P-38K

Description

The P-38K was essentially a P-38G airframe fitting with the more powerful V-1710-75/77 engines. These engines could make well over 1600 hp. The P-38K also had better propellers which also helped with the performance. Test flights were conducted in early 1943 and the results were promising. The climb rate was greatly increased and was far better performing compared to America's main fighters at the time (P-47D and the P-51B). However, this idea never reached production due to the extensive time needed to get production ready for an engine change. This also sparked talks about a Merlin-powered P-38 but that was also rejected. Only one prototype was developed.

Introduced as a premium pack during Update 1.53 "Firestorm", the P-38K has the best flight performance out of any P-38 Lightning thanks to its better engines and propellers. It features the standard armament of four 12.7 mm machine guns in the nose along with a single 20 mm cannon. However, this variant lacks any ground attack munitions like some of the other P-38 variants. Nonetheless, it's an excellent aircraft for fighting enemy aircraft thanks to its performance and sufficient armament.

The P-38K was made available for purchase during the 2015 Christmas Sale. It was later available for purchase in the store for the 2016 Independence Day Sale, the 2017 A revolt in War Thunder, the 2017 Summer Sale, and the 2018 Winter sale and has since been made available for various sales and allied themed events.

General info

Flight performance

Details

Survivability and armour

• 6.5 mm steel behind guns
• 6.5 mm steel seat
• 9.5 mm steel behind pilot
• 38 mm bulletproof glass in front of the pilot
• Self-sealing fuel tanks (3 in each wing)

Modifications and economy

Armaments

Offensive armament

The P-38K is armed with:

• 1 x 20 mm AN/M2 cannon, nose-mounted (150 rpg)
• 4 x 12.7 mm M2 Browning machine guns, nose-mounted (500 rpg = 2,000 total)

Usage in battles

The main and only tactic of the P-38K is, solely an air superiority and it excels at that.

When playing the P-38K, climb to a high altitude, search for the enemy and locate an enemy you feel confident in engaging. Assuming you are above the enemy target, put the aircraft into a gradual descent, which allows you to maintain a speed advantage. As you are descending; make small corrections on your path so you don't give the element surprise away by overshooting the enemy. Now you are about one to two seconds away from your target. Here you will line your sights up, with your sights on the tail and fire a burst with your cannon and machine guns. While keeping the momentum, climb back up to the height you where before and repeat for the best results.

This plane does not carry any bombs or rockets, so using it in a ground strike role is not recommended.

Manual Engine Control

Pros and cons

Pros:

• Excellent speed, acceleration and climb rate
• Very powerful armament, great for bomber hunting
• Armament being positioned in the nose allows it to have the great and fearsome head-on capability
• Adequate roll and turn time (You can actually out turn even Yaks and Spitfires with the landing flaps! Though use them on and off)
• Cockpit visibility, important in simulator matches, is mostly unobstructed
• Acceleration is great deference when escaping and/or evading enemy aircraft
• Excellent Silver Lion and Research Point earner
• Best Boom & Zoom P-38 in-game
• Great air superiority aircraft

Cons:

• Wing fuel tanks easily catch on fire when shot
• Unable to dive to put wing fires out without breaking wings
• Very delicate airframe, will not take much damage and it is easy to rip wings in dives, no air/drive brakes installed
• Easy to blackout if crew G-force and stamina are low
• Single armament preset: No external bombs or rockets
• When throttling up very fast to WEP, it can cause plane spin/unstable due to the engine torque
• Low cannon ammunition amount, compared to other planes in the rank

History

The concept of the plane was made in February 1937 when the US Army Air Corps made a requirement for a plane that had twin-engine and can act as a high-altitude interceptor that can hold a large amount of armament and ammunition. The term "interceptor" was used for the aircraft by the requirement authors, 1st Lt Benjamin S. Kelsey and Gordon P. Saville, to bypass the Air Corps' strict requirements on aircraft designs at the time. The specifications laid by this new requirements also called for a maximum speed of 360 mph (580 km/h) and able to climb to 20,000 ft altitude in six minutes, making it the toughest specifications at the time. Design proposals were made for the specifications, one of which would become the Bell P-39 Airacobra, but it was the Lockheed design team headed by Hall Hibbard and Clarence "Kelly" Johnson that made the final product. They made many designs with a twin-engine configuration. The prototypes made for the design used a twin-boom design to hold all the components of the aircraft. Various armaments were tested on the aircraft, from different machine gun combinations and autocannons. It was finally settled to four M2 .50 cal machine guns and one Hispano 20 mm autocannon. The aircraft armament configurations, all at the nose of the aircraft, was very unusual for American aircraft design, as most of their designs and those of their foreign contemporaries had the armament mounted on the wings angled forward. Because of this mounting, the aircraft is able to fire at a longer distance accurately than wing-mounts.

Media

Skins

• Skins and camouflages for the P-38K from live.warthunder.com.

Videos

See also

Aircraft of comparable role, configuration and era

• Northrop P-61 Black Widow
• Savoia-Marchetti SM.92

External links

• Official data sheet - more details about the performance
• AAF Manual 51-127-1 - Pilot Training Manual for the Lightning P-38