Lockheed P-38 Lightning Early Versions

Lockheed P-38 Lightning Early Versions PDF Author: Robert Pęczkowski
Publisher: MMP
ISBN: 9788365281319
Category : Lightning (Fighter plane)
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
The P-38 was the only American fighter aircraft in production throughout American involvement in the war, from Pearl Harbor to VJ Day. With its unusual twin-boom design, this was one of the most distinctive fighters of WW2, and saw action in all theaters of the war, being especially effective in the Pacific. This book describes the development of the early versions of this iconic warplane, with full technical details and many detail photos. Profusely illustrated with photos, including a comprehensive walk-around section showing all aspects of the airframe, and diagrams from official manuals. Includes 1/72nd scale plans, and color profiles showing many of the colorful schemes applied to the P-38 by its users.

Lockheed P-38 Lightning Early Versions

Lockheed P-38 Lightning Early Versions PDF Author: Robert Pęczkowski
Publisher: MMP
ISBN: 9788365281319
Category : Lightning (Fighter plane)
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
The P-38 was the only American fighter aircraft in production throughout American involvement in the war, from Pearl Harbor to VJ Day. With its unusual twin-boom design, this was one of the most distinctive fighters of WW2, and saw action in all theaters of the war, being especially effective in the Pacific. This book describes the development of the early versions of this iconic warplane, with full technical details and many detail photos. Profusely illustrated with photos, including a comprehensive walk-around section showing all aspects of the airframe, and diagrams from official manuals. Includes 1/72nd scale plans, and color profiles showing many of the colorful schemes applied to the P-38 by its users.

The Lockheed P-38 Lightning

The Lockheed P-38 Lightning PDF Author: Warren Bodie
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780962935954
Category : Lightning (Fighter plane)
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
The definitive story of the World War II fighter which the Germans dubbed the fork-tailed devil includes line drawings, photos of prototypes and coverage of Lockheed proposals.

Fork-Tailed Devil: The P-38

Fork-Tailed Devil: The P-38 PDF Author: Martin Caidin
Publisher: ibooks
ISBN: 0743413180
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 358

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Book Description
One of America's greatest military aviation historians relates the astonishing—and true—story of the only American warplane to fight in every operational theater in World War II from Pearl Harbor to Alaska and North Africa to Northern Europe. “One of the greatest tests of its capabilities took place in mid-April of 1943 when Allied intelligence discovered that Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto was going to visit Kahili on the coast of Bougainville. A P-38 intercept was planned. Its time of arrival had to be absolutely perfect and after a complex 435 mile wave-top approach that avoided all Japanese observers the Lightnings were there. Eighteen P-38s were assigned to “get Yamamoto" and that is exactly what happened.” —From the introduction by David Ballantine

P-38 Lightning Vol. 2

P-38 Lightning Vol. 2 PDF Author: David Doyle
Publisher: Schiffer Military History
ISBN: 9780764358227
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 112

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Book Description
This second of two volumes continues the P-38 story by focusing on the later, mass-produced models of this historic fighter--P-38J through P-38M. Each type is examined through carefully researched archival photos, as well as photographs of currently preserved examples. Known to the enemy during World War II as the "Fork-tailed devil," the pilots of the Lockheed P-38 Lightning were charged with the responsibility of escorting American bombers deep over heavily defended Europe during the early years of the air campaign against Nazi Germany. In the Pacific, the Lightning's long range was put to good use flying over vast expanses of ocean. Detailed text and captions illustrate not only the design and construction of the later-war Lightnings, but also their combat use in WWII. Large, clear photos, coupled with descriptive and informative captions, put the reader on the airfield and in the sky with this historic aircraft.

Lockheed P-38 Lightning - Bell P-39 Airacobra - Curtiss P-40

Lockheed P-38 Lightning - Bell P-39 Airacobra - Curtiss P-40 PDF Author: Mantelli - Brown - Kittel - Graf
Publisher: Edizioni R.E.I.
ISBN: 2372973290
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 142

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Book Description
The Lockheed P-38J Lightning aircraft was revolutionary, extremely innovative, thanks to double-girder fuselage, the two Allison V-engines with turbochargers within the tail beams and landing gear in tricycle. The Bell P-39 Airacobra was a single-engine fighter produced by the US to low-wing Bell Aircraft Corporation. It was the most controversial fighter aircraft used by the US during World War II. It was the first fighter in the world to have the engine installed in the middle of the fuselage, behind the pilot. The Bell P-63 Kingcobra was a single-engine low-wing fighter aircraft developed by the US Air Force Bell Aircraft Corporation in the early forties and used during World War II. Evolution of the previous P-39 Airacobra, launched in an attempt to correct the defects of that model, the United States Army Air Forces will never estimated suitable for combat, relegating him to the towing role for targets. As a result, nearly two-thirds of the production was assigned to the Soviet Union and about 300 units to units of Free France. The Curtiss P-40 was a single-seat single-engine monoplane US manufacturing in the first half of the forties was taken by the Allies as a fighter aircraft or fighter in many of the theaters in which you fought the Second World War. Produced by the Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company of Buffalo, New York, never was an aircraft with exceptional characteristics (mainly because of its engine, underpowered at high altitude); However, it was also made of a large number of specimens, and his great strength (coupled with its widespread availability since the early months of the entry into the war) made it one of the most important fighter for American aviation events in the first phase of World war II, between 1941 and the summer of 1943.

