Editing Lockheed P-38 Lightning (section)

===Antoine de Saint-Exupéry===
[[File:Saint Exupery exhibit - Air & Space Museum, Le Bourget, Paris, France (12).JPG|thumb|upright|The left main landing gear of Saint-Exupéry's F-5B Lightning, recovered in 2003 from the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Marseille, France]]
{{main|Antoine de Saint-Exupéry}}

At midday on 31 July 1944,  noted aviation pioneer and writer [[Antoine de Saint-Exupéry]] (''[[Night Flight (novel)|Night Flight]]'', ''[[Wind, Sand and Stars]]'' and ''[[The Little Prince]]'') vanished in his P-38 of the [[French Air Force|French Armée de l'Air's]] ''Groupe de Chasse II/33'', after departing [[Borgo-Porreta]], [[Corsica]]. His health, both physically and mentally, had been deteriorating. Saint-Exupéry was said to be intermittently subject to depression and talk had arisen of taking him off flying status.{{sfn|Schiff|2006|pp=430–433}}{{sfn|Schiff|2006|pp=436–437}}{{refn|Saint-Exupéry suffered recurring pain and immobility from previous injuries due to his numerous aircraft crashes, to the extent that he could not dress himself in his own flight suit. After his death, vague suggestions were made that his disappearance was the result of suicide rather than an aircraft failure or combat loss.{{citation needed|date=October 2021}}|group=Note}} He was on a flight over the Mediterranean, from Corsica to mainland France, in an unarmed F-5B photo-reconnaissance variant of the P-38J,{{refn|He was flying a P-38-F-5B-1-LO, ''42-68223'', c/n 2734.{{citation needed|date=October 2021}}|group=Note}} described as being a "war-weary, nonairworthy craft".{{sfn|Cate|1970|p={{page needed|date=May 2017}}}}

In 2000, a French scuba diver found the partial remnants of a Lightning spread over several thousand square meters of the Mediterranean seabed off the coast of [[Marseille]]. In April 2004, the recovered component serial numbers were confirmed as being from Saint-Exupéry's F-5B Lightning. Only a small amount of the aircraft's wreckage was recovered.<ref>Cyvoct, Brian. [http://www.aero-relic.org/English/F-5B_42-68223_St_Exupery/e-00-stexuperyf5b.htm "Riou Island's F-5B Lightning, Rhône's delta, France. Pilot: Commander Antoine de Saint-Exupéry."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080421084204/http://www.aero-relic.org/English/F-5B_42-68223_St_Exupery/e-00-stexuperyf5b.htm |date=21 April 2008 }} ''Aero-relic.org,'' 2004.</ref> In June 2004, the recovered parts and fragments were given to the [[Musée de l'Air et de l'Espace|Air and Space Museum of France]] in [[Paris&nbsp;– Le Bourget Airport|Le Bourget, Paris]], where Saint-Exupéry's life is commemorated in a special exhibit.<ref name="LEMONDE">[http://www.lemonde.fr/archives/article/2008/03/15/antoine-de-saint-exupery-aurait-ete-abattu-par-un-pilote-allemand_1023277_0.html "Antoine de Saint-Exupéry aurait été abattu par un pilote allemand" {{in lang{{!}}fr}}.] ''[[Le Monde]]'', 15 March 2008.</ref>

In 1981 and also in 2008, two Luftwaffe fighter pilots, respectively Robert Heichele and Horst Rippert, separately claimed to have shot down Saint-Exupéry's P-38.{{sfn|Schiff|2006|pp=438–439}}<ref name="BBCWorld">[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7300489.stm "Wartime author mystery 'solved'."] ''BBC News'', 17 March 2008.</ref><ref>Tagliabuet, John. [https://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/11/world/europe/11exupery.html?_r=1&pagewanted=print&oref=slogin "Clues to the Mystery of a Writer Pilot Who Disappeared."] ''[[The New York Times]]'', 11 April 2008.</ref> Both claims were unverifiable and possibly self-promotional, as neither of their units' combat records of action from that period made any note of such a shoot-down.<ref>Beale, Nick. "Saint-Exupéry Entre Mythe et Réalité "{{in lang|fr}}. ''Aero Journal'', No. 4, 2008, pp. 78–81.</ref><ref>[http://www.ghostbombers.com/various/Rippert/saint-ex_01.html "Archive sources for Luftwaffe activity over Southern France on 30 and 31 July 1944."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111005053721/http://www.ghostbombers.com/various/Rippert/saint-ex_01.html |date=5 October 2011 }} ''Ghost Bombers''. Retrieved: 30 August 2011.</ref>