Aviation Classics 14 Lockheed P-38 Lightning Preview

The beautifully restored cockpit of P-38 ’Glacier Girl’ shows just what a spacious cockpit the Lightning had.

Note the only concession to modernity, the removable GPS on the top of the instrument panel. Luigino Caliaro

Contents 8 Building a legend 14 Tricycle and twin – defining a classic

32 Into service – Australia, the Aleutians and Europe 36 The French and British orders

22 Testing and compressibility – developing the prototype

40 Higher, faster & further – The P-38G, H and J

28 Fine tuning & first production – The P-38D, E and F

46 The Pacific and China, Burma and India

A rare formation of five US based P-38s in the California sky.

Frank B Mormillo

Editor:

52 Tony LeVier

Tim Callaway editor@aviationclassics.co.uk Dan Savage Luigino Caliaro, Norm deWitt, Keith Draycott, Julian Humphries, Maurice McElroy, Frank B Mormillo, Constance Redgrave, Clive Rowley, Scott Slocum, Warren E Thompson, Mike and Margaret Wilson

Publisher: Contributors:

56 Flying with Allisons 60 Allisons again – flying on the water 70 The ultimate Lightnings – The P-38K, L and M 74 Europe and the Mediterranean 78 Beyond the Lightning

Designer: Reprographics:

Charlotte Pearson Jonathan Schofield

Group production editor:

Tim Hartley

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Paul Deacon Steve O’Hara Charlotte Park Craig Lamb Dan Savage Nigel Hole Terry Clark Brian Hill

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82 Ace of Aces – Richard Ira Bong 88 The lost P-38 photo reconnaissance pilots – Adrian Warburton 94 P-38 Lightnings over Italy 100 Glacier Girl 104 Lockheed’s night fighter Lightning – The P-38M 108 The lost P-38 photo reconnaissance pilots – Antoine de Saint Exupéry 118 Inside the Lightning 122 Postwar air forces 124 From White Lightnin’ to Red Bull

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Lockheed P-38 Lightning 5

Big, bad & dangerous to get in front of

W

ell, this turned out to be a fascinating aircraft to research, since it tied together so many famous people in a single design.

One of the greatest aircraft designers of all time, Clarence L “Kelly” Johnson was responsible for the layout of the aircraft, famous test pilots such as Milo Burcham and Tony LeVier were responsible for working the bugs out of the advanced design, and many of the greatest US aces of the Second World War were to fly the big fighter in combat, achieving remarkable results with the large twin against much more agile opponents. Again, I found myself learning a vast amount about an aircraft I thought I knew well, and I sincerely hope I have captured that fascination in these pages.

The P-38 was the only US fighter to be in production for the entire length of the Second World War, yet is was produced in smaller numbers than its single engined counterparts, none of which had such longevity. Partly, this was due to the complexity of the design and partly it was down to the fact that Lockheed was busy designing and producing a wide range of other aircraft. Front line demand for the fighter was high in every theatre, but it was not until 1944 that a second production line was set up by Consolidated Vultee Aircraft at its facility in Nashville Tennessee.

However, only 113 of the total of 10,037 P-38s built were produced there before the war ended and the contracts were cancelled.

Strangely, considering the P-38’s worldwide success, it was in Europe that the fighter was to experience its only real operational difficulties which were to sully its otherwise superb reputation. This began with the cancellation of the British and French order for a modified version of the P-38E, but lacking the turbosuperchargers and having engines that drove the propellers the same way. Both of these modifications had poor effects on the P-38, the first on the performance, the second on the handling, and the aircraft was rejected after trials by the RAF. Although it didn’t do anything for the reputation of the fighter, the RAF at least gave the type its inspiring name, the Lightning. Later, operational problems were to plague the P-38s based in the UK, which were only understood and solved after a visit by Tony LeVier in February 1944. One of the less well known achievements of the P-38 in Europe was that it was the first Allied fighter to escort bombers all the way to Berlin, a feat often credited to the P-51 Mustang.

