FINALLY saw a P-38 fly

I took these pictures with an incredibly primitive digital camera at the
"1941 Historical Aircraft Group" air show in 1997:
http://xcski.com/~ptomblin/1941/p38_1.jpg
http://xcski.com/~ptomblin/1941/p38_2.jpg
http://xcski.com/~ptomblin/1941/p38_3.jpg
Even though the paint job needed a lot of work, it was a very impressive
aircraft.

Is that plane still flying? I've seen two P-38s with the "Marge" paint
job -- one in the EAA Museum in OSH, and one in the Bong Museum in
Superior, WI.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

("Jay Honeck" wrote)
Is that plane still flying? I've seen two P-38s with the "Marge" paint
job -- one in the EAA Museum in OSH, and one in the Bong Museum in
Superior, WI.


In your P-38 aviation video (Start-Up) the two props are spinning in the
same direction. Is this normal for P-38's? British?

http://www.alexisparkinn.com/aviation_videos.htm
(scroll down to "P")

http://www.aviation-history.com/lockheed/p38.html
"The XP-38 had been powered by two liquid cooled, Allison V-1710 engines
turning 11 1/2 foot Curtiss Electric, inward turning, counter-rotating
propellers. With the YP-38s and all subsequent Lightings, the propellers
rotated outward negating torque when both engines were operating (A batch
ordered by Britain did not have counter-rotating propellers.)"


BTW, the missing T-Bird pilot is down for the season, unless he can complete
his retraining before then. Something medical(?) knocked him off the team a
while back. Ok, he's still on the team, but he's not on the tour.


Montblack

Montblack wrote:

In your P-38 aviation video (Start-Up) the two props are spinning in the
same direction. Is this normal for P-38's? British?

That's not normal. It has, however, proven to be extremely difficult to locate
parts for the oddball engines on warbirds with counter-rotating props (another
example is the twin Mustang). I think it likely that they simply replaced the
engine with a standard Allison at some point in time.

George Patterson
Why do men's hearts beat faster, knees get weak, throats become dry,
and they think irrationally when a woman wears leather clothing?
Because she smells like a new truck.

Montblack wrote:

In your P-38 aviation video (Start-Up) the two props are spinning in the
same direction.

I've watched that quite a few times now, and I think this must be some kind of
optical illusion. If you freeze the display when one of the right prop blades is
vertical and above the wing, it appears to be in line with the camera. That is
consistent with the prop rotating clockwise as viewed from behind. If you freeze
the display when one of the left prop blades is vertical and *below* the wing,
it appears to be in line with the camera. That is consistent with the prop
rotating counter-clockwise.

The 2004 publicity shot I posted earlier also seems to have counter-rotating props.

George Patterson
Why do men's hearts beat faster, knees get weak, throats become dry,
and they think irrationally when a woman wears leather clothing?
Because she smells like a new truck.

From memory only, all P-38s had counter-rotating props. The early
version the props turned "in" as in most designs today with
counter-rotating props. Most production models had the props turning
"out"...the direction that most adversely effects handling/performance
during single engine flight.

--
Dale L. Falk

There is nothing - absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing
as simply messing around with airplanes.

http://home.gci.net/~sncdfalk/flying.html

In a previous article, Dale said:
From memory only, all P-38s had counter-rotating props. The early

No, the British ones turned the same way. They also didn't have
superchargers, which probably explains why P-38s are thought of as a
Pacific theatre plane.

--
Paul Tomblin http://xcski.com/blogs/pt/
Usenet is a co-operative venture, backed by nasty people -
follow the standards.
-- Chris Rovers

Paul Tomblin wrote:

In a previous article, Dale said:
From memory only, all P-38s had counter-rotating props. The early

No, the British ones turned the same way. They also didn't have
superchargers, which probably explains why P-38s are thought of as a
Pacific theatre plane.

Yep, Chuck Yeager said in his book that the P38 was the worst plane that
you could possibly make for the mission it was given over there in Europe.

Yep, read a book that said the P-38 was a success in the pacific and
africa/med theatres because the the combat was low alt, while the
european theater was high alt where the P-38 wasn't a good performer.

John

"Paul Tomblin" wrote in message
...
In a previous article, Dale said:
From memory only, all P-38s had counter-rotating props. The early

No, the British ones turned the same way. They also didn't have
superchargers, which probably explains why P-38s are thought of as a
Pacific theatre plane.

The British rejected the special run of P-38s and they were used for
training in the US. Give me some time and I can even dig up the exact
designation and probably the serial numbers. The British version wasn't
actually designated a P-38 and something of an oddball. Wish I could
remember the title of the book. You really can have to many books
sometimes, but that is another story and part of how I got started in
flying.

The P-38 was used quite a bit in Europe and the Pacific by the US until it
was replaced by the P-51. I don't think the British ever flew a P-38 in
combat.
The F-4/F-5 (P-38 photo versions with no guns) recce birds remained for a
time after the regular P-38s were retired.

Which reminds me of a joke about the pilot who screams over the radio
in a panic "My engine quit. What do I do?"

To which the old P-38 pilot replies "Feather the prop, bank into the good
engine and fly it home."

The other pilot replies "But I only have one engine it's a P-51".

The old P-38 pilot replies back. "Then I guess you are going swimming."

Or something like that. So I was told or maybe read somewhere.

The British rejected the special run of P-38s and they were used for
training in the US. Give me some time and I can even dig up the exact
designation and probably the serial numbers. The British version wasn't
actually designated a P-38 and something of an oddball. Wish I could
remember the title of the book. You really can have to many books
sometimes, but that is another story and part of how I got started in
flying.

That would probably be "Fork-Tailed Devil" by Martin Caidin.

An absolutely outstanding book, by the way. It started my love affair with
the P-38 when I first read it, some 35 years ago...
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"