Lockheed P-38L Lightning The final production version was the P-38L, which could carry two 300-gallon drop tanks. Deliveries of the L began in June 1944 and continued until August 1945. Of the 10,038 P-38s built, 3,923 were P-38Ls. The P-38L on display, painted as a P-38J with the 55th Fighter Squadron based in England, was donated to the museum in 1961 by the Kaufmann Foundation, Philadelphia, Penn. The top hats on the left side of the aircraft represent the nine bomber escort missions flown by