Lockheed P‑38 Lightning
The Plane that Changed the Course of History!
Visit the Museum
Visit the Store
Support Our Mission
“The Plane that Changed the Course of History!”
Quite a bold statement, true. But as you visit this website dedicated to the P‑38 Lockheed Lightning, I’m pretty sure you’ll agree that we never would have won WWII without the help of this extraordinary aircraft.
Contrary to what some think, the P‑38 was not just a fighter, although it was the fighter of choice for many pilots, including the top American “Aces” of the war. But, the P‑38 was so versatile it could also be a bomber (carrying high explosive and incendiary bomb loads), a photo reconnaissance plane and a state-of-the-art radar escort.
There’s very little it couldn’t do. It flew at amazing speed and altitude for its time, faster and higher than any other.
The sight of a P‑38 Lockheed Lightning so terrified the enemy that the Luftwaffe dubbed it the “der gabelschwanz-teufel” (fork-tailed devil). Guess they knew there’d be hell to pay if a P‑38 crossed their path!
More about the 38’s versatility later, but let’s start at the beginning…
Gift giving idea for P‑38 fans
We have discounted our popular book for the entire month of December 2023.
250 pages which contain some of the most dramatic, heart-wrenching and humorous stories as told by the combat pilots, ground crews and other personnel who had hands-on experiences with the P‑38 Lightning.
Included in the book are numerous historical photos of the personnel and the plane along with tales of bravery and humor which took place before, during and after the war. The book also includes stories about the design, development and production of the P‑38.
Compiled and edited by noted aviation author and historian Steve Blake and former P-38 Association President, author, and historian Dayle DeBry, with an introduction by P‑38 expert Bob Alvis.
All profits from the sale of this book go directly to the P-38 National Association.
Non-Profit Status
The P-38 National Association is a 501(c)(19) non-profit, tax–exempt organization, but we are curremtly in the process of changing that to the more common and easily recognized 501(c)(3) designation. We will update this when the change is official.
IMPORTANT MESSAGE
It’s no secret that the March Field Air Museum is a massive. multi-million dollar operation. The P‑38 Museum is a small, non‑profit membership-supported association with no government grants or sponsorships. We continue to operate on membership dues and donations from our website and Museum visitors. This dispute has been going on since February and the legal fees are mounting fast! We need your help to cover these charges and continue our fight to keep our P‑38 Museum in the hands of the people that built and maintain it instead of some large corporation. If you can help, we would appreciate any amount you can afford. Just click on this link or the beautiful P‑38 photo above to get to our fundraiser links. Thanks
Help Preserve the
P-38's Place in History...
Select an amount from the links below, you will be taken to our secure PayPal donation page, where you may use a credit card to make the donation amount of your choosing.
If you prefer to mail in a donation by check or money order, please make your payment payable to:
P‑38 National Association
21392 Palomar Street, Unit 56
Wildomar, CA 92595-5004
Once we receive your donation, we will be notified and add your name to our donors page.
If you wish to make a donation in honor of someone or in memory of them, you can provide us the "Name of Honoree" instead.
Make a Donation:
$25
$50
$100
$500
Other