Ah, der Gabelschwanz-Teufel as the German’s called it. The Fork-Tailed Devil. I read Martin Caidin book on the Lightning back in junior high, it had this one photo I’ll never forget, sighting the four machine guns through a test fire. The result looked like a missile explosion, totally cool. And the Lightning can claim something no other US plane can, it’s the only plane Charles Lindbergh scored a combat kill in.
Let’s see, the P-61 was the Black Widow and the P-39 ws the Bell Airacobra. But for lesser known planes how about the F7F Tigercat, the P-82 Twin Mustang (which was designed to escort the B-29s to Japan but only 20 were ever produced before the war ended and the bulk of the 270 that were produced were produced after the war, it became F-82 following the redesignation system in the USAF which turned Pursuit into Fighter), and the XP-58 Chain Lightning (I’d call it a P-38 on steroids)
Ah, der Gabelschwanz-Teufel as the German’s called it. The Fork-Tailed Devil. I read Martin Caidin book on the Lightning back in junior high, it had this one photo I’ll never forget, sighting the four machine guns through a test fire. The result looked like a missile explosion, totally cool. And the Lightning can claim something no other US plane can, it’s the only plane Charles Lindbergh scored a combat kill in.
Let’s see, the P-61 was the Black Widow and the P-39 ws the Bell Airacobra. But for lesser known planes how about the F7F Tigercat, the P-82 Twin Mustang (which was designed to escort the B-29s to Japan but only 20 were ever produced before the war ended and the bulk of the 270 that were produced were produced after the war, it became F-82 following the redesignation system in the USAF which turned Pursuit into Fighter), and the XP-58 Chain Lightning (I’d call it a P-38 on steroids)