Essential and Dispensible WW2 aircraft.

Harry Andreas wrote:

In article . com, WaltBJ
wrote:

snip

P38 - I had an instructor who flew F5s in the Pacific. 8010 hours and
a couple times - 12 hours. Awkward if the GIs showed up in flight - he
had a couple tales about that involving the jettison of maps, etc.


Walt
would you expand on this a bit? I'm not sure I follow.

The F-5 of teh WW 2 era was the Photo Recon flavor of the late-model
P-38. Put a full set of drop tanks on it, and the frugal Allison
(With a higher compression ratio than the Merlin, the V1710 got good milage,
for a big V-12) meant long range and high endurance. 12 hour flights in a
fighter cockpit are not relaxing joyrides. 8010 hours in fighter-type
airplanes is a lot of takeoffs and landings.
GIs. in this case, I'd expect to be one of the Various and Sundry Tropical
Bugs that like residing in the Human Digestive Tract in hot, wet climates.
(Pound for pound, the most voracious predator is the Amoeba. Been There,
Done That, you don't want to see the T-Shirt). These conditions are
generaally accompanied by such effects as explosive Diarrhea that
registers on seismographs across the planet.
Paper items such as charts, notebooks, and tech manuals come in handy for
cleanup, but make poor cockpit companions afterward.

--
Pete Stickney
Without data, all you have is an opinion