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General Specifications
Wingspan: 52 ft. (15.9 m.) Length: 37.72 ft. (11.5 m.) Height: 9.84 ft. (3.0 m.) Weight: 12,780 lb. (5,797 kg.) Engines: Two Allison V-1710-89 Horsepower: 1,425 hp. each Guns: Four .5 in. Browning machine guns and one 20 mm cannon ______________________________________________________
With its twin counter-rotating engines that eliminated torque effect and added an extra margin of safety, its tricycle landing gear, and its record-breaking speed, the Lockheed P-38 Lightning represented a radical leap in fighter design. First flown in 1939, the Lightning was the USAAF's fastest and best-armed fighter at the beginning of the war. Four .50 caliber Browning machine guns and a 20 mm cannon mounted in the plane's propeller-less nose needed no propeller synchronizer; this meant that a Lightning's guns could fire in parallel, downing an enemy plane with just a short burst. The P-38 saw most of its action in the Pacific Theater and was a major player in Europe as well.
In 1943, the new J model featured larger engines, improved cooling through enlarged boom-mounted radiators, and optically-flat windscreens.
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