Lockheed P-38H Lightning

N66534, Lockheed P-38H-1-LO “Lightning” Serial #42-66534. Genuine Combat Veteran assigned to the Historic 475th FG “SATAN’S ANGELS” Price: $629,000.Announcing an exclusive offering of the rarest of the rare American WWII Fighters. A substantially complete example of the famed Lockheed P-38 Lightning with an extensive parts inventory. Assembled over several years, this package is an investment-grade asset with substantial equity opportunity and is now available. The 475 F.G. "Satan’s Angels" History is beyond legend. They were the fastest scoring Fighter Group in WWII. Two of the USA’s highest-scoring aces flew in this group. Charles Lindbergh flew many P-38 combat sorties with “Satan Angel’s in that period. OPERATIONAL HISTORY: This P-38 Lightning was built at Lockheed Aircraft Corporation, Burbank, California in 1943. After acceptance by the USAAC, it was transported by cargo ship to the South Pacific Theatre, where it was assigned to the 475th FG, 431st FS. On January 18, 1944, while on a fighter sweep over New Guinea, the pilot flying 66543, Lt JR Weldon, was attacked by either a Japanese Zero or Oscar fighter aircraft while flying wingman to Major Meryl Smith. Neither he nor his aircraft was ever spotted again after this mission. In the 1990s, Weldon’s P-38 aircraft was discovered lying undisturbed on the Wewak Plain, New Guinea where Weldon had executed a textbook perfect, wheels-up landing 48 years before. Evidence suggests that the left engine was shot out or had failed while Weldon attempted to exit the dogfight. Sadly, no trace of Lt Weldon was ever found. It is suspected Weldon fired a flare pistol into the cockpit (Standard Operating Practice) to destroy the sensitive equipment and radios, and then left his fighter on foot. Lt. Weldon was listed as MIA and subsequently listed as KIA. His location is unknown to this day. It is presumed he perished due to exposure to the elements or while in enemy captivity. Research continues into the pilots who flew 42-66534. There is a high probability that various aces and Charles Lindbergh flew this fighter on various missions before its disappearance. RECOVERY. Lengthy negotiations were entered with local villagers and PNG National Museum staff to reach a legal transfer of ownership and export agreement. After reaching an agreement the fighter was disassembled and hell-lifted in several sling loads from its landing site to a waiting truck transport more than an hour's flight away. From there it was transported to Australia, where it was acquired by its current owner and imported into the United States. Presently the fighter and parts package is in storage. Contact us for a detailed Prospectus: including Pictures and Inventory:

 

The pilot in a new American fighter, the P-38 Lightning, peeled down from the skies over Iceland on August 14, 1942. True to its name, the P-38 was akin to a force of nature: fast, unforeseen, and immensely powerful.

 

The Aircraft Sale target was a German Focke-Wulf Fw-200 Condor patrol bomber. Its crew had never encountered anything quite like it before.

 

With its distinctive design, the P-38 was sleek but its twin tails gave the Lightning a radical new look. The pilot, pumping 409 rounds per minute from its nose-mounted machine guns, dispatched the Condor in seconds, marking the first successful American engagement of a German aircraft during World War II.

Within six months, as the P-38 showed its versatility in North Africa, alone hysterical German pilot surrendered to soldiers at an Allied camp near Tunisia, pointing up to the sky and repeating one phrase—“der Gableschwanz Teufel”—over and over.

 

Once the phrase was translated, U.S. officials realized the focus of the pilot’s madness. The P-38 had been given a new nickname: the “fork-tailed devil.”

The Ultimate Weapon

First conceived in 1937 by Lockheed chief engineer Hall L.Hibbard and his then assistant, Clarence “Kelly” Johnson, the twin-boomed P-38 was the most innovative plane of its day, combining speed with unheard-of advances: two supercharged engines and a potent mix of four 50-caliber machine guns and 20-mm cannon.

 

Upon its official introduction in 1940, the P-38 was capable of climbing to 3,300 feet in a single minute and reaching 400 mph, 100 mph faster than any other fighter in the world. It also doubled as an intimidating long-range threat, capable of carrying a larger payload than early B-17s and boasting a range of 1,150 miles.

 

Its versatility and ruggedness were legendary. It could sink a ship. Strafed enemy on the ground. Crippled tanks. Destroyed entrenched pillboxes and shot down numerous fighters and bombers in all theaters of war.

 

When a long-range battle-tested airplane was needed for the Allies’ first round-trip mission to Berlin, a modified P-38 was chosen. And in 1943, when code breakers learned of a key inspection flight in the Pacific by Japanese Admiral Istook Yamamoto, the architect of the attack on U.S. installations in Hawaii, sixteen P-38 pilots were dispatched to fly a five-leg, nearly 1,000 mile-long mission. 

 

It proved to be a turning point in the war. After intercepting the admiral and his escort of Zero fighters, Japanese naval morale was crushed, and Allied morale soared. The intercept helped set the stage for an Allied victory in the Pacific.

 

Sources and Additional Reading

• Boyne, Walter. Beyond the Horizons: The Lockheed Story. New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 1999.
• Pace, Steve. Lockheed P-38 Lightning. Minneapolis, MN: Motor books International Publishers and Wholesalers, 1996. 
• Spanaway, John.P-38 Lightning Aces of the ETO/MTO. Oxford, UK: Osprey Publishing, 1998.
• Gray, William P. “P-38” Life magazine, 16 August 1943.