Lockheed P38 Lightning. Editorial Photo

Flying Legends air show, Imperial War Museum, Duxford, Cambridgeshire. UK.14-15 July 2018. search `P-38` redirects here. For other uses, see P-38 disambiguation. Not to be confused with English Electric Lightning. P-38H of the AAF Tactical Center, Orlando Army Air Base, Florida, carrying two 1,000 lb bombs during capability tests in March 1944[1] Role Heavy fighter National origin United States Manufacturer Lockheed Corporation Designer Clarence `Kelly` Johnson First flight 27 January 1939 Introduction July 1941[2] Retired 1949 United States Air Force 1965 Honduran Air Force[3] Primary users United States Army Air Forces Free French Air Force Produced 1941–45 Number built 10,037[4] Unit cost US$97,147 in 1944[5] Developed into Lockheed XP-49 Lockheed XP-58 WASP Ruth Dailey climbs into a P-38. The Lockheed P-38 Lightning is a World War II-era American piston-engined fighter aircraft. Developed for the United States Army Air Corps, the P-38 had distinctive twin booms and a central nacelle containing the cockpit and armament. Allied propaganda claimed it had been nicknamed the fork-tailed devil