Why does the P-38 fly in the Heritage Flight alongside the F-35?

The operational name of the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II is a tribute to the P-38. The original aircraft, in turn, wasn't named that by Lockheed's choice: the company had picked Atalanta, the swift Greek goddess, following its tradition of mythological and celestial names. But after the fall of France in June 1940 the British took over the entire order, gave the aircraft the service name "Lightning," and that was the name that stuck.

The P-38 was the only American fighter in large-scale production throughout the entire US involvement in the war, from the attack on Pearl Harbor to victory over Japan. It was also the first military aircraft to exceed 400 mph (640 km/h) in level flight and the first American fighter to make extensive use of stainless steel and smooth aluminum panels with flush rivets. In the Pacific it was the aircraft flown by the country's two top aces, Richard Bong (40 victories) and Thomas McGuire (38 victories).

Few survived. At the end of the war, most of those in the continental United States were put up for sale at $1,200 each and the rest were scrapped, while those in distant theaters were piled up with bulldozers and abandoned. Among the survivors stands out Glacier Girl, recovered from the ice of Greenland in 1992, which flies again and appears at air shows, mainly in the United States. It's aircraft like this one that make it possible to see the original Lightning flying in formation alongside the fighter that inherits its name.