William R Dameron

Fly in Thin Air William R Dameron

When Germany invaded Poland in September 1939, she struck with a powerful, modernized Luftwaffe. Unwisely, England and France had vowed to protect Poland, and so declared war, but the air forces of the two countries were woefully unprepared, both in quantity and quality of their military, to battle against the German air army. The United States Army Air Corps was even less prepared to engage Japan, then Germany, but was working to upgrade the quality of airplanes before the war. Quantity would have to wait for war, but new designs were in the works. The Army asked aircraft manufacturing companies to produce an interceptor that could take off and reach twenty thousand feet in six minutes or less. Lockheed Aircraft designed and began building a radical new pursuit plane to the Army specifications. The prototype, designated as XP-38, first flew in 1939. It had unique and amazing capabilities, and exposed unexpected problems. The Lightning was the first fighter in the world to exceed 400 mph in level flight. It had exceptional lifting power, and with external fuel tanks, could fly farther without refueling than any other fighter. But, it was nearly as large as a medium bomber. American fighter pilots weren't used to flying twin-engined aircraft. Smaller, lighter enemy fighters, though not as fast, were initially much more agile. The Lightning was the first fighter to escort bombers deep into Germany. It was the Allies' best fighter in North Africa and the Mediterranean theater, and dominated. The Germans had nothing that could match it. In Europe, the P-51 Mustang, with its superior Packard-Merlin engine, came along and by 1943 was being accepted as the Eighth Air Forces primary strategic fighter. Lightnings were transferred to the Twelfth Air Force and did sterling work as fighter- bombers against ground targets after D-Day. In the southwest Pacific, the P-38 was America's most important Air Force fighter against Japan from 1943 on. The Lightning was the first fighter to encounter and solve problems as air speeds approached the speed of sound. The later fighters, such as the Mustang and Thunderbolt, benefitted greatly from the lessons learned with the Lightning. The latest Lightning model, the L series, is considered by at least a few historians to have been the best fighter-bomber of World War II. It featured hydraulic flaps which gave it superb maneuverability. Lockheed and the Lightning are depicted in this historical novel.