As simply as I can state it, it had TWO powerful Allison V-12, 1,600-hp, V-1710-111/113 liquid-cooled turbo supercharged engines, to help it return to base over The Very Large Pacific Ocean, if one engine had been knocked out or damaged, as it could effectively fly on just one engine.
It was in effect two aircraft in one, and that strength and safety over long missions in the Pacific was also its greatest weakness: Terribly expensive, a total bitch to try and maintain in the field with two engines, turbo-superchargers, props to fine tune, it had reliability troubles, diving troubles with high-speed compressibility problems until electric dive brakes were installed, sadly late in its service, manoeuvrability problems until equipped with hydraulic-boost ailerons, a bit late but then it demonstrated a much greater combat advantage a poor roller (dive and roll were the key manoeuvres in the air war over the Pacific with the ambush/”zoom and boom” energy tactics developed,) and it had problems with cockpit freezing in Europe and over-heating in the Mediterranean/Africa and the Pacific. Its huge wing gave it almost zero visibility beneath the aircraft, something its enemies tried to exploit.
But its centralised guns in the nose allowed it great range and focus of shot, its tricycle landing gear was great for takeoffs, taxiing and landings, and with the engines turning in opposite directions, if tuned decently, cancelling out much of its torque making takeoffs and landings easier than driving a car.
It was famous for the quiet Whooosh of its engine, similar to the P-47 as both had turbo-supercharged engines that eliminated much of the GROWL! of high combustion that the Corsairs and P-51s had.
A *great* photo-recon ship, a decent ground attack (after she got her dive brakes,) a good escort plane, and a decent if not great air-to-air weapon if you knew her strengths weakness and quirks and flew YOUR fight, not the Japanese’s. With her great fuel capabilities, esp. with drop tanks, and with help from Lindberg, she was the aircraft chosen to fly the long distance ambush to kill Japanese Admiral Yamamoto.
I was a professional military artist for 25 years and was honoured to do commission work for the P-38 Pilots association ,and they gave me good quality copies of both the manuals for the P-38 but also the “comic books”/little pamphlets that Lockheed came out with on a regal basis to help the pilots and crews fly/maintain her more successfully through the war. A fascinating but every complicated fighter, and that complexity made her hard for the crews to keep her flying at maximum efficiency, not a good thing in the rough airfields of the PTO. Gorgeous, a favourite at every airshow, but getting very rare, now.
One of the most beautiful and graceful aircraft of WWII she was flown by Dick Bong and Tommy McGuire, our two top aces in both he PTO and the entire war.
She was also chosen for escort duty during D-Day as her unique profile was so recognisable, and combined with the black and white “Invasion Stripes,” would help trigger-happy anti-aircraft gunners from shooting at her.
One of the most touching stories I heard in my years at the air shows was one old veteran ‘s story about seeing his first silver P-38 fly by overhead while he was slogging through the jungles of New Guinea. He wept with joy at the sight of the incredible new fighter because he knew at that moment that the US would win the war and wept with me remembering it 50 years later.
EDIT: Special P-38 projects…
Below: crazy designs:
BELOW: Failed Lightning evolutions, the failed Lockheed P-38 Lightning evolutions: the XP-49 and XP-58 Chain Lightning:
Experimental wing, and two seater, P-38 know as “Swordfish,” racer Tony Le Vier called it “Nosey.”
Folding wing: Lockheed proposed a carrier-based “Model 822” version of the Lightning for the US Navy. The Model 822 would have featured folding wings, an arresting hook, and stronger undercarriage for carrier operations. The Navy wasn’t interested, since the brass regarded the Lightning as too big for carrier operations and didn’t like liquid-cooled engines anyway, and the Model 822 never went beyond the paper/model stage.
The P-38’s centralised guns gathered in the nose *more* than made up for their fewer number, espwith that big 20mm Hispano-type cannon…
P-38 Lightning armed with four Browning M2 .50 in machine guns: 2000 rds (500 per gun), 13 rds a second, 800 rounds per minute, with the 4 .50s throwing 6.36 lbs of lead per sec.
(Above: “Business End.” The centralised guns gave the P-38 about *twice* the accurate range of other U.S. fighters, a huge advantage. The 20mm cannon was equal “gun horsepower-wise” to three (3) .50s, so it was like a seven .50 armed aircraft.)
Check out the illustration below to clearly see this advantage:
And 1× Hispano M2(C) 20 mm cannon with 150 rounds, 10 rds per second, 600 rds per minute, about 2.9 lbs per sec. for a pretty comparable total of 9.22 lbs thrown per sec. about equal in power/damage to 450 .50 rds.
(the 20mm projectile weighed 130 g (4.58 oz))
(Above: The nose design on the P-38 made it perfect for centralised, far reaching guns…
Or a glass nose holding big cameras, perfect for Photo reconnaissance!
The P-38 was one of WWII’s premier Shot-recon ships with her speed and clear forward view.
Below: back to the guns…
All five barrels, the four .50s and the single 20mm were the same length…
…but staggered for space for the ammo feeds.
(Above: With its centralised guns in the nose ring all weapons fired exactly straight ahead, allowing superior accuracy, significantly less “mathematics,” further range and tighter focus of shot.)
(BIG EDIT ABOUT THE P-38:
Actually and conveniently, the muzzle velocities of the 20mm and the .50 cal were remarkably similar even with the size/weight discrepancy because of the allowed increased powder load of the larger cannon shells.
The P-38’s 20mm Hispano fired a 130 gram (4.58 oz) 20 mm x 110 mm projectile with a muzzle velocity between 840 and 880 m/s (2,750 and 2,900 ft/s), depending on barrel length.
It’s Browning M2 .50 machine guns firing the armour-piercing cartridge, has a similar muzzle velocity of 2,840-2,900 feet per second (866 meters per second).
(A note: the velocities of the different .50 loads, esp. the lighter tracers, could be tricky. American pilots, esp. worked close with their armorers too determine/fine tune their personal convergence angles, i.e. where/how far the bullets fired from the guns on either side would converge/meet to match their own unique fighting/shooting style/skill. Red tracers are usually loaded as every fifth round in the belts, referred to as “four-to-one tracer”.
Often extra tracer rounds were placed near the end if a belt, (two or three rounds from the end) to let the pilot know when he was out of ammo…but that sometimes backfired with observant enemy pilots and many stopped that practice. The lighter tracers flew at just a bit of a different velocity and a few pilots chose to eliminate them as to not give away their presence to any enemy under fire, with “ambush tactics” from above, esp. and because they were not quite “in-tune” with the heavier bullets, and sometimes threw off their aim just a bit. Tracers were much preferred, though, by less experienced pilots and bomber gunners.
I knew a number of P-38 pilots and and was even lucky enough to have been made an “honorary member” of the P-38 Pilot’s Association back in ‘91, I believe, when I donated some art to them. Strangely enough, the only other “honorary member” was a young Dutch teenager who had written them many letters and admired them, and had learned much about the P-38 and the men who flew her and had done some wonderful reports on them for his school! They so sweetly embraced him, as the did me! They sent me a genuine P-38 pilot’s manual and good copies of all of the many little “comic book” bulletins Lockheed put out on a very regular basis throughout the war to give the pilots (and crews) little tips ad tricks to ring a bit more performance out of the Lightning both in ETO, MTO and PTO.
And float plane:
many more pics below and in the comments section!