Posted on 10/23/2016 11:16:06 AM PDT by EveningStar
YEager has made some other bad statements about the P-38 but the fact of the matter is that the P-38 dominated the Pacific and Mediterranean.
Over Northern Europe it didn't have such a good reputation and I've never really read an authoritative reason why. My general assumption is that a combination of being a relatively complicated aircraft to master, the extremely cold air of Northern Europe disagreeing with the P-38's engines, British AviationGas issues, and a complex logistics system caused the P-38 to fall from favor once the bugs had been worked out of the much simpler Mustang which by virtue of being powered by a British engine had no trouble with British AVGas.
The Mustang was probably the best allied fighter of the war for average pilots.
“P-38 is a single engine, dual-wing aircraft.
I know, my dad built them.”
Then you should know better than to see a P-38 and claim it is not.
They used to say of it, “two Allison engines are worse that one!” But it was fast.
Flying Tigers were P-40s. P-51 was the Mustang. The plane in the photo is most certainly a P-38 Lightning.
And .. I know it’s not a P-38, because my DAD moved to Burbank, CA in 1943, and he went to work building the P-38, along with his younger brother, my Uncle March.
The P-38 is a DUAL-WING aircraft.
I don't believe the U.S. was building any dual wing aircraft in 1943 aside from trainers and float planes for the Navy.
And my favorite!! I only wish my father talked about his service, bravery and experience during WWII, but he never did. He wasn't blessed with a son, who would have been more interested in asking questions about his P-38 piloting missions in Europe. I have a great interest now, but unfortunately it's too late.
According to Wikipedia, production was from July, 1941, probably through/towards the end of the war, when orders were cancelled.
I agree but Yeager would say that Yamamoto would
have a problem with P51s too. He also said that
pilots pretty much preferred the planes they flew
which would seem to be a given.
Realize that you made an error, and let it go.
The British got the first batch, and needed planes, so they didn't wait for the superchargers. Probably had a lot to do with it. Then there was a problem with the flaps that need modifications.
That's not to mention bailing out. The pilot had to crawl out on a wing, over an engine, before dropping, to avoid being hit by stabilizer.
Richard “Dick” Bong and Tommy McGuire, America’s 1st and 2nd top Aces flew the P-38 in the Pacific. Bong died flying an experimental plane. At his funeral they had an honor flight of P-47’s. Gabby Gabreski a P-47 Ace in the European theater thought it ironic since Bong never had a kind word for the P-47.
I seem to recall that the British P-38s didn't have counterrotating props either.
Then there was a problem with the flaps that need modifications.
If I remember correctly, that was a compressibility issue which was a common, yet poorly understood problem affecting most advanced fighters of WWII. The P-38 was just one of the first planes to experience compressibility and therefore got a unjustly bad reputation before other fighters like the P47 and P-51 came into service.
That's not to mention bailing out. The pilot had to crawl out on a wing, over an engine, before dropping, to avoid being hit by stabilizer.
Clearing the tail members was a concern when bailing out of any fighter.
In the case of the P-38, I believe the pilot only had to get out of the cockpit and sort of slide down off the wing and he would usually pass beneath the horizontal stabilizer.
My iPad screen just got blurry!
Always loved The Lightning. One bad ass plane!
God bless you Mr. Royal. Thank you for my freedom.
Cyber Ant seems to be a drive-by troll.
He specializes in crapping on conservative threads.
Wrong.
I even went back to a list of all of the pursuit planes to see if the number had been re-used. It hasn't. P-38 was a rare twin engine, twin boom design. Variants were labeled F-4 and F-5 when F stood for photo Renaissance rather than fighter. The F-4 variant should not be confused with the better known F-4 Phantom.
The P-38 first flew in 1939, production started in the fall of 1941; it was the only pre-war US fighter still in production when the war ended.
It actually was a very, very good plane.
The biggest problem of the greatest generation is that it also gave us the absolute worst generation.
That seems to be the case, especially with pilots who had a lot of hours in one particular type that worked well for them, though some opinions didn't get frozen in time, either. I have talked to some pilots who flew Mustangs in WWII and immediately postwar, then had to fly them again in Korea… "what once was hot, by then was not."
Mr. niteowl77
Way cool!
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