He is to be sent back to Earth, where a year has elapsed, to pass on his experience and knowledge to dilettante Ted Randall (Van Johnson), first in flight school, then as a Lockheed P-38 Lightning fighter pilot in the south Pacific.
John McMasters was born in Taft, California and fell in love with airplanes in 1943 when he his uncle gave him a private “air show” in a Lockheed P-38 Lightning.
As with some other military terms, e.g., "jeep", the origin of the term is not known with certainty; the P-38 opener coincidentally shares a designation with the Lockheed P-38 Lightning fighter plane, which could allude to its fast performance.
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The Squadron continued on at Madden Field until 25 March 1944, when the unit was officially transferred to Lincoln Army Airfield, Nebraska and being assigned to IV Fighter Command as a replacement training unit (RTU), flying predominantly P-38 Lightnings.
Returned to the United States in November 1942 as a IV Fighter Command P-38 Lightning Replacement Training Unit (RTU).
Equipped with the Lockheed P-38F Lightning, trained for combat and served as an air defense organization for the west coast as part of IV Fighter Command.
The 475th Fighter Group was perhaps the best known of the Lockheed P-38 Lightning groups in the theater since it contained among its personnel the top scoring flying aces in the Pacific--Richard I. Bong (40 kills) and Thomas B. McGuire, Jr.
On 1 January 1945 2nd Lt. Robert L. Nesmith flying from Alexai Point, crashed his Lockheed P-38G-10-LO Lightning in Temnac Valley, just west of Attu Station while on a low-level training mission over Attu.
Known combat units assigned to the airfield were: HQ, 5th Bombardment Wing (January–March 1943); 1st Fighter Group (14 December 1942-February 1943) P-38 Lightning; 97th Bombardment Group (25 December 1942 – 8 February 1943) B-17 Flying Fortress; 301st Bombardment Group (16 December 1942 – 17 January 1943) B-17 Flying Fortress.
Along with the heavy bomber groups, the USAAF reassigned the F-5 (P-38 Lightning)-equipped 28th Photographic Reconnaissance Squadron to Kwajalein to fly long-range photographic missions over the Marshalls and reported directly to Headquarters, Seventh Air Force.
It was engineered, built and tested as the A-NEW MOD3 prototype computer for the Lockheed P-3 Orion.
On 6 August 1945, the top USAAF fighter ace Richard Bong died in a flight accident as his Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star fighter suffered a flameout and dove to ground.
Glacier Girl is a Lockheed P-38F-1-LO Lightning World War II fighter plane, 41-7630, c/n 222-5757, that was restored to flying condition after being buried beneath the ice of the remote Greenland Ice Sheet for over 50 years.
After receiving documents and blueprints comprising years of British jet aircraft research, the commanding General of the Army Air Forces, Henry H. Arnold, believed an airframe could be developed to accept the British-made jet engine, and the Materiel Command's Wright Field research and development division tasked Lockheed to design the aircraft.
The force was detected by a Dutch Neptune aircraft and one of the torpedo boats was sunk by an intercepting Dutch Navy vessel.
Along with the contract flying, the IV Fighter Command 383d Fighter Squadron operated P-38 Lightning aircraft from the airport during October and November 1943; the 430th Fighter Squadron during January 1944, and the 435th Fighter Squadron during February and March 1944.
Império SP1 was developed under the PAIC Império UAS program, which was established in July 2008 as result of the Portuguese Air Force's Lockheed P-3 Orion modernization program offset compensation.
The USAAF Seventh Air Force moved the F-5-equipped 28th Photographic Reconnaissance Squadron to Peleliu from Kwajalein on 5 October 1944 to carry out long-range photographic missions over the Philippines.
During the stay of the 3d PRG, Lieutenant-Colonel Elliott Roosevelt, son of Franklin D. Roosevelt served as commander and also flew an F-4 "Lightning".
The 367th Fighter Group arrived from Oakland Municipal Airport, California flying Lockheed P-38 Lightnings.
As of October 2008, the Australian Defence Force continues to maintain a presence at RMAF Butterworth as part of Australia's commitment to the Five Power Defence Arrangements (FPDA), with No. 19 Squadron RAAF and a detachment of AP-3C Orion aircraft from No. 92 Wing RAAF being located at the airfield.
At 8 PM on May 8, 1945, 2nd Lt. K.L. Smith of the 9th Air Force's 474th Fighter Group, flying a P-38 Lightning, downed a Siebel three miles southeast of Rodach, Bavaria.
On 18 April 1943, T1-323, a Mitsubishi G4M1 (model 11) "Betty" long-range bomber, and a sister craft departed from Rabaul, were headed to Bougainville in the Solomon Islands off New Guinea, when a task group of P-38s intercepted and downed the planes over Buin, a large Japanese army base in southern Bougainville.
The Van Nuys Army Airfield was placed under the jurisdiction of the IV Fighter Command with a mission to conduct P-38 Lightning operational unit training.