Special Plane, Special Role: How the P-38 Lightning Helped Win World War II
The P-38 joined the war late, but it quickly became a famous workhorse. Key point: The P-38 was one heck of a rugged airplane and it actually receded the vaunted P-51. Here is the Lightning's legacy. Due largely to their use in the postwar U.S. Army Air Forces and present proliferation among the air show community, the North American P-51 Mustang is thought of by many as the most important American fighter of World War II. In reality, however, the P-51 was a relative latecomer to the war, and even though it achieved a remarkable record during the last year of the war in Europe, it was not th...
Source: nationalinterest.org