Even though the original design was intended as a pure fighter interceptor, the high performance of the Lightning was to see it excel in a wide variety of missions, such as a photographic reconnaissance platform. Its success in this role is evinced by the large numbers that were purpose built or modified

for service all over the world. Its ability to carry large payloads made the P-38 an incredibly powerful ground attack aircraft, one of the more amazing statistics being thatthe difference between the empty and maximum loaded weight of the P-38L was 8800lb (3990kg), a tremendous payload and more than a P-51D Mustang weighed!

Its high speed, fast climb and long range gave the fighter pilots who flew it enormous advantages in combat, but two other facets of the P-38s design were to make it the legend it is today. Firstly, the nose mounted armament made it easy to aim and the concentrated firepower produced has been likened to a buzz saw, cutting through anything. Lastly, it was the only single seat US fighter of the war that would get you home with one propeller feathered which, considering its use over the Mediterranean and Pacific, would be a comfort beyond price, endearing the big sleek machine to its crews.

With the advent of the jet age, the Lightnings were retired and scrapped with what old time writers would call scant ceremony. There are very few of the mighty beasts left prowling the skies today, enjoy them whenever you can.

All best, Tim

A P-38 photographed at Chico, California against the sunset of December 1, 1944. USAF

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Building a

legend

The company and men behind the machine.

The Lockheed Aircraft Corporation, Hall Hibbard and Clarence “Kelly” Johnson.

I

t is impossible to tell the story of the P-38 without including two men in particular. While it is true that many men and women were responsible for bringing the Lockheed P-38 Lightning into service, and its remarkable success therein, only two can be said to have truly crafted the unusual and advanced design.

The first of these two men is a name most are unfamiliar with, at least, those outside the Lockheed Corporation or the airline and defence industries. The other is that rarity among aerospace engineers and designers, a household name, not just for the Lightning, but more often for what he achieved after working on this project.

The first man is Hall Livingstone Hibbard, born in Kansas on July 25, 1903, the year of the Wright Brother’s first flight. An inveterate tinkerer with a fascination for machines, Hibbard grew up with a passion for how the world worked. In 1925, Hibbard achieved a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and physics at the College of Emporia, after which he spent two years studying in postgraduate courses at the now famous Massachusetts Institute of Technology. On

returning to Kansas, he found that Lloyd Stearman had established Stearman Aircraft at Wichita, and joined the newly formed company as a draughtsman in 1927.

From Stearman Aircraft, Hibbard moved to the Viking Flying Boat Company of New Haven, Connecticut, where he worked on Louis Schreck’s redesign of the French First World War flying boat, the FBA 17. Produced under licence for the US Coast Guard as a two seat flying boat trainer, only six were to be built, the company being one of those to fall victim to the Great Depression that was closing factories all over America at that time. Although this meant the young Hibbard was suddenly unemployed, the experience of working at the Viking Flying Boat Company had introduced him to its owner, the businessman and entrepreneur Robert Ellsworth Gross, a man who was to figure greatly in Hibbard’s future in the aviation industry.

We must leave Hall Hibbard for the moment, to understand the background to what happened next. Years earlier, in 1912, two brothers, Allan and Malcolm Loughead, had established the Alco Hydro-Aeroplane

Clarence Leonard ‘Kelly’ Johnson, the designer whose genius delivered some of the most high performance aircraft the world has ever seen. Lockheed 8 aviationclassics.co.uk

Hall Hibbard, the man behind Lockheed’s wide ranging success. Lockheed

Company in Santa Barbara, California. Later, the business was renamed the Loughead Aircraft Manufacturing Company, but in 1926, this enterprise failed, largely due to a lack of orders. Later that year, Allan Loughead formed the Lockheed Aircraft Company, moving the base of operations to Hollywood, then a thriving, largely industrial suburb of Los Angeles. He chose the name Lockheed as he was so fed up with people not being able to pronounce his name properly, he used for the phonetic spelling of it. Lockheed found success in 1927, with the first flight of the Lockheed Vega, a four-passenger single engine monoplane of sleek monocoque construction.

