How the P-38 Flew Faster and Higher Than Its Rivals

Video from the channel Smithsonian Channel about Lockheed P-38 Lightning, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 2:58. Language: English. Video type: Documentary.

The clip explains how the P-38 Lightning came about. In the early 1930s some American bombers were faster than fighters, which rarely exceeded 250 mph and struggled above 20,000 feet.

The Army set a demanding specification, with a minimum of 360 mph at around 20,000 feet. Lockheed responded with the XP-38, a single experimental airframe designed by Kelly Johnson, who also designed the U-2 and the SR-71. Its large in-line engines and turbocharger were housed in booms that ran all the way to the tail.

A few months after its first flight, the prototype crossed the country at up to 420 mph and broke Howard Hughes's transcontinental record, but ice in the carburetors caused it to crash on a golf course; the pilot escaped almost unhurt and the Air Corps kept the program going.