Lockheed XP-49: Trying to Do the P-38 One Better

IT MADE NUMEROUS TEST FLIGHTS and at least one cross-country journey, yet no air-to-air picture of it appears to have survived.

- ROBERT F. DORR

It looks familiar but it's not a P-38. It flew numerous times, but apparently was never photographed in flight. It's the sleek, promising Lockheed XP-49, a one-of-a-kind, twinboom fighter that looks potent but didn't live up to its potential.

It was going to be an improved version of the P-38 Lightning with an advanced new engine, yet the improvements were few and the engine never materialized.

It was the Lockheed XP-49, or company model 522, designed by the fabled engineering team headed by Clarence "Kelly" Johnson. At a glance, it was not easy to distinguish from a P-38. It had the familiar twin booms, tricycle gear, and pilot's gondola on the centerline. Had it been fitted with its planned two 20mm cannon and four .50-cal. machine guns, these nose guns would have fired straight forward, with no propeller in their way.