Lockheed’s P-38 Lightning first took shape in the late 1930s as a radical twin-boom, central-nacelle fighter for the USAAC, packing its pilot and four .50-calibre machine guns into a streamlined pod between two engine pods. When the first Lightnings flew combat missions early in World War II, their turbo-supercharged Allison V-12s gave them high-altitude speed and quiet exhaust, while drop tanks stretched their range—ideal for long-range escort, dive bombing and pathfinding duties over Europe and the vast expanses of the Pacific. In the Pacific and CBI theatres the P-38 became the mount of America’s top aces—Richard Bong, Thomas McGuire and Charles MacDonald—who racked up dozens of victories, exploiting the Lightning’s heavy firepower and forgiving flight characteristics even as early models wrestled with sluggish roll rates later cured by boosted ailerons. Beyond air-to-air combat, the P-38 thrived as a reconnaissance platform: with cameras in place of guns some 1 200 were redesignated F-4/F-5, making it one of the war’s most prolific spy planes. It even led bomber formations to their targets before peeling off or arming up to drop its own bombs. From Pearl Harbor through V-J Day the Lightning remained America’s only continuously produced fighter, its distinctive silhouette and versatile performance cementing its place as one of World War II’s most innovative and effective warplanes.