This aircraft was designed by John Knudsen Northrop and Gerrard Vultee, both of whom would go on to form their own aircraft companies after leaving Lockheed.

After its maiden flight on July 4, the 135mph (217kmh) Lockheed Vega was an instant hit. In 1928, Lockheed Vegas won every speed event, often competing against single seat racing aircraft. Altogether, 141 Vegas would be built, growing in size to take six passengers and more powerful engines.

Wiley Post (the first pilot to fly solo around the world) flew his Vega around the world, twice, and Amelia Earhart used her Vega to become the first woman to fly the Atlantic Ocean single handed. With deliveries of the more powerful Vega 5 beginning in 1929, and business that appeared to be booming, the management of Lockheed sold the majority shareholding in the company to the Detroit Aircraft Corporation in July.

Initially, the company continued to flourish with additional models of the Vega being produced for a wide variety of clients, as well

Viking OO-1 belonging to US Coast Guard, one of the few products of the ill-fated Viking Flying Boat Company. USCG

as two for the US Army Air Corps. The new Sirius, Altair and Orion designs were produced, the Orion being one of the fastest aircraft in the world when it first flew in 1931.

However, the overall economic situation in the US was to be Lockheed’s undoing, as with the Viking Flying Boat Company on the opposite coast. The Great Depression caused the collapse of the market for new aircraft, so on October 27, 1931, the Detroit Aircraft Corporation went into receivership.

At this point, Robert E Gross re-enters our story, courtesy of a friend of his, Walter Varney. Varney was a California based aviation pioneer who had already established a successful air mail company, Varney Air Service, in 1926. In 1930, after the acquisition of five other smaller companies, he sold the much expanded business to the United Aircraft and Transport Corporation (UAT).

UAT, you may remember from Aviation Classic’s Corsair issue, was the amalgamation of Boeing, Chance Vought, Sikorsky, Stearman, Hamilton Standard and Pratt and Whitney, a group of companies trying to survive the depression by working together.

UAT was already the owner and operator of Pacific Air Transport, Boeing Air Transport and National Air Transport, but wanted Varney’s extensive and lucrative air mail routes. In 1933, the air transport division was renamed United Air Lines, becoming an independent business when UAT was broken up in the wake of the 1934 air mail scandal and US Government anti-trust laws.

Varney Air Service had been looking at the new Lockheed designs for high speed air mail use, so it was familiar with the firm’s fortunes. On hearing of the Detroit Aircraft

Armed with this dAtA,And well AwAre of the cApAbilities of the competition,the boeing 247 And douglAs dc-2, hAll hibbArd decided thAt his first new lockheed design wAs to be An All metAl, high speed trAnsport AircrAft Corporation’s bankruptcy, Varney contacted his friends Robert and his brother, Courtlandt Sherrington ‘Cort’ Gross, in order to make an offer for the Lockheed Aircraft Company. Varney and the Gross brothers raised $20,000 each and made a successful bid for the entire establishment in 1932. Allan Loughead had tried to raise the capital to buy his own company back, but when he had only gathered $50,000 he gave up the attempt,

considering that amount to be insufficient for a winning bid. Varney and the Gross brothers re-established and reorganised the Lockheed Aircraft Company at Burbank Airport, north and east of its original Hollywood base.

Production and sales of the existing designs continued on a small scale, but all three investors knew they had to develop new and world beating aircraft if they were going to remain competitive. ➤

A Lockheed Orion of Varney Speed Lanes.Walter Varney was one of the aviation pioneers who bought the Lockheed company from the defunct Detroit Aircraft Corporation. Editor’s Collection Lockheed P-38 Lightning 9

Before returning to the story of Hall Hibbard, it is worth recording that over the next 35 years the three investors were to build the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation into the industrial giant it is today. Walter Varney served as a co-director of the new Lockheed Company from 1932 through to his retirement in 1951.