Lightning Strikes

Lightning Strikes PDF Author: Steve Blake
Publisher: Fonthill Media
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 683

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Book Description
LIGHTNING STRIKES-THE LOCKHEED P-38 tells the full story of one of the most successful and versatile aircraft of the Second World War. The P-38 (including its F-4 and F-5 photo reconnaissance models) eventually served with all the USAAF's numbered overseas air forces, from early 1942 to VJ Day. The book describes the Lightning's design and its technical details as it gradually evolved and improved, from the original XP-38 to its final variant, the P-38L-5. The main focus is on its service in the combat theatres, from the frigid, windswept Aleutian Islands in the North Pacific to the steaming jungles of the South Pacific and Southeast Asia, the burning sands of North Africa and the more temperate climes of Europe. All the units that flew the Lightning are included, as are the experiences of many of their pilots and ground crewmen as they fought the Japanese Empire and the European Axis. Also related are the P-38's service with foreign (non-U.S.) air forces, its postwar commercial utilization as civilian aircraft and the surviving examples in museums around the world. The book is extremely well illustrated by over 400 high-resolution photographs, art work and graphics, and is supplemented by detailed appendices.

475th Fighter Group

475th Fighter Group PDF Author: John Stanaway
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1472802055
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 200

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Book Description
Formed with the best available fighter pilots in the Southwest Pacific, the 475th Fighter Group was the pet project of Fifth Air Force chief, General George C Kenney. From the time the group entered combat in August 1943 until the end of the war it was the fastest scoring group in the Pacific and remained one of the crack fighter units in the entire US Army Air Forces with a final total of some 550 credited aerial victories. Amongst its pilots were the leading American aces of all time, Dick Bong and Tom McGuire, with high-scoring pilots Danny Roberts and John Loisel also serving with the 475th. This book details these pilots, the planes they flew and the campaigns and battles they fought in including such famous names as Dobodura, the Huon Gulf, Oro Bay, Rabaul, Hollandia, the Philippines and Luzon.

P-38 Lightning Aces of the 82nd Fighter Group

P-38 Lightning Aces of the 82nd Fighter Group PDF Author: Steve Blake
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 178096871X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 228

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Book Description
No fewer than 25 pilots from the 82nd FG became aces, and 55 others scored three or four kills. This book looks at the unit's history through the eyes of its most successful pilots and leaders, detailing both their exploits and their personal experiences. When the 82nd Fighter Group was organized in March 1942, most of its initial pilot cadre was comprised of newly graduated staff sergeant pilots of Class 42-C – enlisted men! They learned to fly the P-38 at Muroc, in California's Mojave Desert, and then moved to the Los Angeles area to continue their training and to serve as part of its air defence. In September 1942 the group was transported to the East Coast, from where it shipped out to Ireland on the Queen Mary. By this time all its remaining sergeant pilots had been commissioned. As this book outlines, as of VE-Day the 82nd Fighter Group's score of confirmed aerial victories stood at 548 aircraft shot down, plus a huge amount of enemy materiel – including aircraft – destroyed on the ground and the sea. It had been awarded three Distinguished Unit Citations. The cost of this success was high, however, for around 250 of the group's pilots had either been killed in action or captured.

Lockheed P-38 Lightning

Lockheed P-38 Lightning PDF Author: Michael O'Leary
Publisher: Osprey Publishing
ISBN: 9781855327498
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 150

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Book Description
"The 'Cadillac' of USAAF fighters in World War 2, the Lighting was a highly innovative design produced by Lockheed of Burbank, California. In response to a challenging requirement for a long range, high speed and high altitude fighter to escort the AAF's rapidly expanding B-17 and B-24 heavy bomber fleets. To meet the criterion laid down in the requirement, the company adopted a revolutionary twin boom layout and supercharged Allison engines. The latter initially proved troublesome, but the gremlins were eventually sorted out and the type went on to see much action in Europe, North Africa, the Mediterranean, the Pacific and the CBI. Using the best Lockheed official and private archival black and white photographs available, combined with period colour advertisements, a double-page cutaway drawing and scale plans, this volume reveals all facets of the Lightning's construction and frontline use." --Back cover.

P-38 Lightning vs Bf 109

P-38 Lightning vs Bf 109 PDF Author: Edward M. Young
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1472859529
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 81

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Book Description
An exciting account of the aerial battles fought by the USAAF's P38 Lightnings and the Jagdflieger's Bf 109Gs for dominance over North Africa and the Mediterranean. USAAF fighter pilots experienced a baptism of fire when flying the technically advanced but fragile P-38 Lightning over North Africa in the wake of 1942's Operation Torch. Their opponents were battle-hardened jagdflieger of the Jadgwaffe, flying the tried and tested Bf 109 in its very lastest Gustav iteration. Responsible primarily for escorting USAAF bombers attacking Afrika Korps installations in Tunisia, the P-38 units in North Africa had to develop effective tactics to defend the bombers against Luftwaffe fighter attacks. For several months the Lightning squadrons had to also cope with shortages of aircraft and spare parts, steady losses and a lack of replacement pilots. To survive, American aviators had to learn quickly. While it is difficult to definitively attribute victories in air combat, in the air battles over Tunisia and later over Sicily and Italy, the claims made by Lightning pilots were comparable to Luftwaffe claims for P-38s destroyed. Edward M. Young turns his attention to the bitterly fought air war in North Africa and the Mediterranean in 1942–43. Using original archival sources, official records and first-hand accounts from both USAAF and Luftwaffe veterans, as well as newly commissioned artwork and 50 carefully selected photographs from official and personal archives, this book sees two of the most iconic piston-engined fighters of their era pitted head-to-head for control of the skies in a key theatre of World War II.