The P-38 was a man-killer when it first flew. Planes fly by accelerating air over the top of the wing. The P-38 has that cross-wing between the engine nacelles that holds the fuselage and pilot. Well in a dive, that accelerated air gets double-accelerated first over the wing, then over the vertical stabilizer on the tail, and forms a standing shockwave. Basically the air is at the speed of sound..... over the veritcal stabilizer.
Now the plane will not pull up because it has an air 'Sonic Boom' sitting on it. You can pull the stick out of the floor and it will not pull up, and you're in a dive.
The procedure to recover from that condition was to invert, and do an inverted dive, upside-down, with your head pointing at the ground. The shockwave would help you push the vertical stabilizer down. If you didn't do it early enough or your went 'red out' from the blood rushing to your head, you'd smash into the ground upside down, head first.
Then they added air-brakes to them.
The entire Great Planes series is on YT in various pieces, and even the earlier Discovery Channel series that formed most of the Great Planes series which aired in the 1980s.
The Wings series is also on there.
Here's the Great Planes version of the P-38.
And here's the Wings take on the XB-70 Valkyrie, IMO the most remarkable plane ever developed for it's time frame. That plane is a 1958 design.
^^^ 1958 design! Mach 3.2 at 70,000 ft. 6 after-burning turbojets with variable geometry intake ducting.
For reference, the SR-71 Blackbird has a max of Mach 3.32, and it only delivers cameras. The Valkyrie was designed to eventually deliver 50,000 lbs of bombs and carry 300,000 pounds of fuel.
