Two tails, one cockpit, twin propellers clawing at the air. Enemy pilots once whispered about it with equal parts fear and disbelief, the Germans named the “Forktailed Devil”. At the International Sanicole Airshow 2026, you can discover the legend yourself thanks to the Flying Bulls: the P-38 Lightning.
The Lockheed P-38 Lightning is a twin-engine fighter, fighter-bomber, and long-range escort aircraft that carved its reputation across the vast distances of the Pacific during World War II. Its unmistakable twin-boom design made it instantly recognizable. Powered by two turbocharged Allison V-12 engines, this nearly 8-ton aircraft could surge to an astonishing 760 km/h, an almost futuristic speed for its time. After the war, that raw performance found a new stage in air racing, where the aircraft that will take part at Sanicole became famous all over again under the electrifying name “White Lightning.”
Range was its secret weapon. With 1,600 horsepower per engine and the ability to fly higher and faster than most contemporaries, the P-38 could escort bombers deep into hostile territory and still fight on arrival. Between 1941 and 1945, more than 10,000 were built, each one a long-legged guardian with the punch of a heavyweight.
The aircraft also carries a poignant link to literature and mystery. On July 31, 1944, celebrated aviator and author Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, author of The Little Prince, departed from Corsica in his P-38 on a reconnaissance mission and never returned. Decades later, wreckage discoveries strongly suggested his aircraft had been shot down, turning the story into one of aviation’s most haunting unsolved chapters.
Today, thanks to The Flying Bulls collection based at Hangar-7 in Salzburg, this extraordinary machine lives again. Their Lightning is the only airworthy P-38 in Europe, and in the air it performs exactly as its designers intended: fast, fierce, and breathtakingly elegant. Watch as it leads a formation of historic warbirds through sweeping climbs, loops and rolls, a living time capsule that turns the sky into a stage.
See the P-38 Lightning in action at the International Sanicole Airshow on 12-13 September at Hechtel-Eksel in Limburg, Belgium.
Credits: Flying Bulls
