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Aircraft · United States · 1941-1945

Lockheed P-38 Lightning

long-range fighter

The twin-boom, twin-engine Lightning gave American pilots range and firepower no single-engine fighter of 1942 could match, concentrating its cannon and machine guns in the nose instead of spreading them across converging wing guns. Army Air Forces pilots flying P-38s over the Solomons intercepted and shot down the transport carrying Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto in April 1943, killing the architect of Pearl Harbor. Japanese pilots nicknamed it 'two planes, one pilot'.

Wikipedia

crew1
top speed666 km/h
armament1x 20mm cannon, 4x .50cal MG
produced10,037

Western Europe, Mediterranean and North Africa, Pacific

Planes of Fame P-38
Planes of Fame P-38CindyN · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
YP-38
YP-38U.S. Air Force · Public domain · source
2Nd Lt. Herbert B. Hatch Of Stockton, Calif. A Lockheed P-38 Lightning fighter pilot of the Mediterranean Allied AFs in Italy, proudly points to the 5 swastikas on the nose of his plane, that proclaim his victory over 5
2Nd Lt. Herbert B. Hatch Of Stockton, Calif. A Lockheed P-38 Lightning fighter pilot of the Mediterranean Allied AFs in Italy, proudly points to the 5 swastikas on the nose of his plane, that proclaim his victory over 5 National Archives at College Park · Public domain · source

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