Caption:
Barely visible beneath the wings of a Lockheed P-38 Lightning are the deadly bombs with which this multi-purpose plane can blast enemy troops, ships and gun emplacements. At the Army Air Forces Tactical Center in Orlando, Florida, the P-38 demonstrated its ability to carry bomb pay loads up to 2,000 pounds. The Lockheed P-38 Lightning was a WWII American propeller driven fighter aircraft. Developed to a United States Army Air Corps requirement, the P-38 had distinctive twin booms and a single, central nacelle containing the cockpit and armament. The P-38 was unusually quiet for a fighter, the exhaust muffled by the turbo-superchargers. It was extremely forgiving, and could be mishandled in many ways, but the rate of roll in the early versions was too slow for it to excel as a dogfighter. The P-38 was the only American fighter aircraft in production throughout American involvement in the war, from Pearl Harbor to Victory over Japan Day.