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sink-me
Winged Lightning
Ordnance crew servicing P-38's nose artillery - four .50-caliber machine
guns and one cannon
More people in foreign lands have seen America's twin-tailed fighter plane than
have Americans at home. Practically every new P-38 is flown or shipped to a theater
of operation as soon as it gets its factory flight check.
Back from the fighting fronts are coming some remarkable stories about this two-motored
fighter. In the South Seas a P-38 pilot flew his rugged plane into a Zero and right
through it, scattering the Jap all over the sky, then returned to his base with
only minor damage. In the same area another P-38 pilot after exhausting his ammunition
deliberately used one of his propellers to saw the tail off a Zero. In fact, quick-eyed
young American pilots gravely discuss the best way to use one propeller as a weapon
in plane-to-plane combat, knowing that they can get back to base on the other engine.
Left, loading camera substituted for gun in practice maneuvers. The film
from camera gun shows "hits"
In Africa when the pilot of a P-38 returned to his field with the tips of one
propeller bent back and that engine shut down he explained that he had flown so
low in strafing an enemy motor column that he had unintentionally dug one propeller
into the ground. During that same campaign an-other pilot hit a telephone pole at
such an angle that his plane flipped over on its back and went hurtling along upside
down only a few feet off the ground. The pilot cautiously pushed his control wheel
forward to "dive" the plane upward and gain some altitude, then rolled right side
up again and returned home.
In high-altitude regalia, complete with oxygen mask and goggles, pilot
is ready for takeoff. Below, P-38s in formation
Although the P-38 Lockheed Lightning was designed to operate at 35,000 feet or
higher, it has also made a name for itself as a fighter-at tree-top height. It was
designed as a pursuit and interceptor, yet on occasion it is now used as a tactical
bomber and can carry a surprising bomb-weight under its wings. Even today its maximum
top speed hasn't been published aside from the statement that during a dive the
airplane enters the air compressibility range before it attains maximum velocity.
One report is that a P-38 was dived at such a terrific speed that the leading edge
of its wing was caved in by the pressure of the air.
Pilot's armament includes personal revolver, two demolition bombs, fragmentation
bombs, cannon, and the four machine guns
Ordnance officer inspecting gun controls in P-38 cockpit. Button on arm
of wheel fires 20-mm. cannon; button on back of wheel fires machine guns
This plane is so fast that from the ground the roar of its engines seems to come
from half a mile or more behind it. At high speed its wing tips cut vapor trails
in the atmosphere in making turns. Bullets from the plane's machine guns behave
differently than when fired from a stationary point on the ground because their
speed is the sum of their own muzzle velocity plus 65 percent of the plane's speed.
The guns are sighted-in for flat trajectories.
Ordinarily an automatic cannon shoots out a long thin muzzle blast of flame when
it is fired. On the P-38 this muzzle blast is compressed into a fat egg-shaped flame
because of the plane's forward speed.
You don't climb into the cockpit of a P-38, rev up the engines, and take off
the way you would in a basic trainer. This fighting plane is far more complicated
and to fly it you must have a dozen times the knowledge, say, of a pilot of the
first World War.
To begin with, even if you are inside a closed cockpit, you are bundled up so
that not a square inch of your body is exposed. For a high altitude mission you
wear a fur jacket, trousers, boots, and gloves in addition to your flying suit.
Over all this goes your Mae West life jacket and over that your parachute. You put
on a leather helmet with self-contained earphones and throat mike for the radio,
and you wear rubber-padded goggles and a n oxygen mask. Strapped to your leg is
a bail-out oxygen cylinder that you will connect to your face mask if you must leave
the plane at high altitude.
There is a double purpose in covering yourself so completely. You need such protection
against the cold at high altitude in spite of the cockpit heater. And you need to
be completely covered if you are going into combat at any altitude. If an incendiary
bullet should start a cockpit fire, your covering will protect you during the time
you need to struggle free and escape from the plane.
Wearing all this gear, you just fit snugly into the seat. You are comfortable
even though there's not much room for shifting around. The cockpit is so completely
filled with instruments and equipment that small mirrors are fitted into the corners
to permit you to read some of the dials on the instrument board.
Pilot climbs into plane dressed for sub-stratosphere where temperatures
drop to 70 below zero and thin air lacks oxygen
You plug in your throat mike and earphones, hook on to the plane's oxygen supply,
and adjust your seat belt. Now you throw the plane's master electric switch, turn
on the radio, and push the but-ton for today's secret radio frequency. You open
the fuel tank valves, turn on the booster pumps that fill the fuel lines, check
the mixture controls and propeller governor settings, then prime the engines with
straight shots of gas. The engines have been kept warm by the ground crew and you
start them by winding up the inertia starters with the plane's batteries. You come
back on the throttles to check plugs and magnetos, you glance at the fuel gauges,
release the brakes, and move out to the runway.
There is still a lot to do before you begin your accelerated takeoff. When you
get your okay from your flight leader or from the tower you roll forward a couple
of feet to straighten your nose wheel, then pump up the brakes to hold the plane
down while you run up the engines to the point where the superchargers cut in. In
a sense you are building up flying speed while standing still, enabling the plane
to hurl itself forward like a rocket the instant you release the brakes. But first
there are still a few final chores to do. You check both sets of engine instruments;
the settings of the control surface trim tabs, roll up the window and make sure
that the cockpit hatch lock is secure, that the fuel pumps are on, and that the
fuel valves are turned to the takeoff tank positions.
Student pilot gets a "piggy-back" ride in one-man P-38. The students
are squeezed in for demonstration flights on the plane's radio shelf
All this sounds like half an hour's work but you have learned to do it in much
less time than it takes to describe. It takes no more than a couple of minutes from
the time the alarm siren sounds for you to be in the air.
The plane jumps to-ward the sky like a scared jackrabbit when you pull it off
the runway. While close to the ground you realize that you are literally strapped
to nothing more than the howling engines. At higher altitudes rough air jars as
if you were riding a speed boat. In sharp turns you black out momentarily.
These pressed metal shells will be joined to form auxiliary gas tanks for the
long range P-38s
To speed up their education an instructor takes student pilots on "piggy back"
rides. The P-38 is a single seater but there is cramped room for a student behind
the pilot's seat, on the shelf that holds the radio sets. On such a flight the instructor
shows the student what to do when an engine is shot out, how he can trim the ship
with the control tabs and handle it like a single-engine plane.
A P-38 pilot is not only a flier but a one-man army by himself. He may use more
ammunition in a day than an infantry soldier may use during the whole war. Four
.50-caliber machine guns and a 20-mm. cannon project from the nose of his ship.
Under his wing he can carry a couple of demolition bombs as well as a cluster of
anti-personnel fragmentation bombs. This armament equips him to attack enemy bombers
or fighters, defend friendly bombers, or come right down to the ground and bomb
and gun enemy installations.
There's one thing that puzzles a new pilot-his guns carry ammunition enough for
only half a minute's shooting. But he soon learns that this ammunition is enough
for a long fight. Because of his speed and the speed of enemy aircraft he can rarely
keep a target in his gunsight for more than a fraction of a second at a time. He
fires in short bursts. Some pilots have shot down half a dozen Japs on a single
flight.
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