[Hairog]

I believe that even though the P-38 was a superior plane it was 8 balled for economic reasons. It was almost twice as expensive as a P51 or P47. If you take into consideration the cost of training a combat pilot I would argue that is was more than economical.

Bong, McGuire and most P-38 pilots came home on one engine very early in their careers. They would have been dead long before they actually did die and did lots of damage to the enemy in the mean time.

I would like to second the motion.