A Super Lightning?

World War II General WWII Discussion
#1

During World War II, the Lockheed developed a long-range version of its famous fighter P-38 Lightning, however, due to technical problems the project was canceled. The link below provides a collection of interesting photos of the plane and a question: If the plane had entered service, have reached the success of the P-38? What do you think? Visit the link, see the photos and answer this question through a poll at the end of the post.

http://aviacaoemfloripa.blogspot.com.br/2011/03/lockheed-xp-58-chain-lightning.html

Best Regards.

#2

There’s a thread around here on the merits and drawbacks of the P-38. But the final version was a very good plane that some pilots favored over the P-51. But the Lightening was difficult to fly and took veteran, above average pilots to bring out her best whereas novices could more easily learn the Mustang. And the P-51 was cheaper to produce and simpler to fly and maintain making it the better overall choice. Still the P-38 filled a valuable niche while facing often superior numbers of Axis fighters in the early part of the ETA war, and it’s range and durability were invaluable in the Pacific. Some have even said it would have been preferable to the P-51 as a ground attack and secondary fighter in the Korean War since it was much less vulnerable to ground fire. I haven’t done much reading, but the “Super Lightening” was probably a victim of the jet age…