SSSSS, soon as I go off and do something, they're back bagging the Mosquito !!....Lanc was merely pointing-out they tried it with a turret, which is something they DIDN'T do with a P-38.....Anybody would think you could go wing-walking on a Lightning while it did barrel-rolls.....
Yeah, it was a great fighter.....but The Mosquito was a LEGEND. [full-stop.]
It did carry a torpedo [18 in] plus 2x 50 gal drop tanks, but it seemed pointless when you've rockets....I don't recall any P-38's working off Aircraft Carriers, like the Sea Mossie [with folding-wings....]
Remember, they tossed the P-38 at War's end....period
It's service was replaced by Merlin-engined P-51's in the PTO, towards the War's end....it was P-51's that escorted the B-29's over Japan....
The P-38's NF duties were late in the War, [boy, it surely didn't enhance it's looks, that big knob sticking-out...] and that was only because the P-61 was too slow...
Of the 7,781 Mosquitos built, they sure spread them around, they were in Russia at one stage, somewhere a P-38 didn't go....
First operational in Sept. 1941, last RAF operation in Malaya 1955....
ALL those variants, off three basic models......
RAF 23 Sqn. took part in the defence of Malta and in operations over Italy
They were the first twin-engined Allied aircraft to bomb Berlin, which did more to piss-off the Germans than a whole Group of P-38's.....
They were also a diplomatic passenger mail carrier doing the Leuchars-Stockholm run, bringing-back much needed ball-bearings [as already mentioned], but they did it in daylight, UN-armed....Naturally the Germans were incensed at that and set Fw-190's onto them, so they went at night after that.....Pretty extraordinary courage in such hazardous conditions....
- But the Bomber PR variants did that every day night.....Afterall, that's how the 8th AF [and Bomber Command] got it's pre-raid weather-forecasts, and after-raid photos,[along with the PR Spits reports.....] - The US had over 40 F-8's......In fact, they probably flew much higher than any P-38's, John De Havilland first flew it to 43,500 ft in late 1942, but successive variants went higher....
They set Atlantic-crossing records during the War and after, in late 1943 they went to the Far East and during 1944 made an aerial survey of the whole of Burma and photographed all the enemy seaports in Malaya and the Dutch East Indies....
- Postwar, they won Air races in the US [ex-US F8 Mossies], Survey work for oil in Tripoli, performed high-altitude photographic missions in Canada, USA, [GOT THAT !!!!], Mexico, Columbia, Brit. Guiana, the Dominican Republic and Kenya...and an Aussie variant was used to Aerial Survey the whole of Australia, completing that during 1953....
They still have the prototype model, at Salisbury Hall.....did they disc the original P-38 too ???
Not to mention the postwar service Mosquitos performed for 11 different country's, beyond RAF's last op in 1955....
COME ON GUYS, they are THE ''LEGEND''..... a l'il old idea in the early stages of a formidable World War, to use non-essential war craftsmen and materials to make a wooden aeroplane, that spawned a bloody LEGEND...
...and then they built a single-seat version that was virtually the fastest piston-engined aircraft in the World, at the time, and that went on to do good service too, in another l'il War...... they called that the Hornet, but I notice the USA have stuck that name to one of theirs now......you may want to call the next 'hot-rod' fighter you build ... the MOSQUITO !!!!