P-38 Lightning in action - Aircraft No. 25 (Squadron/Signal Publications 1025)

In 1926, the fledgling Lockheed Aircraft Company, under the direction of Malcolm and Allen Lockheed and John Northrop, introduced the first high performance business plane - the Vega. Other ships such as the Sirius, Altair and Orion soon followed. Until the crash of the stock market in 1929 things looked bright for the young company, but from that point on, the outlook was much less clear. By 1932, it appeared the company would follow many others into bankruptcy; but such was not to be. Robert Gross, Carl Squier and Lloyd Stearman believed the company had a future and went to the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles where they purchased Lockheed for the princely sum of $40,000.
The first new design to come from the reorganized company was the twin-engined Electra. In March 1933, a model of this new ship was sent to the University of Michigan for wind tunnel tests. One of the men responsible for the tests was a young engineer by the name of Clarence L. "Kelly" Johnson. The Lockheed management was so impressed with Johnson that he was hired. This proved an extremely wise move, for four years later, the design of the P-38 would spring from his fertile mind.