Mike Williamson wrote:

Guy Alcala wrote:

snip

Even assuming that the problems (engines, turbo controls, cockpit heat, dive flaps;
the boosted ailerons were a 'nice to have') had been fixed earlier, was it possible
to produce enough P-38s in that period to supply the needs of the PTO, MTO _and_
ETO? It seems unlikely, given the relatively low production totals of the P-38
compared to the single-engine a/c, and cost -- both the P-47 and P-38 cost about
double the P-51 to build in money, materiel and man-hours; fuel requirements were
also about double.


Given the production totals achieved with other aircraft, the US COULD
have ramped up production of the P-38, but the war production board
didn't approve second source production until very late (IIRC about
120 P-38s were eventually produced by Vultee-Nash, but likely none
of them ever made it to the combat theaters).

that production could havebeen increased I dont deny. that it could have been increased
to the extent posible with the p-51 and to a lesser extent the P-47 seems unlikely, given
that the P-38 wasnt originally designed for mass production. I realize that Lockheed had
done considerable re-design to improve its mass producibility, but the a/c manhours
required are still far higher than a single. The P-47 being an exception, but then
Republic never seems to have had management as good as their designers - their a/c were
always expensive, heavy and late, but generally excellent.

If the engines had been
swapped out for two-stage Merlins, the turbo and early intercooler
problems would have been eliminated, at the cost of some fuel
efficiency, and Lockheed submitted a proposal for this, although
politics prevented this.

Assuming the Merlin swap would have solved the major problems, it still would have taken
considerable time to do. Look how long it took between the Mustang X and the P-51B
achieving IOC.

That the P-38 was developed to US
specifications before the war resulted in the Allison engine
use, and the US focused on turbosupercharging for inline engines.
Of course, at that time, the Merlin didn't have two-stage
supercharging either, so the turbo was really the only practical
way to go for high altitude performance at the time.

The Allies had their share of bad production decisions, but
the greater industrial capability tended to make these decisions
less than critical to the final outcome and not as noticed in
the overall picture.

True, although in this case the lack of sufficient numbers of long-range escorts
available earlier was most definitely noticeable.

Guy