Lockheed P-38 Lightning Flight Demonstration - Up Close !
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- Опубліковано 5 жов 2024
- This is the Planes of Fame Museum's (Chino, California) P-38J. A rare and fascinating aircraft. Only one problem; the turbocharged-muffled Allison 12-cylinder engines are just too darned quiet! You may notice a slight difference in aircraft markings between the clips; they were recently changed. But all these clips are of the very same aircraft. Enjoy the video!
This is my favorite WWII fighter plane. I love the design, I love the firepower, I love everything about it. I wish I could either get a flight in one, or fly one myself. This is a gorgeous bird of war, and I'm glad that a few of them are still airworthy to keep their heritage going strong. Long live, the P-38 Lightning!
My Uncle, Ken Wineland, taught flight training in Texas during the war. The P38 was his favorite plane. He always stated that the P38 was a good plane, and in the hands of a good plot- it was a GREAT plane. Thanks for sharing.
@billace90: Yes, as of Jan. 2011 there are 7 airworthy examples of the P-38 in the world, 6 in the US and 1 in Europe. All of them are very actively flown too. Several more are being restored right now to flying status. Thanks!
My uncle flew these in the war (WWII) and he often told me that the airplane needed flown; but in the hands of a capable pilot, there wasn't an enemy airplane that could touch it. He loved these things, and because of that, so do I.
This thing at idle is just insane! The cam lope is just a sound from heaven.
I have been a WW II fighter buff since I was a little kid. Tons of books on all the various fighters Walter J. Boyne being one of the best authors. Your videos brought back a flood of memories. I recall my uncles and fathers remarks on their encounters in WW II. Dads USMC experiences in Okinawa and the F4u Corsairs, and my uncles experiences with the P40 Tomahawk and the P38 Lightnings while he was in the Philippines and Australia. Thank you for the great posts!
Amazingly refined engines! No smoke, no fuss. Switch on, vrooom.
Besides that, great video from a beautiful aircraft. Thanks for putting this up.
My favorite WWII aircraft! I am kinda partial because my grandpa flew them in the Pacific in WWII for the Army Air Corps. Amazing to see one fly
I visited this museum in the mid 90's. Every vintage aircraft fan would love the place. Walking through dusty old hangers and coming across unrestored aviation treasures I was the only one there for the most part. The main display area was also excellent with several lovingly restored static displays.
My late-father's favorite aircraft. A child of The Great Depression, Dad was 10 years old at the end of WWII. His neighbor across the street in Monessen, PA, was in the Air Corp circa 1946 and would fly his P-38 from up over the hill out of the east, for a very dramatic presentation of the aircraft, sweeping southwest and out of sight toward Charleroi, PA. Dad said his neighbor was a hero, for obvious reasons to those that'd lived through the war, to all of the kids on that street.
Love it! My dad used to fly P-36Js during WWII.
The P-38 shown in the video was not part of the Lost Squadron. The aircraft is owned and operated by the Planes of Fame Museum at Chino, California (now named "23 Skidoo"). It was obtained by the museum in 1960 after sitting idle at nearby Brackett Airport during most of the 1950s. I have two videos featuring Glacier Girl though, "P-38 LIGHTNING "GLACIER GIRL" attempted flight to England" and "FIVE (5) Restored WWII Lockheed P-38 Lightnings !" GG is tail no. 17630 in the second video.
Thanks!
Another interesting note in regards to the P-38 turbochargers. Of the six P-38s that fly today (as of November 2009), only one has operational turbochargers and that is the P-38 named "Ruff Stuff" which is owned by Ron Fagan. However, the other aircraft still have the exhaust routed through the inoperative turbochargers. Of course, all six P-38s have operational superchargers which the aircraft probably would not be able to fly without.
Great video and great aircraft! The steed of Richard Bong and Robin Olds, plus the last thing Admiral Yamamoto saw in this world. Kelly Johnson and the Skunk Works boys could always be counted on to innovate in order to get the performance numbers they wanted.
What a gorgeous aircraft. The Allison engine really got to shine in this beauty and makes a beautiful sound just like the Merlin engines. Thank you for sharing this!
Finally, someone who knows P-38's. Thank you.
My friend's dad flew these in the pacific, amazing!
My grandfather flew a P-38 based out of Port Moresby, New Guinea, north of there, I've got DVDs he sent me of their time stationed there. Also there's a movie made about one of the P-38s still sitting in the jungle of Australia from crashed by his flight leader, search for "Injury Slight, Please Advise". My grandfather crashed a P40 I think north of Queensland and had to hoof it back to base.
That sound you hear before the prop rotated is the motor and flywheel of the internal inertia starter. This starter is driven by internal battery power and no APU (auxiliary power unit) was used. When the starter flywheel gets up to speed, a clutch is engaged to turn the engine over.
