These walk-around photos were taken at the Planes of Fame Air Museum in Chino, California in 2017. They show a Lockheed P-38J Lightning, civil registration NX138AM, USAAF serial 44-23314, known as "23 Skidoo" — one of only a handful of airworthy Lightnings remaining in the world, and a aircraft with the notable distinction of being the 5,018th P-38 built, exactly halfway to the total production run. The P-38 Lightning was one of the most distinctive and capable American fighters of the Second World War, instantly recognisable by its twin-boom layout with a central nacelle housing the pilot and nose-mounted armament. Designed by Hall Hibbard and Clarence "Kelly" Johnson at Lockheed, it was the first American fighter to exceed 400 mph in level flight and the mount of America's two highest-scoring aces — Richard Bong with 40 victories and Tommy McGuire with 38. Over 10,000 were built, serving in every theatre of the war, but the type was rapidly retired after 1945 and very few complete airframes survive today. This particular aircraft was built in Burbank, California and delivered to the USAAF in May 1944, serving with the 483rd Air Base Squadron at Santa Maria as a combat trainer. After the war it passed to the Hancock College of Aeronautics where it was used for maintenance training until 1959, accumulating only 121 flying hours before being acquired by Ed Maloney's museum in the late 1950s. It remained on static display for nearly three decades before a 13-month restoration by Steve Hinton's Fighter Rebuilders returned it to the air in 1988.