A-4 / A-7 Question

Daryl Hunt wrote:
"Replacement_Tommel"
'SINVA LIDBABY wrote in message
...

hate to bust your bubble but I entered the AF as a Recip Mechanic. It

was

later on changed to Propulsion Technician. My uniforms weren't green.

They

were black.

The P-38 was the first fighter to be able to disengage anytime it wished.
The others didn't have that option. As one Lighting pilot put it, "If I

was

Jumped from above and didn't like the situation, I just disengaged". If

the

38 lost an engine, they found the nearest cloud bank and hid out. Unless
you were in one of the pieces of crap that was sold to the British, that

is.

In this discussion, I presume the export versions mentioned below
and the "pieces of crap ... sold to the British" both refer to the
Lightning I and Lightning II (which were modified by due to the
British specifications, which called for a different engine
and no turbosupercharging (in the case of the Lightning I),
along with other system changes (radios, O2 equipment, etc.).

None of the Lightning Is were actually accepted by the British.
The Lightning IIs were similarly rejected by the British, even
though these were from a later specification and would have
suffered from none of the flaws that the British felt the
Lightning I suffered. The Lightning I's were used by the USAAF
as P-322 or RP-322 aricraft, IIRC, while the Lightning IIs were
reworked on the assembly lines, becoming P-38F or G models.
British pilots never flew the Lightning in combat that I've
seen documented. Later P-38s and F-4/F-5 aircraft used
by the Free French, Chinese, etc., were supplied straight
out of normal production and were therefore identical to
US airframes when delivered- radios, etc., may have been
changed out, but the aircraft themselves were straight off
the assembly lines as standard delivery models. So the
British never bought (or paid for) any Lightnings from
Lockheed. Perhaps they might have if the contracts
(especially for the Lightning II) were under the later
lend-lease program, but they weren't and the British
nearly defaulted on the contract, being "saved" from
doing so when the US Army snapped up all Lightnings
after the US entry into the war.


Now, what was the main difference between the export 38s and the

domestic?

Comon Hero, let's hear it.


They had crappier engines installed in them.


BZZTTT, wrong answer. The domestics had counterrotating engines. If you
lost and engine, the torgue factor was lessened. The Exports had right turn
engines only and were prone to spriral when the Left Engine was lost.


These export models did indeed have C series 1710's, which were
installed in the XP-38, but abandoned for engines with different gear
cases (F series I think, don't have reference handy). The C
series both rotated in the same direction to ease supply issues, and
were common to the P-40s in British service. They also developed less
power than the later series engines. The result of the rotation
change from the P-38's was poorer handling, IIRC, but the main
performance problem was related to the removal of the
turbosuperchargers. Supercharger production was fairly low rate at
the time, and up to the placement of the order, air combat had taken
place at relatively low altitudes. By the time the aircraft were
coming off the assembly line, British requirements no longer matched
what they had ordered. The lack of turbosupercharger for the V-1710
engines resulted in high altitude performance which was not acceptable
to the British (it was, however, within the performance specs of
the contract). There was also the issue of high speed buffet, but
that was also something not specified in the contract, and corrected
shortly thereafter by introduction of the leading edge fillets for
the wing center sections.

BTW, as far as entering a spiral if the left engine was lost,
the right hand rotation of the prop would have resulted in the
same rotation on the remaining engine whether in a Lightning I
or P-38 of any model except the XP (props on production P-38s
rotated outwards, so the right engine had right rotation).
This actually INCREASED P-factor which resulted in yawing
and rolling tendencies, but was found to be necessary during
flight testing of the XP-38 due to disturbed airflow over
the wing center section.

As a note, the XP-38 and Ligntning I engine nacelles are
easily distinguishable from other models, as the thrust line
off the engine gearbox was lower on the C series, and the
prop sits visibly lower on the those two aircraft than on
the P-38s using the later series engine. The XP of course,
had numerous other differences and didn't really look like
any of the P-38s from the YP on.

Mike