During its time, the Lockheed P-38 Lightning was considered the most sophisticated aircraft Lockheed had ever built.

In February 1937, the U.S. Army Air Corps released Specification X-608, a daunting requirement that called for speed, range, and climb capabilities impossible to achieve at that time with a single-engine aircraft. In Burbank, California, a Lockheed design team led by Hall Hibbard, and assisted by a young engineer named Clarence "Kelly" Johnson, immediately began a series of designs that would culminate in the contract-winning XP-38. Jim Gerschler became project engineer on the aircraft.

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Lockheed P-38 Lightnings took a particularly heavy toll on enemy bombers and fighters in the Pacific Theater. In 1945, a pair of Lightnings, escorting a B-17 Flying Fortress, were the first Allied fighters to land on Japanese soil following Japan's surrender. See more classic airplane pictures.

The XP-38 (it was many months before it was called the Lightning) was of an extraordinarily advanced conception, an all-metal, midwing monoplane with twin Allison engines using General Electric turbo-superchargers, a central nacelle for the pilot and armament, contra-rotating propellers, twin-booms and rudders, and a tricycle landing gear.

Nothing like it had ever been seen before, and it would be the only single-seat, twin-engine aircraft to reach mass production status during World War II. The distinctive sight and sound of the Lockheed P-38 Lightning would make it one of the best-known aircraft of the war.

Versatile as well as intriguing to look at, the Lockheed P-38 Lightning was continually improved, and saw service everywhere American forces were engaged.

First flown on January 27, 1939, by one of its staunchest advocates, Air Corps 1st Lieuten­ant Ben Kelsey, the prototype XP-38 made national headlines when it crashed on a trans­continental record-setting attempt. Neverthe­less, imminent war in Europe accentuated the need for the Lockheed P-38 Lightning, and production orders began to flow in. By war's end, a total of 10,037 P-38s had been built. As it was much more modern than the Curtiss P-40, there was a great demand in every theater of war for the twin-engine fighter.

Breaking Howard Hughes' Record Lieutenant (later Brigadier General) Benjamin S. Kelsey had logged only seven hours in the XP-38 when a decision was made to try to break Howard Hughes' transcontinental record of seven hours, 28 minutes, and 30 seconds. It was a gamble with a brand-new experimental aircraft, but the Air Corps wanted the public and a tight-fisted Congress to understand the P-38's potential. Kelsey took off on February 11, 1939, and blazed his way across the country. On his descent to land at Mitchell Army Air Field on Long Island, after seven hours and two minutes of flying time, carburetor icing robbed the aircraft of power. Kelsey was not injured when the ZP-28 crash-landed on a golf course, but the aircraft was destroyed. Dismayed at first, it was not long until Kelsey realized that the crash was the best thing that could have happened, for the publicity drew attention to the Army's new 400-mile-per-hour airplane. He had lost the gamble on the flight -- but won the gamble on production orders.

Move on to the next section to find specifications for the Lockheed P-38 Lightning.

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