P-38 Lightning

P-38 Lightning
P-38H of the AAF Tactical Center, Orlando Army Air Base, Florida, carrying two 1,000 lb bombs during capability tests in March 1944
Role	Heavy fighter
National origin	United States
Manufacturer	Lockheed
Designer	Clarence "Kelly" Johnson
First flight	27 January 1939
Introduction	July 1941
Retired	1965 Honduran Air Force
Primary users	United States Army Air Forces Free French Air Force
Produced	1941–45
Number built	10,037
Unit cost	US$97,147 in 1944 (equivalent to $1,321,677 in 2016)
Developed into	Lockheed XP-49 Lockheed XP-58

The Lockheed P-38 Lightning is a World War II-era American piston-engined fighter aircraft. Developed to a United States Army Air Corps requirement, the P-38 had distinctive twin booms and a central nacelle containing the cockpit and armament. Allied propaganda claimed it had been nicknamed the fork-tailed devil (German: der Gabelschwanz-Teufel) by the Luftwaffe and "two planes, one pilot" (2飛行機、1パイロット, Ni hikōki, ippairotto^?) by the Japanese. The P-38 was used for interception, dive bombing, level bombing, ground attack, night fighting, photo reconnaissance, radar and visual pathfinding for bombers and evacuation missions and extensively as a long-range escort fighter when equipped with drop tanks under its wings.

The P-38 was used most successfully in the Pacific Theater of Operations and the China-Burma-India Theater of Operations as the aircraft of America's top aces, Richard Bong (40 victories), Thomas McGuire (38 victories) and Charles H. MacDonald (36 victories). In the South West Pacific theater, the P-38 was the primary long-range fighter of United States Army Air Forces until the appearance of large numbers of P-51D Mustangs, toward the end of the war.