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Lightning on Display
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Lightning on Display

This is the last remaining P38G Lightning, on display at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Alaska, after it was finally recovered from its 50-year resting spot in the Aleutian Islands. In 1945, U.S. Army Air Forces 2nd Lt. Robert Nesmith was flying the P38 on a training mission, when the left propellor fluctuated. He managed to make a wheels-up landing in the snow; Nesmith was unharmed, but the aircraft was too damaged to fly out. The poor P38 was stripped and left to sit until it was finally recovered in the late 1990s and restored in Hangar Four on base, and finally put on display in July 2000. 

 

Photo: USAF (Justin Connaher)


 

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Air & Space/Smithsonian magazine has been delighting aerospace enthusiasts with the best writing about their favorite subject since April 1986. As an adjunct of the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum, Air & Space matches the grand scope of the Museum, encompassing every era of aviation and space exploration. With stories that range from the Wright Brothers to the design of NASA's next lunar lander, Air & Space emphasizes the human stories as well as the technology of aviation and spaceflight.

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