Glacier Girl

P38 National Assoc. and Museum ^ | n/a | n/a

[SunkenCiv]

Yeah, strange, ain't it? I mean, since Greenland is melting catastrophically, seems like boring down almost 300 feet shouldn't have been necessary. ;') Thanks wolfcreek.

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[DuncanWaring]

Fortunately, Glacier Girl turned out better than Kee Bird.

[Quix]

Thanks.

Will check it out.

[silverleaf]

bttt

[Monkey Face]

I saw the documentary on this. It was pretty fascinating.

[SunkenCiv]

I think I read an article about it back when... it was in an aviation magazine, probably while standing in the bookstore. :’)

[jaydubya2]

I was depressed and POed after watching the documetary that ended in burning that warbird to the ground.

[Monkey Face]

It was an excellent production, though it had to be done in segments, as the money ran out. Mostly due to having to drill through the ice. And then winter came....

[Tallguy]

The Germans hated The Lightning...they called it, 'der Gabelschwanz Teufel' (the fork-tailed devil)

I always found the P38's use in the ETO to be a curious contradiction. One one hand you have the so-so performance of the aircraft in the bomber escort role. OTOH, the Germans seemed to fear this aircraft more than any other in service (save perhaps the Spit).

Trying to put myself into the position of a Luftwaffe pilot attempting to attack a bomber formation I can only conclude that with Lightnings defending you only get 1 pass. Once the P38 engages, you have one alternative -- point your nose at the deck & dive away as steeply as you dare. The P38 was restricted in a dive because of control compressibility. It lost elevator function & couldn't pull out.

You wouldn't want to get into a turning fight with a Lightning because they had a pretty darn good turn rate. Good in the climb as well. And if the Lightning 'touched' your Me-109 with it's impressive firepower, well, game over. That leaves the German with one sure option: dive for your life.

[Little Ray]

Read someplace (Martin Caidin’s book?) that really good Lightning pilots could turn sharper by manipulating the throttles as well the flight controls.

[RSmithOpt]

IMHO, the 3 best fighters had were the Spitfire, Corsair, and of course, the Mustang.....the Thunderbolt could take a real beating as well as the Lightning to some degree.....pilots loved the center seat on the Lightning...great gun accuracy.

The P47 was the best US ground attack fighter / multi role fighter, with rockets, and was an serious armor threat to the Germans, but, the P38 was good as well with rockets and the 20 mm.

I always thought the elevator on the P38 was a little on the light side size-wise considering the twin power plants, or hydraulic assist was needed as built.

[BillyA]

I know the gentlemen responsbile for unearthing her, restoring her, the pilot who “first flighted” her and the man who owns her today.

It’s an amazing story and they are amazing people.