Lockheed P-38 "Lightning"
Model Airplane News Cover Art for May, 1939 and July, 1943
by Jo Kotula
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The Lockheed P-38 Lightning was a World War II American fighter aircraft built by Lockheed. It had distinctive twin booms and a single, central nacelle containing the cockpit and armament.

Named "fork-tailed devil" by the Luftwaffe and "two planes, one pilot" by the Japanese, this unique aircraft was used in a number of different roles including dive bombing, level bombing, ground strafing, photo reconnaissance missions and extensively as a long-range escort fighter when equipped with drop tanks under its wings.

     

Lockheed P-38 "Lightning" Fighter
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The P-38 was used most successfully in the Pacific Theater of Operations and the China-Burma-India Theater of Operations as the plane of America's top aces, Richard Bong (40 victories) and Thomas McGuire (38 victories). A squadron of six P-38s flew nearly 600 miles to intercept and kill Japanese Admiral Yamamoto, the architect of the Pearl Harbor attack. 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.

In the News Before the War
Popular Mechanics June, 1939
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As shown above, the P-38 was the only American fighter aircraft in active production throughout the duration of American involvement in the war, from Pearl Harbor to VJ Day.

  

Lockheed P-38 Lightning Fighter Design Variants
Two engine pusher version, Design Patent D-119,334
Patent No. 2,460,804 -- Close to the final design
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Lockheed experimented with a variety of designs before coming up with the final P-38. Some of these alternate design patents are shown above. Th P-38 was very influential. It is said that Harley Earl based the fins on the early postwar Cadillacs on the P-38. The P-38 was featured in a 1942 issue of Popular Science on the basics of American fighter planes. Click on the picture below to download the article.

1942 Popular Science Article on American Fighters
Click to Download a ".pdf" of the article

Here is a video of a restored P-38 in action:

Jo Kotula revisited this airplane in the "Box Art" for the Aurora kit for the Lockheed P-38 "Lightning".

Aurora Plastic Model of the Lockheed P-38 "Lightning"
Artwork by Jo Kotula
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The P-38 was also on the cover of Mechanix Illustrated and was always very popular with the American people. Ultra-modern planes like the P-38 were part of the American feelings of invulnerability that were to be sorely shaken only a month later. Unlike many of the "bargain basement" planes, the "Lightning" proved its worth over and over again.

Lightning Cover Girl
November, 1941
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Cleveland made a very detailed kit of the P-38. The following pictures show a kit actually issued during World War II -- note that there is a sticker that says that balsa wood was a restricted war material and that the kit is made from other wood. This kit also supplied paint and a variety of decals.

     

Cleveland Model of the Lockheed P-38 "Lightning"
Balsa was astrategic material mainly used in flotation devices
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I actually made this model! Here are some photos from March 1955 showing the P-38 under construction. That's me behind my twin cousins. The other two planes are Berkeley control line models, "Wing Ding" (based on the famous air-racer) and a profile P-51D.

  

Cleveland Model

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You can buy the plans and patterns that will enable you to make this model right now. Click Here to go to the exact location on the Cleveland Website to get them

The P-38 on the Cleveland Website
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