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04/30/2008. This aircraft was original built for the USAAF as a P-38L-5-LO, s/n 44-27205. It was one of 68 P-38L-5-LOs converted at Lockheed's Dallas Modification Center to a F-5G-6-LO, the last photographic-reconnaissance version of the Lightning. It featured an enlarged nose with four vertical photo cameras and one oblique at the front. It went to the RFC at Kingman, Arizona on December 18, 1945 for disposition. Registered as CF-JJA, it was sold Aero Surveys Ltd of Vancouver, BC, where the front fuselage was stretched and fitted with a plexiglass nose cone and prone observer's position. In the early sixties it went to Argentina, registered as LV-HIX, where it was scrapped after it had an accident. Text from an advertisement in May 1944 issue of Flying magazine THE ARMY HAS BLUE "EYES" Lockheed P-38 camera planes are the "eyes" of the US Army. At 30,000 feet they're invisible, blended with the sky by camouflage. Yet when these camera eyes look down, their view is framed only by the horizon- a vast tableland, rich in detail vital to successful military operations. To photo and record this essential information the Army has chosen its fastest planes, its most skillful pilots. They do their jobs well, because everything depends on adroit flying, clever deception, long-range and runaway speeds. Five powerful cameras have been fitted into the Lightning's nose. Each is wrapped in an electric blanket to protect it from the cruel temperatures of high altitude. Sperry automatic pilots keep the planes in steady flight to the flyer's undivided attention can be given to picture taking. "Eyes" for a modern army flash through the skies well over 400 mph (6,437 kmh). 20,000 sq.mls (52,000 sq.km) chunks of country are pictorially mapped in less than three hours- whole continents in little more than a week. Today military operations are planes, executed and won on up-to-the-minute reconnaissance recorded and brought in my dependable Lockheed P-38s. Look to Lockheed for Leadership Lockheed AIRCRAFT CORPORATION Burbank, California, USA