FINALLY saw a P-38 fly

And I thought that Oshkosh this year would finally bring my long-anticipated
viewing of a P-38 in flight, with Glacier Girl's anticipated participation.

Much to my delight and surprise, Porky II, the "Planes of Fame" museum's
flying P-38, was at the Quad City Airshow yesterday, in Davenport, Iowa.

We flew over in the morning, and were able to get a hand's on, close up view
of this awesome plane. Talk about perfection! It looks like it just rolled
off the assembly line! In my opinion, this aircraft completely stole the
show from the Thunderbirds and everyone else who did their usual excellent
job. (Although the T-birds flew short a plane -- I suppose one of the
pilots was under the weather?)

Even though the Lightning only did one low pass during the airshow (and a
bunch of mid-level passes up around 500 feet AGL), it was still the thrill
of a lifetime to see that beautiful forked-tail devil in flight.

I had never heard a P-38 start up or take off, and I was amazed at the silky
smoothness of those huge Allison engines. Compared to the Corsair or even
the Mustang, it sounds like a precision machine working in an oil bath.

And seeing it coming right at you -- wow! What a great silhouette, and
remarkably small, given the plane's immense (relatively, for its day) size.
From the front, it's obvious that Kelly Johnson put a great deal of effort
into aerodynamic slipperiness...

QC always puts on a great airshow, but this one really topped them all.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

In a previous article, "Jay Honeck" said:
We flew over in the morning, and were able to get a hand's on, close up view
of this awesome plane. Talk about perfection! It looks like it just rolled
off the assembly line! In my opinion, this aircraft completely stole the

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.


--
Paul Tomblin http://xcski.com/blogs/pt/
Some days violence is just a nice quick solution to a problem that
would need thought, planning and actual work to do justice to.
-- Wayne Pascoe

Much to my delight and surprise, Porky II, the "Planes of Fame" museum's
flying P-38, was at the Quad City Airshow yesterday, in Davenport, Iowa.

See http://www.alexisparkinn.com/aviation_videos.htm for a couple of
low-res videos of this P-38 in action...

(Just scroll down to see the P-38 videos.)
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

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

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.

That's probably Tallichet's plane. Here's a photo of what it looked like in 1997.
http://www.475thfghf.org/Photos/p38_2.JPG

This is what it looks like now.
http://www.warbird-photos.com/Airsho...s/IMG_2890.JPG

If it's the same plane, it's still flying.

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. 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.

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")

Wow -- that is TOTALLY bizarre. The props most certainly are
contra-rotating on Porky II, yet, I agree -- the video makes it look
like they're both turning the same direction.

Of course, it also makes them look they're turning about 60 rpm.

Must be some side effect of the low frame rate?
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

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