Posted on 11/14/2007 6:02:57 PM PST by PotatoHeadMick
Here, allow me........:
That was a cool pic.
Global Warming Strikes!
oh, my!!!!!
ping
I had a professor in college who worked on the P-38 during the war. He had some great stories. It was the highlight of his career.
If I had Bill Gate’s money, one of those would be in my hangar (I would also have a hangar...) right now.
I’ve actually spoken with some old P-38 pilots, and to a man, they say that while it was one hot fighter, it was very unforgiving and could kill you if you weren’t paying attention to its twin engines almost 100% of the time.
It was a deadly bird, what with those guns clustered right in front of the pilot. That made for effective long-range gunnery, as enemies like Yamamoto found out.
Yeah, if something went wrong, that would be a heck of a lot of asymetric thrust.
The P-38 was a gorgeous airplane to boot.
A great article, thanks for posting!
And for the less informed who might stumble across this thread, Kelly Johnson went on to design the famous U-2 reconnisance plane, which provided the U.S. with the capability to overfly the Soviet Union in the late 1950’s with near impunity (although the late Francis Gary Powers might take issue with that claim), and I believe it was a U-2 that provided the U.S. with proof of Soviet missiles in Cuba in ‘62.
And of course it was a team of P-38 fighters that took out Japanese Admiral Yamamoto, just our way of saying “sayonara Isoroku, and thanks.”
I hope this P-38 makes it back to the U.S. and to a full restoration.
AWESOME!!!!
Hope they can salvage it and preserve it.
I don’t think there are too many of those great old warbirds left.
How does one post pictures?
http://www.bongheritagecenter.org/
Bong made 80% of the reputation of the P-38.
In his hands , a P-38 was just about the most deadly aerial gunnery platform in the history of military aviation.
Johnson also designed the SR-71 Blackbird before retiring and turning the Skunk Works over to Ben Rich.
Did he now? I either did not know, or forgot about that, thanks for updating me! Kelly Johnson, now THERE was a real American one-of-a-kind!
I believe the props turned in opposite directions to counteract the torque
Seen a few up close on the paddock and literally over my house over the last ten years > Chino, CA airshow. That and the Corsair are my favs from the era.
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