One of the few successful twin engine fighters of WWII, the P-38 was the only American airplane in production when the war started and the war ended. Designed as a high altitude fighter, it had most of its success at lower altitudes, in many ways thanks to a problem with the engines detonating at high altitude, a problem that was never completely solved. Fortunately, most of its escort work in Europe was taken over by the P-51, an aircraft that used an engine that didn't have these problems. Early P-38s were also hampered by inadequate intercooler capacity so were not able to be flown at maximum power until the larger engine cowlings of the P-38J were developed. Another issue with the airframe was that when it got too fast in a dive, it had problems with compressibility, often causing the plane to crash as the controls became too heavy for the pilot to move. Pilot controlled flaps, again developed late in the building of the aircraft with the late J models, made these issues a thing of the past. Were this sort of thing to be done in today's political climate, there would be investigations into why this simple fix was not done sooner.

Despite these early variant problems, the P-38 provided excellent service in both the European and Pacific theaters. Especially in the Pacific where the type's long range was especially useful in not only escorting bombers, but carrying out long range fighter sweeps over Japanese air fields. In addition, the unencumbered nose was perfect for fitting a suite of cameras and many photo recon variants were developed. Like many types, once the war was over the type was scrapped as fast as they could, allowing few to be left around for war bird enthusiasts.

In this book by David Doyle,  we go from the inception of the aircraft, through the initial versions, to early unit operations, to full deployment and the final variants. All the while, showing the changes between versions and any specialty aircraft developed from the base airframe. One thing that has delighted me are the very large number of color photos as well as seeing new period photos from a variety of sources.  Always a nice treat. There are also full color profiles throughout the book, and not the same ones as you've seen in previous editions.

It is a book that you will be going over again and again, not only just to browse, but to use for references for model building. It is a book that I can quite easily give my highest recommendation. Grab yours while the getting is good.

May 2011

Thanks to Squadron Products for the review book. Get yours at your local shop today.

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