P-38 Lightining found in the sand!
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Early in WWII Dad worked at the Navy base in Seattle. He said one day there a P-38 and an F-6 hellcat (both flown by test pilots) were in a "mock" dog fight. Dad said he saw the F-6 with the P-38 dead on its tail going "all over the place" trying to shake it off! The F-6 was never able to do it! The P-38 is an awesome aircraft!!! 0 -
It's bomb payload capacity, or at least the P-38J model, was damn near the same as a B-17's. The only difference was that the 17 had a greater range. 0 -
Pilot covers quite a bit about all of the testing done on the P-38, the other book covers most of what had already been said in Pilot, but with better pictures. Here is a sample of what happened:
"Early 1944, Tony LeVier was ordered to get to the ETO fast. The P-38 was awash in rumors or how deadly it can be to fly. Pilots not experienced with twin-engine flying were having many preventable accidents. Many of these pilots were killed not by the enemy, but a lack of knowledge on how to operate in case of an emergency. With the many engine problems, operating with one engine was a necessity. At some point in the war in the ETO, every pilot would probably be faced with a one-engine flying situation. LeVier was to get to Britain and demonstrate flying techniques to the pilots and would in the process hopefully dispel many rumors, which were unfounded.
LeVier believed too little testing at high altitudes was done before sending the P-38s to Britain. He also believed that too many experienced pilots were spread too thin in the pilot ranks, and that the cockpit heat was a serious problem. It was not just the comfort of the pilot, but when the pilots were cramped in a small cockpit under extreme cold situations, they were not in a good flying condition when encountering enemy aircraft. Also, the windows would fog up, and reduce visibility. He arrived at the 364th Fighter Group at Honington. LeVier was not spreading propaganda, and was honest with the pilots he met with. They were informed about all the known limitations of the aircraft, but he also spoke with them on all the positive aspects of the aircraft as well. Manu demonstrations were preformed, such as recovering from a dive.
LeVier continued his demonstration tour and arrived at Kingscliff, home of the 20th Fighter Group. The pilots of the 20th were not overly impressed with his lecture. LeVier proceeded to take up his P-38 (equipped with the new dive flaps). At 25,000 ft., LeVier dove straight down, and the pilots rushed out to see what they thought would be a crash. He easily pulled out without any problems, and for extra emphasis, he preformed several low level one-engine rolls. The current P-38s in the ETO were not equipped with this flap, but he was attempting to showcase the new features, which would be arriving soon. The pilots were shown that they would be able to pursue a German fighter diving out of trouble. The demonstration was indeed successful.
Goxhill was home to a commander who could easily be considered a P-40 man. He disliked the P-38, and the pilots under his command reflected that opinion. LeVier went "all out" in his demonstrations. He convinced them that the problem was inadequate training, not an inadequate aircraft. LeVier won over the opinions of the commander and the pilots. The next stop was in Andover, the headquarters of the 9th Fighter Command. These pilots originally came from a P-47 outfit in the States, and were having difficulty transitioning to the twin-engine P-38. LeVier demonstrated several dives, low-level upside-down passes on one engine, accelerated stalls, and circled the base upside-down several times. Virtually everyone on the base came out to watch the "air show".
LeVier's demonstration tour was an overwhelming success. During the four months he was in Britain, an estimated 2,000 engines were replaced on the P-38s. This staggering number was the main reason for the transfer of the P-38s out of the ETO. Levier was using his special P-38, which was equipped with the newly designed dive flaps. The problem was after he demonstrated the P-38s ability to recover from dives, the pilots had to go back to flying the older P-38s in their units. Lockheed quickly loaded up 400 sets of dive flaps for installation in the ETO. A C-54 cargo aircraft was loaded up and sent to Britain. The results from the installation of the flaps would be tremendous and many pilots and aircraft would be saved. However, during the flight, a British pilot mistook the aircraft for a German aircraft, and shot it down. The loss of the flaps was the final blow to the P-38 in the ETO. General Doolittle had previously started the transition to only P-51s and P-47s. Lockheed would never get a chance to reproduce the dive flaps, and none were installed on P-38s in the ETO."
http://www.p-38online.com/levier.html0 -
I think the P47 obsoleted the P38 and the P51 obsoleted the P47.
The Me109 escape tactic was to dive away and both the P47 & 51 could dive with them.
LeVier gave a presentation at an EAA meeting in Lincoln Park NJ in the early '70s on max performance diving the P47. It was scary stuff.
Because of lift, he had to go beyond vertical to dive vertically.
Of course you can't bring your guns to bear unless you start pulling out.
The P38 dive flap retrofit may have also helped, low and slow, single engine survivability but we'll never know.
Were those 2000 engines Merlins to replace lower powered Allisons?0
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