AP 118 · No. 10 Section II · Aircraft Plate 122 / 301

Plate 122 of 301 · Second World War · Twin-engined long-range fighter

Lockheed P-38 Lightning

P-38L-5-LO 44-53232, as P-38J 42-67855 ‘KI-W’, painted as P-38L-5-LO 44-53232, a Lockheed P-38 Lightning later flown by the Honduran Air Force as FAH505 and displayed since 1961 at the National Museum of the United States Air Force, Dayton, Ohio, where it is painted as P-38J-10-LO 42-67855 ‘KI-W’ of the 55th Fighter Squadron, 20th Fighter Group, flown from Kings Cliffe, Northamptonshire, in 1944 by 2nd Lt Royal D. Frey: a single-seat twin-engined fighter with a short central gondola carrying the cockpit and the nose guns, two Allison V-1710 engines with turbo-superchargers in long booms that run back to twin oval fins joined by the tailplane, the late deep chin intakes under the spinners, a tricycle undercarriage and two drop tanks under the centre section: olive drab above over neutral gray with a wavy demarcation along the gondola and nacelles, spinners split into light blue and white halves, light blue wing tips, black propeller blades with yellow tips, yellow rings round the outer nose gun ports, the star-and-bar, ‘W’ and ‘KI’ on the outboard side of each boom, and a white triangle on each fin carrying the serial ‘267855’ in yellow, as photographed between 2009 and 2022 (no P-38 is preserved in a UK museum; shape from a dimensioned Lockheed three-view of the P-38L; the starboard and upper wing-tip colour and the wing insignia positions are not photographed and follow standard practice, the inboard faces of the booms and fins are left plain, and the small stencils are simplified).

3D model

Turn it over

A procedural model built in Blender from published dimensions, drawings and photographs, painted as P-38L-5-LO 44-53232, a Lockheed P-38 Lightning later flown by the Honduran Air Force as FAH505 and displayed since 1961 at the National Museum of the United States Air Force, Dayton, Ohio, where it is painted as P-38J-10-LO 42-67855 ‘KI-W’ of the 55th Fighter Squadron, 20th Fighter Group, flown from Kings Cliffe, Northamptonshire, in 1944 by 2nd Lt Royal D. Frey: a single-seat twin-engined fighter with a short central gondola carrying the cockpit and the nose guns, two Allison V-1710 engines with turbo-superchargers in long booms that run back to twin oval fins joined by the tailplane, the late deep chin intakes under the spinners, a tricycle undercarriage and two drop tanks under the centre section: olive drab above over neutral gray with a wavy demarcation along the gondola and nacelles, spinners split into light blue and white halves, light blue wing tips, black propeller blades with yellow tips, yellow rings round the outer nose gun ports, the star-and-bar, ‘W’ and ‘KI’ on the outboard side of each boom, and a white triangle on each fin carrying the serial ‘267855’ in yellow, as photographed between 2009 and 2022 (no P-38 is preserved in a UK museum; shape from a dimensioned Lockheed three-view of the P-38L; the starboard and upper wing-tip colour and the wing insignia positions are not photographed and follow standard practice, the inboard faces of the booms and fins are left plain, and the small stencils are simplified). Drag to orbit, scroll or pinch to zoom · download .glb (1.5 MB)

Data plate

Specification

First flight, number built and top speed are for the whole family (P-38J & P-38L); engine, crew and dimensions are for the P-38L-5-LO 44-53232, as P-38J 42-67855 ‘KI-W’ modelled here.

History

The Lightning

In 1937 the US Army Air Corps asked for a fast, high-flying interceptor, with a speed and climb no single-engined fighter of the day could reach. Lockheed’s Hall Hibbard and Clarence ‘Kelly’ Johnson answered with an unusual layout: two Allison V-12s with turbo-superchargers in long booms that ran back to twin fins and a shared tailplane, and the pilot in a short central gondola with the guns grouped in its nose, where they fired straight ahead with no need to converge. It was also the first American fighter with a tricycle undercarriage. The XP-38 first flew at March Field, California, on 27 January 1939, and two weeks later crossed the United States in just over seven hours before crashing short of the runway at Mitchel Field, New York.

Production was slow to start, and the early P-38s had their troubles: in fast dives the airflow over the wing approached the speed of sound and locked the controls, and in the cold over Europe the engines and the cockpit heating gave trouble. The Royal Air Force ordered the type and gave it the name Lightning, but rejected its export version, without turbo-superchargers, after trials in 1942. The P-38J of 1943 moved the intercoolers into deep intakes under the spinners and later gained dive flaps and powered ailerons, and the P-38L, the most numerous version, followed with more powerful engines. The F-4 and F-5 photographic versions flew reconnaissance over every front; Antoine de Saint-Exupéry was lost in one in July 1944.

The Lightning’s long range made it most valuable in the Pacific, where the two highest-scoring American aces, Richard Bong and Thomas McGuire, both flew it. In Europe, P-38 groups of the Eighth Air Force flew bomber escort from English airfields in 1943 and 1944 before re-equipping with Mustangs, and the Ninth Air Force used the type for ground attack. 10,037 were built, and it was the only American fighter in production throughout the war. No P-38 is in a UK museum; survivors are in the United States, among them ‘Glacier Girl’, recovered from beneath the Greenland ice cap in 1992 and flown again.

This airframe

P-38L 44-53232 as ‘KI-W’

44-53232The airframe modelled

44-53232 is a P-38L-5-LO that served after the war with the Honduran Air Force as FAH505 and has been at the National Museum of the United States Air Force, Dayton, Ohio, since 1961. It is painted as P-38J-10-LO 42-67855 ‘KI-W’ of the 55th Fighter Squadron, 20th Fighter Group, flown from Kings Cliffe, Northamptonshire, in 1944 by 2nd Lt Royal D. Frey; the J and the L look almost the same from outside. No P-38 is in a UK museum, so the model shows the example that photographs record best, from every side, between 2009 and 2022. It shows it as they do: olive drab over neutral gray with a wavy demarcation along the gondola and nacelles, spinners split into light blue and white halves, light blue wing tips, black propeller blades with yellow tips, yellow rings round the outer nose guns, the star-and-bar with ‘W’ and ‘KI’ on each boom, and a white triangle on each fin with the serial in yellow. Its shape was taken from a dimensioned Lockheed three-view of the P-38L. The starboard wing tip and the tops of the wings are not photographed, so their colour and the wing insignia follow standard practice; the inner faces of the booms and fins are left plain, the small stencils are simplified, and the L’s landing light under the port wing is left off.

Where to see one

Not on charge

No P-38 is in a UK museum. Survivors are in the United States, among them ‘Glacier Girl’, recovered from under the Greenland ice cap and flown again.

All 301 plates

Profiles and models are procedural interpretations built in Blender from published dimensions, three-view drawings and photographs of each airframe. Treat the museum aircraft as the reference.