Aviation Classics Issue 14 - P-38 Lightning

On January 27, 1939, Lockheed test pilot Ben Kelsey took the prototype XP-38 Lightning into the air for the first time. The big, twin-engined, twin-boomed fighter was to become one of the most easily identifiable fighters of the Second World War, and was to be the only US fighter aircraft to remain in production throughout the conflict. Its unusual design had a number of advantages.

Issue 14 - P-38 Lightning: Contents

The guns, being grouped close together in the nose, gave the P-38 a tremendous concentration of firepower. The tricycle undercarriage made ground handling simple when compared with the tailwheel designs common to the period. The P-38 was used across the world, undertaking long range fighter escort, fighter-bomber and reconnaissance missions in Europe as well as across the Pacific and Far East.

This issue of Aviation Classics tells the whole story of this ground breaking aircraft, as well as the people behind the development and operational success of this beautiful machine.

8 Building a legend
14 Tricycle and twin defining a classic
22 Testing and compressibility developing the prototype
28 Fine tuning & first production The P-38D, E and F
32 Into service Australia, the Aleutians and Europe
36 The French and British orders
40 Higher, faster & further The P-38G, H and J
46 The Pacific and China, Burma and India
52 Tony LeVier
56 Flying with Allisons
60 Allisons again flying on the water
70 The ultimate Lightnings The P-38K, L and M
74 Europe and the Mediterranean
78 Beyond the Lightning
82 Ace of Aces Richard Ira Bong
88 The lost P-38 photo reconnaissance pilots Adrian Warburton
94 P-38 Lightnings over Italy
100 Glacier Girl
104 LockheedÂ's night fighter Lightning The P-38M
108 The lost P-38 photo reconnaissance pilots Antoine de Saint Exupéry
118 Inside the Lightning
122 Postwar air forces
124 From White LightninÂ' to Red Bull
126 Survivors