While so engaged, along with his partner Louis Mueller, Varney also formed a new airline, Varney Speed Lanes in 1934. This used the high speed Lockheed Orion, so Varney was in effect his own customer. Later that year, he gave over control of the airline to Mueller, so he could concentrate on the Lockheed business.

This was the second case of Varney founding a modern day giant of the airline world, as Mueller sold the business to Robert Six in 1936, who renamed it Continental Airlines in 1937.

It is interesting that both airlines founded

by Walter Varney, United and Continental, merged in 2009 to form a single massive company. Varney lived to see the businesses he founded all bear fruit, before dying of pneumonia on January 25, 1967. Robert Gross began as a co-director in 1932, then served as the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation’s president from 1934 to 1956. He died of pancreatic cancer on September 3, 1961. Courtlandt Gross served as a director then chairman of the Lockheed Corporation from 1932 to 1967 before he retired from the company. He was living in Villanova, Pennsylvania, with his wife and housekeeper, when, on July 15, 1982, all three were murdered in their home. Although Roger Buehl was convicted of the crime and sentenced to death, he remains in prison and there are strong doubts about the validity of his conviction. This sad tale is a strange and terrible end to the Gross brothers’ great aviation legacy.

To return to 1932, Varney and the Gross brothers found themselves owners of the builders of some of the world’s fastest aircraft, but with one major problem. In 1929, John Northrop had left to found his own

Walter Varney, who could be said to have been responsible for the Lockheed we know today, seen here in more relaxed times.Via Emmett Forbes 10 aviationclassics.co.uk

Swallow J-5 built in 1924 with markings of CAM 5 as operated by Varney Airlines. Displayed at the Museum of Flight, Boeing Field, Seattle, May 1989. Editor’s Collection

company, the Avion Corporation. He was followed by Gerrard Vultee in 1932, who had left to develop his own company and a six passenger design of his own for American Airlines. This essentially left the reorganised and reformed Lockheed Aircraft Company with no design team. Robert Gross of course had a ready solution to this.

He contacted Hall Hibbard from his failed Viking Flying Boat Company and offered him a job at Lockheed as its new designer. His first priority was to improve upon the already excellent reputation Lockheed aircraft had established for speed and reliability, which was no easy task.

The earlier Lockheed designs, such as the Vega and Orion, had been of all wooden construction with streamlined monocoque fuselages. During the brief time it owned Lockheed, the Detroit Aircraft Corporation had changed the specification and built a number of Orions with all metal fuselages.

These aircraft had a performance edge over their all-wood counterparts as well as a number of practical advantages. The lighter weight of the airframe meant the metal Orions could carry more payload and further, and it gave them a slight speed advantage.

Armed with this data, and well aware of the capabilities of the competition, the Boeing 247 and Douglas DC-2, Hall Hibbard decided that his first new Lockheed design was to be an all metal, high speed transport aircraft. Not only was this the first all metal Lockheed aircraft, it was also to be its first twin-engined design.

The choice of two engines was based on an ongoing US Government study into air transport safety. Hibbard knew about the study, and immediately recognised its potential ramifications while considering the possible layouts for the Model 10, or Electra as it came to be known.

Consequently, when the study was translated into law in October 1934 and

The groundbreaking Lockheed Vega, in this case the later Vega 5B model, a replica of the one flown by Amelia Earhart now on display in the beautiful San Diego Air and Space Museum.

Constance Redgrave

Kelly Johnson on his first task for Lockheed, studying the model of the original Model 10 design in the wind tunnel at the University of Michigan. Lockheed

resulted in a ban on all single engined aircraft being used for either night flying or passenger carrying, the Model 10 was well placed to fill the gap left by the now banned single engine types. This was not luck. It was a product of the kind of careful research and market knowledge that was to become a trademark of Hall Hibbard’s work at Lockheed, resulting in him heading the design department for many years and later becoming a director of the company. Although other people were to become more famous than Hibbard; indeed, few have heard of him outside of the industry, it must be noted that his steady yet always enthusiastic approach to aviation was one of the driving forces that made Lockheed a giant of the aircraft industry.

