The P-38L-5-Vn was built by Consolidated Vultee in Nashville. They were the only plant contracted to second source the P-38. Evidently no one was ever smart enough to figure out that Consolidated Vultee, part of the Consolidated group that built large aircraft, would have done better to produce the B-17 bombers that Lockheed was producing, and allowing Lockheed to use that valuable production capacity to possibly double the production of P-38 fighters. It took Consolidated Vultee years to produce a paltry 113 P-38 fighters. So valuable and desired by the USAAF was the P-38 that throughout the entire war no production delays by Lockheed were tolerated regardless of the reason.
