Anigrand resin kit #AA-2038 XP-58 Chain Lightning
In 1940, Lockheed and USAAF reached an agreement that Lockheed was enable to sell the P-38 to England and France, with responsibility for designing a more advanced version of P-38 for US needs. The configuration of this advanced lightning was similar to P-38, central cabin between twin engine-buried booms but larger sized and more powerful armaments. The designation XP-58 Chain Lightning was given to the project. The original design was a single seat pursuit airplane, then requested to change into a double seats attacker, then into a bomber, and then into a tank buster, and finally into a bomber destroyer. The power-plants and armament configurations were also kept changing until 1943. The XP-58 prototype were finally rolled out and made its first flight in June 1944 after 4 years its design was begun. After completed 25 test flights in 1945, the XP-58 program was cancelled not only by the engine problems, but also USAAF had no further needs for the bomber destroyers.
