Bob Blanchard’s art for Five Down and Glory depicts a P-38 Lightning fighter plane passing before the smoke trail of a fallen Japanese single-engine fighter. But, a closer look reveals that his P-38 does not have the appearance of a typical P-38 fighter.
Instead, the plane has a striking resemblance to the one-of-a-kind P-38E “Swordfish” (41-2048) Lightning, nicknamed “Nosey” because of its elongated central fuselage pod housing a second crew member. “Nosey”, which test pilots observed to have better flying qualities than standard P-38s, was used to investigate different airfoil sections. Its distinctive configuration is obvious in the image below, from the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force.
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From the fabric and tubing biplanes of World War I, through the thunderous era of the Thunderbolts and Mustangs and Lightnings of World War II, to the silver-sleek jets knifing through the thin air seven miles above the Korean peninsula, FIVE DOWN AND GLORY presents the sweeping story of America’s ace fighter pilots.
In forty years of air war, less than one percent of all American fighters [sic] have become aces – yet these few men have accounted for thirty to forty percent of all enemy aircraft destroyed! What is even more surprising, ninety-three percent of these aces are living today – their mortality rate being far below that of the average military pilot.
FIVE DOWN AND GLORY is not only an exciting, detailed record of the flaming air battles in which these men won glory but the only published compilation – from official sources – of the victories of every American fighter ace, for every war, every theater and every service in which aviation was a fighting part.”
Reference
Kinzey, Bert, P-38 Lightning in Detail and Scale – Part 1: XP-38 Through P-38H, Squadron / Signal Publications, Carrollton, Tx., 1998