In 1943 an upstart engineer named Kelly Johnson, pushed the P-38 fighter to service despite all obstacles real and man-made and in the middle of the war. Johnson later went on to become Lockheed's chief engineer and pioneered the SR-71 and many other significant projects.the P-38 was designed as a bomber interceptor and sacrificed maneuverability for speed, range and firepower. The P-38 was a fine design but had several fatal flaws that took much time to fix. In a dive the P-38 was often unable to pull out due to design of the elevator. It took several years and many pilot deaths to solve the problem - elevator flutter (causing a phenomenon eventually called "compressibility") during high-speed dives. Note that on older P-38's a small counterweight is visible added to the elevator - no doubt to fix the compressibility problem. Before that, a long dive often proved fatal to the pilot even during combat.Here's part 2:http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=83b_1317456637part 3: http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=5a1_1317501124