Hall Hibbard had one other major influence on the future of the Lockheed company, as he introduced the other major character in the P-38, and indeed the Lockheed, story, Clarence Leonard Johnson.

Johnson was born on February 27, 1910, in the Michigan mining town of Ishpeming, his parents having emigrated there from Malmö in Sweden. The grinding poverty his family lived in was a source of personal shame to Johnson, who from an early age was driven to succeed by his frugal upbringing. His name, Clarence, was ridiculed at school, with his classmates referring to him as ‘Clara’ after the ‘It’ girl, film actress Clara Bow. Never one to take his troubles to anyone else and ever the pragmatist, Johnson took direct action against his tormentors, tripping one taunting classmate so viciously that it broke his leg.

He was ‘Clara’ no more. A popular song of the time, Kelly With The Green Neck Tie provided his next nickname. Clarence became Kelly to his peers, a name that was to stick for the rest of his life.

While at school his passion for aviation began. The first aircraft designed by Kelly Johnson was for a competition in 1923, winning him a prize at the tender age of 13. ➤

A Lockheed Electra 10A ‘CF-TCC’ in Trans-Canada Air Lines livery at the Western Canada Aviation Museum.

The military also acquired the high speed Lockheed Electra.This is a Lockheed Y1C-36 assigned to Wright Field.The type was later redesignated as C-36 and again as UC-36. US Air Force Lockheed P-38 Lightning 11

Following the Model 10 Electra was the larger Lockheed Model 14 Super Electra. This is PH-ASL ‘Lepelaar’ of KLM Royal Dutch Airlines at Manchester (Ringway) Airport. Ruth AS

After high school and college in Flint, Michigan, Johnson attended the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. He studied towards a master’s degree in aeronautical engineering.

While at the university, he was one of the student assistants assigned to work on the wind tunnel models of the Lockheed Model 10 design. At the time, the early Model 10 had a single fin and rudder on the rear fuselage. Johnson’s testing of the models showed that the design was directionally unstable in this layout, but his findings were ignored by his professor, who reported none of the problems Johnson had discovered back to Lockheed.

What happened next reveals much about Kelly Johnson’s pragmatic and no-nonsense character. In 1933, having completed his degree successfully, Johnson took a job as a tool designer with the Lockheed Company.

Having successfully made it in through the front door so to speak, Johnson immediately took his wind tunnel results and conclusions

to Hall Hibbard and convinced him that he was right – the single finned Model 10 design was unstable. Hibbard sent him back to the University of Michigan to conduct more tests, during which Johnson modified the design to incorporate the twin fin and rudder layout familiar today. He also modified the wing fillets at the fuselage joint and made numerous other improvements, all of which contributed to the success of the Model 10.

When the Model 10 Electra made its first flight on February 23, 1934, Marshall Headle, the test pilot, found it to be a delight to fly.

Such a direct approach to the problems of the design brought the 23-year-old Johnson to the attention of the Lockheed directors in a dramatic fashion, and with Hibbard’s recommendation Johnson was promoted to aeronautical engineer with immediate effect.

Sadly, the comments of Johnson’s University professor, who must have been highly embarrassed by this series of events, have not been recorded.

If I may step away from the main narrative for a moment, this rather bullish attitude of Johnson’s to his work is typical of the great aircraft designers. Can you imagine the average undergraduate taking that course of action over sponsored research at their university today? Like Sir Sydney Camm, R J Mitchell, Alexander Kartveli and Howard Hughes, Johnson is typical of the aeronautical engineers and innovators that today are considered the elite. These men believed in what they were doing with a passion, but it was not by some flight of fancy, as is so often portrayed in the media, it was always with sheer hard work and practical common sense approaches that they worked their magic and created some incredible machines.

