Discover the origins and the major variants that made the Lightning a legend.

Experience the intense aerial combat of October 29th, 1943, as Second Lieutenant Christopher Bartlett, flying a P-38 Lightning with the 475th Fighter Group, faces overwhelming Japanese forces over ...

The Walther P-38 arguably supplants even the infamous Luger P.08 as the definitive German pistol of the 20th century. Its development began in the early 1930s, when a cash-strapped German army looked ...

Summary and Key Points: The Lockheed P-38 Lightning, the first aircraft produced by Skunk Works under Clarence “Kelly” Johnson, played a pivotal role in World War II. Some experts declare it the best ...

Richard Bong was the United States’ top ace pilot during the Second World War, scoring 40 aerial victories during his time in the war. Many of those kills happened behind the stick of a P-38 fighter ...

Here’s What You Need To Remember: Despite its flaws, the P-38 was a rare early example of a successful “heavy” fighter boasting speed, range and firepower—similar to modern multi-role fighters like ...

IIIF provides researchers rich metadata and media viewing options for comparison of works across cultural heritage collections. Visit the IIIF page to learn more. From 1942 to 1945, the thunder of ...

In the time between World War I and World War II, fighter planes underwent rapid changes. During the first World War, the Sopwith F.1 Camel was known as one of the best combat planes around. It had a ...

The jubilation the search team felt when it discovered "Ace of Aces" Richard Bong's downed P-38 Lightning fighter plane in a South Pacific jungle reverberated more than 8,000 miles away in northern ...

Fredric Arnold, sole surviving member of his WWII P-38 Combat Fighter Pilot Group, Class of 42J, died at the age of 96. He devoted his life to helping people appreciate the incalculable human cost of ...

Click to open image viewer. In the P-38 Lockheed engineer Clarence "Kelly" Johnson and his team of designers created one of the most successful twin-engine fighters ever flown by any nation. From 1942 ...