Posted on 10/23/2016 11:16:06 AM PDT by EveningStar
Frank Royal's Air Force took off at 1:38 p.m.
A vintage aircraft clawed through the air followed by two chase planes, one carrying the 101-year-old pilot.
The last plane in the formation brought a tear to Royal's eye. Its sleek lines still raise his pulse. He can hear the thrum of its twin engines without his hearing aids - World War II ingrained the 24-cylinder symphony permanently in his mind.
He has good reason to remember the details. That very plane, a fully restored P-38 Lightning named White-33, was Royal's first love.
And he flew over Colorado Springs to tell her goodbye.
(Excerpt) Read more at gazette.com ...
Sweet
No, it most certainly is NOT.
P38 Lightning pictures at "bing".
Well, the original P-38 was a single engine, dual-wing aircraft.
Tell me when the 38 Lightening was built.
The original P-38 was built in the early 40’s.
Pithy. I wonder what he thinks about the Pratt & Whitney R-2800?
The RR Merlin was indeed a better engine; for a (sort of) apples to apples comparison, the P-82/F-82 story shows how going from license-built Merlins to Allisons made maintenance problematic. The crony capitalism/politician nexus has always been ugly.
Mr. niteowl77
Kelly Johnson’s first hit.
I don’t know what CyberAnt is talking about. It certainly looks like the P 38 I remember from childhood.
I once read a history of the P-38. It had lots of early problems, maybe a bit like the F-35.
It also had some real advantages. The dual engines allowed the props to spin in different directions cancelling out the torque twist.
The guns mounted in the center pod also seemed to work better. It also had great range.
It is a P-38. . .no question.
Sorry, you are wrong. I know that it IS a P-38, because my father was a P-38 pilot, and thankfully, I have several photos of him sitting in his P-38.
Wow! I flew into the Springs last Monday and saw the P-38 flying along with a B-24 — thought the vintage planes were in town to perform at the Academy. Glad to know why the flight was taking place.
What year was that ..??????
The centralized gun mounting made for much better long range shooting without the convergence issues of widely pread wing mounts. The wing mounts only concentrated fire at one range, the nose mount at all ranges.
1943-44
The plane pictured is. P-38 Lightning.
The words "P38 Lightning" in my post are a link to a search for pictures of the aircraft at "Bing"
I have no idea what aircraft you are talking about, but your description has little in common with the actual P-38 Lightning.
P-38 is my favorite plane of WWII.
Guns mounted in the wings, as on most fighters of the era, were set to converge at a set distance from the aircraft, and were less effective when shooting at any other distance. The P-38’s guns being all clustered in the nose were concentrated at any range making the pilot’s gunnery problem simpler.
Even more incredible that they found the man who actually flew that particular P-38 during the war!
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