Lockheed designed the P-38 in response to a February 1937 specification from the United States Army Air Corps. Circular Proposal X-608 was a set of aircraft performance goals authored by First Lieutenant Benjamin S. Kelsey (later Brigadier General) and First Lieutenant Gordon P. Saville (later General) for a twin-engine, high-altitude "interceptor" having "the tactical mission of interception and attack of hostile aircraft at high altitude."

The P-38's service record shows mixed results, but usually because of misinformation. P-38s have been described as being harder to fly than single-engined aircraft, but this was because of inadequate training in the first few months of the war. The P-38's engine troubles at high altitudes only occurred with the Eighth Air Force. One reason for this was the inadequate cooling systems of the G and H models; the improved P-38 J and L had tremendous success flying out of Italy into Germany at all altitudes.[51] Up until the -J-25 variant, P-38s were easily avoided by German fighters because of the lack of dive flaps to counter compressibility in dives. German fighter pilots not wishing to fight would perform the first half of a Split S and continue into steep dives because they knew the Lightnings would be reluctant to follow."

Not my favorite plane from WWII though as a kid I thought the design looked "cool". I'm not sure how Saville was promoted during this time though he did eventually assist in the design of the F86-Sabre which was somewhat revolutionary when it was introduced during the Korean war.

Kelsey likely deserved his promotion though. He "... was the driving force behind a program of advanced airfoil research which eventually resulted in the P-51 Mustang which ... was an American long-range, single-seat fighter and fighter-bomber used during World War II, the Korean War and several other conflicts. During World War II, Mustang pilots claimed 4,950 enemy aircraft shot down, second only to the carrier borne Grumman F6F Hellcat among Allied aircraft."

I'm not sure about Kristen Stewart or Alicia Silverstone or any other actor but the person in the photograph does looks remarkably like my Grandmother, Mary O. Olsen.