USAAF Major – Medal of Honor, DSC, Silver Star with 1 OLC (Oak Leaf Cluster), Distinguished Flying Cross (British) DFC with 6 OLCs, Air Medal with 14 OLCs.
Richard / "Dick /" Ira Bong (September 24, 1920 – August 6, 1945) was a United States Air Force major and Medal of Honor recipient during World War II. He was one of America's most decorated fighter pilots and the nation's top flying ace during the war, credited with shooting down 40 Japanese planes, all equipped with the Lockheed P-38 Lightning fighter. He died in California while testing a Lockheed P-80 jet fighter shortly before the end of the war. Bong was posthumously inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in 1986 and has several memorials named in his honor around the world, including an airport, two bridges, a theater, a veterans history center, a recreation area , a neighborhood patio, and several avenues and streets, including the street leading to the National Museum of the United States Air Force in Dayton, Ohio.
Bong's abilities as a fighter pilot were recognized while training in Northern California. He was commissioned a second lieutenant and received his pilot's wings on January 19, 1942. His first assignment was as an instructor pilot (artillery) at Luke Field, Arizona, from January to May 1942. His first operational assignment was on May 6 at 49th Fighter Squadron (FS), 14th Fighter Group at Hamilton Field, California, where he learned to fly the twin-engine Lockheed P-38 Lightning.
On June 12, 1942, Bong flew very low ("buzzing/") over a house in nearby San Anselmo, the home of a pilot who had just married. He was cited and temporarily grounded for violating flight rules, along with three other P-38 pilots who had looped around the Golden Gate Bridge the same day. For cordoning off the Golden Gate Bridge, flying low on Market Street in San Francisco, and knocking clothes off an Oakland woman's clothesline, Bong was reprimanded by Gen. George C. Kenney, commander of Fourth Air Force, who said, "If you didn't want to come down Market Street, I wouldn't have you in my Air Force, but you don't have to do it anymore and I mean what I say." " Kenney later wrote, / "We needed children like this boy.
Lightning P-38
The Lockheed P-38 Lightning is an American single-seat, twin-piston combat aircraft used during World War II. Developed for the US Army Air Corps by Lockheed Corporation, the P-38 incorporated a distinctive twin-boom design with a central pod containing the cockpit and armament. Along with its use as a general fighter, the P-38 has been used in a variety of air combat roles, including as a highly effective fighter-bomber, night fighter, and long-range escort fighter when equipped with drop tanks. The P-38 was also used as a scout bomber, guiding streams of medium and heavy bombers, or even other bomb-equipped P-38s, to their targets. Used in the aerial reconnaissance role, the P-38 accounted for 90% of aerial footage captured over Europe.
Main Features
Crew: 1
Length: 37 ft 10 in (11.53 m)
Wingspan: 52 ft 0 in (15.85 m)
Height: 12 ft 10 in (3.91 m)
Wing area: 327.5 ft² (30.43 m2)
Aspect ratio: 8.26
Airfoil: Root: NACA 23016; Tip: NACA 4412
Empty weight: 12,800 lb (5,806 kg)
Gross weight: 17,500 lb (7,938 kg)
Maximum takeoff weight: 21,600 lb (9,798 kg)
Powerplant: 2 Allison V-1710 (-111 left-hand rotation and -113 right-hand rotation) liquid-cooled turbo-supercharged V-12 piston engine, 1,600 hp (1,200 kW) each WEP at 60 inHg (2,032 bar ) and 3,000 rpm
Propellers: 3-blade Curtiss constant speed electric propellers (LH and RH rotation)
Performance
Maximum speed: 414 mph (666 km/h, 360 kn) on military power: 1,425 hp (1,063 kW) at 54 inHg (1,829 bar), 3,000 rpm and 25,000 ft (7,620 m)
Cruising speed: 275 mph (443 km/h, 239 knots)
Stall speed: 105 mph (169 km/h, 91 knots)
Combat range: 1,300 mi (2,100 km, 1,100 nmi)
Ferry range: 3,300 mi (5,300 km, 2,900 nautical miles)
Service ceiling: 44,000 ft (13,000 m)
Rate of climb: 4,750 fpm (24.1 m/s)
Lift-drag: 13.5
Wing loading: 53.4 lb/square foot (261 kg/m2)
Power/mass: 0.16 hp/lb (0.26 kW/kg)
Drag area: 8.78 square feet (0.82 m2)
Drag coefficient without lift: 0.0268
Armament
Fire arms :
1 Hispano M2(C) 20 mm cannon with 150 rounds
4 M2 Browning 0.50 in (12.7 mm) machine guns with 500 rpg.
Rockets: 4 x 4.5-inch (112 mm) M8 tri-barrel M10 rocket launchers; Or:
Bombs:
Interior hard points:
2 x 2,000 lb (907 kg) bombs or drop tanks; Or
2 bombs or drop tanks of 1,000 lb (454 kg), plus either
4 bombs of 500 lb (227 kg) or
4 bombs of 250 lb (113 kg); Or
6,500 lb (227 kg) bombs; Or
6 bombs of 250 lb (113 kg)
External attachment points:
10 5-inch (127 mm) HVARs (high-velocity aircraft rockets); Or
2,500 lb (227 kg) bombs; Or
2 bombs of 250 lb (113 kg)
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