Lockheed P-38 Lightning. Photo. Characteristics.
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Lockheed P-38 Lightning. Photo. Characteristics.

Lockheed P-38 Lightning. Photo. Characteristics.

USA

A type: twin-engine fighter

Crew: one pilot

R-38 "Lightning" was the first risky undertaking of Lockheed in the world of military aircraft with high performance characteristics. Shrewdly breaking into the lucrative military market, the company reacted actively to the US Air Force's 1937 request for proposals for a long-range interceptor. In addition to its original two-beam scheme with a central nacelle of the pilot's cockpit, the XP-38 prototype (Lockhid's designation was given to it by the Lockheed firm) was used for the first time on US fighters, joined by riveted rivets (including on bearing surfaces), riveted with rivets.

The test program for the XP-38 aircraft went well, and, apart from minor modifications to the bearing surfaces, the R-38 front-aircraft was only slightly different from the prototype during all six years of production. The name "Lightning" was given to the R-38 aircraft by the RAF, when the aircraft was ordered in 1940, and the following year it was accepted by the Americans. Even when the Royal Air Force was disappointed in the performance of non-turbocharged engines that they received in 1941 (so they withdrew their order for 667 aircraft), the US government continued at this point in the war to consider the turbochargers installed on the V-1710 engine as secret equipment , Banned for sale abroad.

Nevertheless, some modifications of the aircraft F-38, namely, E, F, H, J, and L, equipped with a turbocharged engine, improved flaps Fowler and additional fuel, have proved that they are more than matched by the fighters of the "axis" around the Earth ball. After the war, a number of aircraft F-5G fotorazvedchik operated by civilian organizations. Today in America survived six aircraft flying "Lightning."

Basic data

Dimensions:

  • Length: 11,53 m
  • Wingspan: 15,85 m
  • Height: 3 m

 

Power point: two engines V-1710-89 / 91 (on the modification ^ -38J) or V-1710-111 / 113 (on modifications P-38L / M) of "Allison"

The weight:

  • BLANK: 5797 kg
  • Maximum take-off: 9798 kg

 

Power: 2850 l. from. (2126 kW) and 3200 l. from. (2387,2 kW), respectively,

Date of first flight:

  • January 27, 1939

 

Aircraft performance characteristics:

  • Maximum speed: 666 km / h
  • Range: 4184 km

 

Surviving airworthiness modifications:

  • TP-38J, P-38L, P-38V and F-5G

Fuel: what he had flown some ... Nobody knows?

All fighters of the Second World War period with piston engines worked on gasoline, kerosene was the fuel for jet aircraft ...

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