XP-76 Pacific Lightning
In early 1942, the USAF was worried about having unescorted bombers operating over Japan. The heavy losses incurred by the RAF in daylight bombing missions over Europe seemed to indicate that unescorted bombers were easy pray for modern fighter aircraft. At a time when the Japanese seemed unbeatable, un-escorted bombing missions over the Japanese home islands seemed certain suicide.
The Doolittle raid did nothing to allay these fears. Of the 16 aircraft employed, none returned, and even though that had been expected, no-one liked it. The crews did mostly return to service, but only after significant delays. The Air Force was not happy with the idea of “single-use” aircraft, and experienced air crews were simply not expendable.
The island hopping campaign was still in planning stages at this time, and no-one knew if it would be a success or a disaster. No existing fighter aircraft had anything like the range required to escort bombers from Peal Harbor. Naval aircraft required vulnerable carriers, which were expensive and had long build times.
Accordingly, Lockheed was asked if there were something they could do, using an off-the-shelf solution to avoid unnecessary costs. Hibbard and Johnson, being busy with the P-38 development, handed the project off to Virgil Upton. He decided on a ‘double-Lightning’ – basically a P-38 with pilot’s nacelle lengthened and an extended wing-and-engine set-up added outboard the original engines. The design team was confident that this configuration would yield the required range, and that the aircraft would do well using the “boom-and-zoom” tactics beginning to work out against the Japanese air force and naval aircraft. The project was designated ‘‘XP-76’’.
Work on the ‘‘Pacific Lightning’’, as the XP-76 was officially named, progressed well, if slowly. Wind tunnel tests had revealed a number of serious problems that needed to be resolved before the aircraft could be safely test-flown.
Before all the problems were resolved, it became evident that the island-hopping campaign was working, and the XP-76 program was cancelled.