Wingman to the Aces (Lt. Floyd Fulkerson: Ultimate Wingman-475th FG (P-38s))

Flight Journal ^ | 21 SEP 12 | John Dejanovich

[DCBryan1]

Lt. Floyd Fulkerson: Ultimate Wingman

By John Dejanovich

There are no great aces without great wingmen and young Lt. Floyd Fulkerson from Little Rock, Arkansas, was one of those wingmen. Although he had four confirmed victories, so he was nearly an ace himself, he sees his primary contribution to the war effort to have been the protection of his lead pilots, some of whom were America’s leading aces. During his time with the 475TH Fighter Group in the Pacific, Floyd flew with such notables as Major Richard Bong, Major Tommy McGuire, and even the much-celebrated “Lone Eagle,” Charles Lindbergh. Cover the shooter, that’s what wingmen do. They protect the shooter from surprise attack. In this role, Fulkerson helped some of our great aces achieve their successes.

[SkyDancer]

[rmh47]

Impressive list. Lot of people forgot that Lindbergh saw quite a bit of combat and was a helluva combat pilot - very accurate. His time flying combat with the 475th (and Lt. Fulkerson) is probably best remembered for Lindbergh rewriting the book on flying the P-38 over long distances, adding 400 miles to the range of the P-38 by adjusting RPMs, fuel mixture, and manifold pressure.

If Lindburg actually flew any combat missions, it was on the down low.

FDR hated Lindburg and would not let him join the AAC. Lindburg was much too well known for FDR to prevent him from traveling to see the troops, however, and giving them the benefit of his expertise.

[rmh47]

One of the more interesting features of the P-38 was that its counter rotating props both rotate in a direction that shifts the resultant thrust outboard on the wing. Evidently this was to improve accuracy in gunnery, but it would make flying on a single engine more difficult.

Could you explain? I understand how the props transmit torque to the wings and how counter-rotating props cancel out each other's torque, but I don't understand how the thrust vector would be moved off line from the prop axis.

I'm not saying you're wrong; I just don't understand how that works.

A link to an explanation would be just as good, if the explanation is long, and you don't want to write it all out.

Thanks.

[DCBryan1]

RIP the author of the article, John Dejanovich. My friend.