P-38

A Lockheed P-38 Lightning also called Lightning fighter-interceptor aircraft used by the U.S. Army Air Force during World War II. The P-38 was produced by the Lockheed Aircraft Company, on a design specification of 1937 calling for a heavily armed fighter that could quickly climb to bomber altitudes of 20,000 feet (6,000 m). Designers Hall Hibbard and Kelly Johnson adopted an unconventional twin-tailboom configuration, in which the two engines were mounted outboard on the wings in pods that extended back into tail fins. The fins were connected by a flat tailplane, and the pilot was housed in a short nacelle mounted at midwing. Powered by turbo-supercharged Allison engines (for better performance at high altitudes), the Lightning exceeded 414 miles (666 km) per hour at 25,000 feet (7,600 m) and, in a steep dive, encountered turbulence as it approached the speed of sound. The P-38 became the principal U.S. fighter escort for medium bombers in Europe, and it was also widely used in the Pacific. Most Lightnings carried a 20-millimetre cannon and four .50-calibre machine guns in the nose. After the P-38 was superseded as a bomber escort (by the P-51), many of the planes were modified as two-seat fighter-bombers and others for photoreconnaissance.