None of these men were the dreamers of popular fiction, they were serious, nuts and bolts engineers. The aircraft they produced that were truly world-beating were products of a clear vision and an unshakeable belief in what they were doing was right. This kind of

Showing its civilian transport ancestry is this Lockheed Lodestar (note the misspelled name on the nose), a military transport and the ultimate development of the original Electra design.This one is on display at the March Field Air Museum. Constance Redgrave.

12 aviationclassics.co.uk

The Lockheed Model 14 Super Electra was also developed into a successful light bomber, maritime patrol aircraft and military transport, known as the Hudson. US Air Force

Hall Hibbard and Kelly Johnson, seen here looking at the first blueprints for the Lockheed Constellation during the Second World War. Lockheed

focus has common characteristics. All of the men mentioned above were sticklers for punctuality, all of them were superb organisers and all of them demanded a level of attention to detail often ranked alongside obsessive. Far from easy to work with, these were all men who did not suffer fools gladly – they did not suffer them at all.

Some people see this attitude as arrogance, which it most certainly is not. It is, instead, something very rare, the trait that separates the good from the truly great. It is the ability to see clearly that which others do not, and to strive for it regardless of the personal cost. Kelly Johnson most definitely was possessed of that rare trait, his character and abilities as a designer caused Hall Hibbard to comment one day: “That damned Swede can actually see air.” Hibbard made the comment to Ben Rich, the man who was to one day take over the Skunk Works from Johnson and lead the successful development of stealth technology.

To return to our story, from his work on the Model 10 in 1933, Johnson found himself one of the rising stars at Lockheed, moving through the posts of flight test engineer, stress analyst, aerodynamicist, and weight engineer to garner sufficient experience in each field, before he became the chief research engineer in 1938. Kelly Johnson and Hall Hibbard had produced a remarkable aircraft in the Model 10 Electra, one which was to be much varied into the smaller Model 12 Electra Junior and larger Model 14 Super Electra, culminating in the Model 18 Lodestar of 1939.

To develop the original Model 10, Lockheed had spent $139,400, a considerable sum for the period. In the first year alone it was to sell 40 of these fast and durable aircraft, production ending with the 149th example delivered. Most famously, Amelia Earhart was to use a Lockheed Electra 10E in her ill-fated round the world flight of 1937, but the Electra was also to be used successfully by airlines and air forces around the world,

altitude interceptor. The specification used the word interceptor to get away from the restrictive rules that governed the development of fighters, or pursuit aircraft as they were known then.

The rules said a fighter was to be single engined and only carry a maximum of 500lb (227kg) of armament, but Kelsey and Saville wanted a far higher performance machine than was available by following the rules.

Kelly Johnson and Hall Hibbard considered a number of designs and layouts, before proposing their Lockheed Model 22 as a response to the proposal. The stage was set for the development of one of the most innovative single seat fighter aircraft in the history of aviation. Lockheed was about to enter the fighter business for the first time and was on a path that would see it dominate the fighter market to the present day. ■ Words: Tim Callaway

The relatively dainty Electra eventually developed into the much larger Ventura medium bomber and Harpoon patrol and anti-shipping aircraft.This Harpoon is under complete restoration at the excellent Palm Springs Air Museum in California. Constance Redgrave.

including a single example supplied to the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service for evaluation and trials. This family of aircraft were to cement Lockheed’s reputation and fortunes, and were eventually to be built in their thousands, as the Lockheed Hudson, Ventura and Harpoon light bombers and patrol aircraft and the Lodestar military transport joined the civil transport versions rolling off the production lines. Hibbard had done it, and Lockheed was to go from strength to strength.

While all this was going on and the Electra family was being developed and successfully marketed, in February 1937 the US Army Air Corps issued a specification called Circular Proposal X-608. Authored by two first lieutenants, Benjamin S Kelsey and Gordon P Saville (both of whom were later to become generals), the proposal called for a new type of fighter, a twin engined high

Lockheed P-38 Lightning 13