Military Photos: Lightnings Side by Side

Military Photos: Lightnings Side by Side

My Dad says:
"I was a child of maybe five or six sometime in the early 1940s in Hearne, Texas. I may be confused about the dates and the place, but i really do not think so. I have a vivid memory of watching from the yard of our house at the time as a P-38 Lightening aircraft flew low for several passes over the city and maybe I heard the old folks say this, I do no know, but I got the idea that the pilot must have been from that town and was sort of saying hello to his folks. This must have been before they got so concerned about FAA rules, etc. Aviation was relatively young at that time.

I was impressed with the speed and those two Rolles Royce V-12 liquid cooled engines made a wonderful sound. Of course, the engine information came to me much later.

As an afterthought after telling that story. I wonder if that pilot from Hearne, TX in 1943 ever came home after the war and did that particular aircraft survive or not.

We will never know.

Thanks for the picture. You know, those of us who grew up in the propeller days just have an affinity for props and radial engines and can never be really impressed by the jets. They make a lot of noise all right, but you just can't see much going on like you can with the propellers whirling around and making that distintive sound that a large blade makes as it chops through the air."