WWII main menu

American WWII's aircraft

QUICK LINKS

Lockheed P-58 Chain Lightning

Long-term development of P-38. Numerous changes of requirements and engines resulted in a waste of money and excessively long development. It finally emerged as a high-altitude bomber destroyer, with turbosupercharged engines, aft-facing dorsal and ventral gun turrets, and interchangeable forward-firing armament of four 37mm cannon or one 75mm cannon and two 12.7mm machine guns. Only one, unarmed, prototype was built.

General characteristics XP-58
Primary function	Fighter
Power plant	Two Allison V-3420-11/13 engines
Wingspan	70 ft		21.34 m
Length	49.4 ft		15.06 m
Height	13.6 ft		4.14 m
Wingarea	600 sq ft		55.74 sq m
Weight	empty	31,652 lb	14,357 kg
	max.	45,040 lb	20,430 kg
Max. speed	436 mph		702 km/h
Ceiling	38,400 ft		11,704 m
Max. range	2,650 miles		4,265 km
Armament	4x 37mm cannon, 4x 12.7mm machine gun, up to 4,000 lb bombs
Crew	Two
Date deployed	1944

Jirka Wagner (If you find some photo, send it to me, please)