Photos of The Lockheed P-38 Lightning 1942 WWII Fighter Aircraft

Photos of The Lockheed P-38 Lightning 1942 WWII Fighter Aircraft. These photographs were taken at the Pikes Peak Regional Airshow in Colorado Springs. The Lockheed P-38 Lightning is an American single seated, piston-engined fighter aircraft that was used during World War II. Developed for the United States Army Air Corps, the P-38 had distinctive twin booms and a central nacelle containing the cockpit and armament. The P-38F saw two significant changes made to the Lightning. First, it was given more powerful engines – Allison V-1710-49/ -53s capable of providing 1,325 hp. These helped Lockheed maintain the performance of the Lightning despite a gradual increase in weight since the original aircraft. Second, the P-38F was given pylons between the engines and the pilot pod. These pylons could carry either a 1,000lb or a fuel drop tank.These photos of the 1942 Lockheed P-38F-5 Lightning (N12652) – “White 33” were taken on September 21, 2019.

Pacific Theater of Operations

The P-38 was used most successfully in the Pacific Theater of Operations and the China-Burma-India Theater of Operations as the aircraft of America’s top aces, Richard Bong (40 victories), Thomas McGuire (38 victories) and Charles H. MacDonald (27 victories). In the South West Pacific theater, the P-38 was the primary long-range fighter of United States Army Air Forces until the introduction of large numbers of P-51D Mustangs toward the end of the war.

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Photographs of Lockheed P-38 Lightning 1942 WWII Fighter Aircraft

The following camera gear was used in the Aviation Photography of the Lockheed P-38 Lightning WWII Aircraft at the Pikes Peak Regional Airshow in Colorado Springs, Colorado:

• a Nikon D850 with the Nikon MB-D18 Multi Battery Power Pack,
• F-Stop Gear Aloe Green Tilopa 50L Back Pack (with large Pro ICU),
• a Really Right Stuff TVC 34L tripod,
• the Movo GH800 Carbon Fiber Professional Gimbal Tripod Head with Arca-Swiss Quick-Release Plate,
• with a Really Right Stuff BH-50 LR Ballhead,
• a Nikkor AF-S NIKKOR 24-120mm f/4.0 lens,
• and an AF-S NIKKOR 200-500mm f/5.6E ED VR lens with a Really Right Stuff Tripod foot.

The static display photos shown here were all taken with the AF-S NIKKOR 24-120mm f/4.0 lens. The in-flight photos were all taken with a Gimbal and tripod set up using the 200-500mm lens. The D850 exposures for the images average between 1/80 and 1/640 of a second at f/7.1 and f/8.0. The native ISO of settings of 64 was used on the Nikon D850 and all images captured as RAW files. We also used Adobe Lightroom Classic CC to process all of these images. Since this was a sunny blue sky day with very few clouds, we used Adobe Photoshop’s new new sky replacement feature to add clouds in most of these images.

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