Aviation Classics Magazine: Profiling the world?s greatest aircraft and manufacturers, and those who flew, maintained and supported them.
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.
The guns, being grouped close together in the nose, gave the P-38 Lightning 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.
Edited and compiled by Tim Callaway, who comes from an aviation background, has extensive knowledge of all things aviation-related. This issue will again comprise the publication’s now-established high-quality mix of features and photographs in a 132 page glossy A4 perfect bound 'bookazine' format.
Contents:
| 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 | Lockheed’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 Lightnin’ to Red Bull |
| 126 | Survivors |
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