1940, after taking over only three fighters, Britain canceled her order of over 800 examples due to less than expected maneuverability; those fighters already produced for the canceled order went to the USAAF for training purposes. In mid-1941, the USAAF took delivery of the first 66 fighters; some of them included self-sealing fuel tanks and one was equipped with an experimental pressurized cabin. The main purpose of this batch was not for front-line combat, but rather to work out the potential kinks in the design. For instance, American pilots found tail flutter to be a problem, and it was promptly fixed by Johnson and his engineers. Low temperature in high altitudes also caused problems for the P-38 design, one being that the cockpit became unbearably cold, another being that freezing temperatures caused the turbo-superchargers to become stuck in over-boosted or under-boosted modes. One major complaint against P-38 fighters was the many steps that it took for the fighter to go from cruising mode to combat mode, the time of which could mean life or death when P-38 fighters were jumped by enemy fighters by surprise. The steps involved were:

• switch gas valves to main
• turn on drop tank switches and press release
• set fuel mixture to auto-rich
• increase engine RPM
• increase manifold pressure
• turn on gun heaters
• turn on combat switch

ww2dbaseIt would be interesting to note that while the above complex set of procedures was never simplified for P-38 fighters, the later P-51 Mustang design streamlined it so that all the steps could be achieved with one arm, allowing the pilots to pay a bit more attention to the incoming threat.

ww2dbaseIn Oct 1941, the first combat-ready P-38 Lightning fighters rolled off of production lines, and by Jun 1942 they were seeing combat in the Aleutian Islands, where their endurance won great acclaims by their pilots. Despite their weakness in regards to low temperature, they saw extensive service in the European Theater of War as well. Pilots Richard I. Bong and Thomas J. McGuire were both awarded the Medal of Honor for their performances while flying these fighters, both of whom flew against Japanese pilots in the Pacific War. Saburo Sakai, the famed Japanese fighter ace, regarded P-38 highly, noting after the war that P-38 fighters "destroyed the morale of the Zero fighter pilot." A number of Lightning aircraft were produced as reconnaissance aircraft, night fighters, and radar-equipped two-seat aircraft. Production of the P-38 Lightning design lasted until the very end of the war; by then, 10,037 examples were built.

P-38 Lightning Timeline

SPECIFICATIONS

YP-38

Machinery	Two Allison V-1710 liquid-cooled V12 engines rated at 1,150hp each
Span	15.85 m
Length	11.53 m
Height	3.90 m
Weight, Empty	4,990 kg
Weight, Loaded	6,508 kg
Speed, Maximum	391 km/h
Service Ceiling	13,410 m
Range, Normal	563 km
Range, Maximum	740 km

P-38L

Machinery	Two Allison V-1710 liquid-cooled turbo-supercharged V12 engines rated at 1,600hp each
Armament	1xHispano M2 20mm cannon, 4xColt-Browning MG53-2 12.7mm machine guns, 4xM10 rocket launchers or 10x127mm rockets or 1,000kg of bombs
Span	15.85 m
Length	11.53 m
Height	3.00 m
Wing Area	30.43 m²
Weight, Empty	5,800 kg
Weight, Loaded	7,940 kg
Weight, Maximum	9,798 kg
Speed, Maximum	667 km/h
Service Ceiling	13,410 m
Range, Maximum	1,770 km

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