Lockheed P-38 Lightning
Heavy fighter aircraftWikipedia
98
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38
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Search complete. 98 mentions across 38 episodes found for "Lockheed P-38 Lightning".
Sep 12, 2026
Tail DraggerHOST
He was 21 years old.
Tail DraggerHOST
He got sent to fighters, and he got sent to the P-38 Lightning.
Tail DraggerHOST
Now, if you've never stood next to a P-38, let me try to paint you a picture.
Tail DraggerHOST
Twin booms, twin Allison V-12 engines, one in each boom, counter-rotating propellers to eliminate torque.
Tail DraggerHOST
Eight aircraft are crossing the North Atlantic eastbound, bound for Britain.
Tail DraggerHOST
Two Boeing B-17 flying fortresses and six Lockheed P-38 Lightnings.
Tail DraggerHOST
Operation Bolero.
Tail DraggerHOST
The big push to get American airpower across the pond and into the fight.
Tail DraggerHOST
Every piece of equipment, every gallon of fuel, every person has to get there somehow.
Tail DraggerHOST
You're not driving a truck to the job site.
Tail DraggerHOST
They finally broke through to one of the P-38s in 1992, 50 years after those wheels first touched the Greenland ice.
Tail DraggerHOST
Now here's where it gets interesting.
Johnny McNeeGUEST
It's very light material.
Alice RobertsHOST
Records reveal that Lieutenant Rundell was flying a US fighter plane known as a Lockheed P-38 Lightning.
Alice RobertsHOST
The P-38 was the first fighter aircraft to fly faster than 400 miles per hour.
Alice RobertsHOST
With its four nose-mounted machine guns and 20 mil cannon, It was feared by Allied enemies.
Alice RobertsHOST
The Japanese called it Two Planes, One Pilot because of its unusual design.
Johnny McNeeGUEST
And even look at that.
Johnny McNeeGUEST
Still threaded, still working.
Alice RobertsHOST
We know that Witex made fuel clamps for the P-38, so the team are definitely digging in the right place.
Tail DraggerHOST
Mitchell called it.
Tail DraggerHOST
Four of the Lightnings were designated killers.
Tail DraggerHOST
Their job was the Bettys.
Tail DraggerHOST
The remaining 14 would engage the Zeros and keep them occupied.
Christine ScottHOST
You know, who, who would've thought of that? And, uh, basically, after...
Christine ScottHOST
The, the problem the author ran into, uh, is after Brown was, of course, grabbed by the Navy, and he, he didn't just work with the Navy, he worked with Vega Aircraft, and he worked on the P-38 as well.
Christine ScottHOST
But the, the problem the author runs into, that's all you can talk about.
Christine ScottHOST
His work is still classified.
Dan NewberryHOST
I guess he's the one in that plane that Richard Baum took out.
Dan NewberryHOST
P-38 Lightning, World War II.
Dan NewberryHOST
The squadron went, the interception, and this famous general from Japan.
Dan NewberryHOST
Do your own homework, folks.
Tail DraggerHOST
July 15, 1942.
Tail DraggerHOST
Six Lockheed P-38 Lightnings and two Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses.
Tail DraggerHOST
In formation over the North Atlantic, part of Operation Bolero, the massive push to get American airpower across the ocean before the window closed.
Tail DraggerHOST
The plan was to fly from Presque Isle, Maine, to Prestwick, Scotland, stage through Greenland and Iceland, and hand those aircraft to the Eighth Air Force in England, where they were desperately needed.
5 MINS LATER
Tail DraggerHOST
They got to work on understanding what the aircraft had been and what it would take to make it that again.
Tail DraggerHOST
The answer, in most cases, was fabricating it from scratch.
Tail DraggerHOST
The P-38 Lightning in its original production form is not an aircraft you can order parts for.
Tail DraggerHOST
Lockheed stopped building them in 1945.
Tail DraggerHOST
It is one of the finest collections of airworthy World War II aircraft anywhere in the world.
Tail DraggerHOST
P-38 Lightnings, a Mitsubishi Zero, a Nakajima Ki-43 Hayabusa, aircraft that fly, not just stand behind a rope.
Tail DraggerHOST
The people who run planes of fame are not interested in static displays.
Tail DraggerHOST
They looked at the N9M and made a decision.
Tail DraggerHOST
His father was General Robert Olds of the Army Air Corps.
Tail DraggerHOST
Robin went to West Point, got into flying, and by the time the war in Europe was winding down, He had 12 aerial victories, 12 flying P-38 Lightnings and then P-51 Mustangs over skies that were trying to kill you every single day.
Tail DraggerHOST
He was 22 years old when it ended, a double ace before he was old enough to rent a car.
Tail DraggerHOST
After the war, he stayed in.
Tail DraggerHOST
There is a famous story, maybe embellished over the years, but it sticks around because it feels true.
Tail DraggerHOST
While stationed near San Francisco during training, Bong reportedly flew his P-38 under the Golden Gate Bridge, not over it, under it, and then looped around and came back through again.
Tail DraggerHOST
General George Kenney, who would go on to be Bong's commanding general in the Pacific, heard about it, according to the story.
Tail DraggerHOST
He had Bong fly to his office, stood the young lieutenant in front of his desk, and told him he owed an apology to every woman in San Francisco whose laundry he had blown off the clotheslines.
Tail DraggerHOST
Then he put him to work, because Kenny knew talent when he saw it, even wrapped in recklessness.
Tail DraggerHOST
That talent was about to get a proper stage.
Tail DraggerHOST
The Lockheed P-38 Lightning was unlike anything else flying in World War II.
Tail DraggerHOST
You've seen it if you've spent any time around.
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