P-38 Lightning - In The Movies

Black Sheep leader top cover one wheeler scored little brother home over Roger you got him [Music] the P-38 Lightning one of the fastest fighters of World War II and the only American fighter being built at the beginning of America's involvement in the war and the end 037 p-38s would be built today approximately 26 P-38 still exist around the globe 10 of which are airworthy despite their significant contribution to the war in Europe and the Pacific the P-38 only shows up in a handful of movies but let's take a look at the P-38 and a few of the movies that have paid tribute to this legendary aircraft [Music] come on down there and take the tops off those trees [Music] the P-38 is one of the easiest aircraft to spot in the air with this distinctive twin boom design and Central in the cell this design having two 1 600 horsepower engines for a relatively small aircraft gave it great speed range and Firepower the P-38 strengths made it ideal for diverse use as a fighter bomber a night fighter and a long-range escort fighter when equipped with drop tanks the P38 could also act as a Pathfinder guiding medium and heavy bombers to their targets p-38s could even be tasked with protecting other p-38s carrying a bomb load okay boys all yours I'm supposed to be doing something in this war besides making wise tracks to my girl anyway [Music] okay so you're lucky most famously the P-38 made an excellent aerial reconnaissance aircraft accounting for the majority of aerial film over Europe the reconnaissance variant relied entirely on speed for protection and had no armament you can see a reconnaissance version of the P38 here in Haze blue camouflaging it from the ground flying next to an olive drab fighter [Music] the P38 had many strengths over early Fighters the P-38 was the first 400 mile per hour fighter in history unusual for an early war fighter both engines for the P-38 had turbo superchargers giving the aircraft excellent high altitude performance the guns were impressive 450 caliber machine guns and one 20 millimeter cannon all straight in front of the pilot making them easy to aim and contrast to most single engine Fighters which had wing-mounted machine guns which needed to be set to converge fire at a given point or range well done [Music] one obvious benefit of having two engines was the greatly increased survivability of the aircraft as Pilots were trained to operate and land the aircraft in the event of one or both engines failing however twin engines could create problems for green pilots who might Panic with the loss of one engine allowing the plane to roll or spin a danger during takeoff with some aircraft flipping and slamming into the runway either a significant issue with early p-38s was at high speeds it suffered from compressibility problems meaning that in a high altitude dive the aircraft's controls could become ineffective leaving the pilot no choice but to bail out this problem was somewhat solved with improvements to the plane's elevators and die flaps this dive issue did become known to German Pilots that often just Dove to escape the P-38 [Music] hardly the Aryan ideal are you wait I didn't get a chance to grab my swastika and get a lobotomy [Music] hey look at that look at that the cockpit of the lightning had pros and cons the canopy provided a good field of view over older designs but didn't slide open like a single-engine Fighters it could create a greenhouse-like effect getting too hot in the Pacific in the European theater it was the opposite as the cockpit was positioned away from the engines unable to use them to heat the pilot a problem in cold climates and at high altitudes one advantage of the cockpit was that it could be adapted to snugly fit an instructor highlighted in the 1943 wartime production a guy named Joe you're engaged all right but you're not married yet in Europe the P-38 had mixed success compared to in Asia at the start of World War II for America p-38s with relatively unseasoned Pilots were rushed to Britain some aircraft were even lost on route to Europe with the transatlantic flights having their own dangers watch the PBS documentary The Lost Squadron on YouTube for a true story of a P-38 Squadron forced to land on an ice field in Greenland they restore one of the snow buried lightnings it's our goal to finish the mission that she started in 1942. we want to fly the airplane to England along the original route p-38s that did fight in Europe saw much of their first action in the Mediterranean suffering High losses notably when forced to closely guard bombers in 1942 German fighter pilots were scoring devastating kill ratios against Green lightning Pilots which were being intercepted and ambushed on the luftwaffe's terms [Music] though the P-38 would never dominate as a fighter in Europe though it definitely had its Aces it performed a variety of other missions with Effectiveness the lightning could carry an impressive six 500 pound bombs or 10 Rockets making it deadly against ground targets and shipping I'm right behind you [Music] [Music] over 18 distinct models of lightning were tested during the war including this one with radar once Pilots gained experience and tactics adapted P-38 losses decreased the Allison engines also underwent significant teething in Europe with a variety of reliability problems some relating to the cold air in Europe some relating to fuel mixture however by the end of the war in the European theater 130 000 sorties would be flown do that and the Countess so soon here looks like Tokyo has had to try [Music] in the Pacific is where the P-38 truly dominated its speed meant that though it could not outmaneuver amitsubishi zero it could continuously boom and zoom the aircraft diving on it and flying away to dive on it again without the zero able to catch it or out climb it the lightly armored zeros were also extremely vulnerable to the massive Firepower of even a split-second burst from the Lightning's guns over the expanses of the Pacific Pilots appreciated having two engines to limp home should one receive damage the P-38 in the Pacific would make history with Medal of Honor recipient major Richard bong at the controls buying down 40 enemy aircraft in the Pacific with the lightning making him the highest scoring Ace in American history sadly bong would die as a test pilot in the U.S flying p-80 shooting star jet fighters his death was Front Page News across the country sharing space with the first news of the bombing of Hiroshima in the Pacific Theater the P-38 downed more than 1800 Japanese aircraft with more than 100 Pilots becoming Aces by Downing five or more enemy aircraft the P-38 was responsible for one of the most famous interceptions of World War II Downing isiroko yamamoto's Transport Aircraft Yamamoto was The Mastermind behind Pearl Harbor and commander of the Imperial Japanese Navy's combined Fleet the Lightnings were taken by surprise flying some 420 miles to successfully intercept him watch isiroku from 2011 for a Japanese perspective on this event including the battles at Pearl Harbor and Midway ultimately P-51 Mustangs would replace Lightnings in many of their escort roles Mustangs were about half the cost to build and were easy aircraft to train pilots on the P-38 however would Inspire other twin engine designs including some failures in cinema this would be most famously Howard hughes's xf-11 which is funny enough shown as the lightning of both the amazing Howard Hughes from 1977 and rules don't apply from 2016. with only The Aviator from 2004 actually modeling the plane correctly if you're wanting to watch real p-38s on film check out the cheesy but fun Aces Iron Eagle 3 starring a P-38 pilot and his aircraft or watch the classic Baba Black Sheep Squadron from 1976 following a Corsair Squadron but also featuring some real Lightnings as well those Lightnings could climb faster than anything I'd ever seen in zero after last night's blast I was having second thoughts about Canon still it felt good to have some High cover all right I'm Johnny thanks for watching this P-38 Lightning video this is an aircraft that inspires many mixed opinions is it one of the best aircraft of World War II or plagued with too many problems please share any insights you might have on the lightning in the comments section and we'll see you in the next video [Music] thank you

Channel: Johnny Johnson

Views: 170,491

Keywords: p38, p-38, warthunder, war thunder, johnny johnson, war thunder p-38, p-38 war thunder, p38 war thunder, war thunder p38, lightning, p-38 lightning, p38 lighting, lockheed, p38 lightning, lightning fighter, best fighter of ww2, best plane of ww2, ww2 planes, ww2 aircraft, aircraft ww2, p38 ww2, p38 vs, p-38 vs, mustang, fw 190, aircraft world war 2, ww2 documentary, aircraft documentary, p38 fighter, fighter bomber, war thunder fighter, war thunder bomber, war thunder funny

Id: 1jcGla1RGlo

Length: 10min 49sec (649 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 06 2023