The engines on P-38s are "handed," meaning that they turn in opposite directions. The prototype XP-38's left engine turned clockwise (as viewed from the back), the right engine turned counter-clockwise. The production models were the opposite. As I understand it, this reduced the buffeting problems experienced with the XP-38. This apparently had to do with reducing the turbulent airflow over the tail surfaces. I'm not quite sure of the details. More details or corrections are quite welcome!
Nice hum of those supercharged Allisons. There is some other footage from the 40's in the movie "A guy named Joe" with Spencer Tracey and Van Johnson. Nice sound there too.
@TamiyaExperienced : The entire video is of the same aircraft, the Planes of Fame Museum's P-38L. Portions of the aircraft were repainted during the time span that the video clips were taken, explaining the difference that you noticed :). Thanks for watching my video.!
My grandfather was in the 11th airborn 511th P.I. during WWII. He fought along side of men like Manuel Perez, a fellow Oklahoman. My grandpaw, now in his late 80's can still remember everything about this era in time, tho he can barely get out of bed in the morning. He has told me numerous times, the very sight of the P-38 was enough to frighten the Japanese to the point of confusion. He said the best thing "those guys" (p-38 pilots) could do was fly low & fast to intimidate the enemy.
My father was an armorer on P-38's. (Making them my favorite of course!)
The nosewheel on the P-38 is castering and not steerable. Of course, you steer with differential braking and/or power application. There is a hydraulic unit on the nosegear strut that you can see in the video; that is the shimmy damper. Thanks!
On the P-38, the engines are "handed," that is the right engine rotates clockwise (right-handed rotation) and the left engine rotates counter-clockwise (left-handed rotation). While having the left-hand engine on the right side and the right-hand engine on the left side would have been better for 1-engine-out (critical engine) situations, the P-38 was designed this way because the stability for gunnery was found to be superior. All other engines of the major US aircraft of WWII were right-handed
The P-38 is the coolest prop air craft ever made. Might not be the best, but it's damn cool.
I have a Bell 47 helicopter, sort of.
The instruments were upgraded to glass cockpit.
That was pretty much all that was left of the original aircraft!
As a matter of regular service everything gets replaced at one time or other.
And, yes, with an exhaust system an aircraft engine is MUCH quieter still.
The 47 has an intake filtering system and exhaust mufflers to deal with sand and noise.
The starter motor makes most of the noise at start up!
@DOWNwithDICTATORS2 I don't think it could have been any more serious, for all involved. I love this plane, I have built two (a keen modeller for many years) and they look good from any angle. The skill that the pilots have in just taking off and landing alone is truly amazing let alone flying them in combat. My hat is off to the gentlemen who flew and fought in these aircraft.
god damn, this plane is one of the greatest planes ever to grace the skies
@panrierrr: The European P-38 is owned by Red Bull, the maker of the energy drink. It is based in Salzburg, Austria and makes several appearances in Europe during the airshow season. See their website. This aircraft was formerly flown by then-owner Lefty Gardner for 40 years at airshows in the USA as "White Lightnin'." An in-flight fire in 2001 resulted in a crash landing. It was restored by Nelson Ezell in Texas after Red Bull bought the aircraft. The aircraft arrived in Austria in 2009.
I need to ask my grandpa, which was better in a ground attack role, the P-38 Lightning or P-47 Thunderbolt, as he flew both. P-47 has the reputation as ground attack plane. P-47 had all that armor protecting pilot and could take a lot of punishment, but the P-38 had two engines to get you home and faster climb rate. I myself would side with the P-38, because its guns and cannon fired straight out and you could buzzsaw slice up targets 5x as far out, so you wouldn't have to get as close.
The P-38 Lightning was designed by Clarence Leonard "Kelly" Johnson. He also was the lead engineer for the design of the U-2 and the SR-71 Blackbird. The man was way ahead of his time.
Clarence Leonard "Kelly" Johnson (February 27, 1910 December 21, 1990) was an aircraft engineer and aeronautical innovator.
would be an awe inspiring sight to actually be there to witness this beast.
Yeah, I know a guy who flew the P-38 from a base in Italy in '44 & '45 in bomber support - definitely a fighter role!
My late friend's late mother may have installed the nosecone on that '38. She worked in Burbank during WWII along w/her future husband.
Her name was Amber L. Garber-Rigby. George Rigby was a draftsman at Lockheed where they met and married. George subscribed to 2 or 3 aviation mags staring in '43 which I have now. Quite a few P38/Lockheed ads. I also have her promotional P38 model made of wood and beautiful! 19" wingspan.
She died 12/18/11 @97 yrs.
She also helped assemble Connies.
Parts availability, expense, more maintenance, less reliability with the turbos (more parts to fail), all of those factors. Another big factor is that only 100 octane, low lead fuel is available today which does not allow the engines to be run at high power settings anyway (130 octane was the most common fuel for these aircraft during WWII). Considering these factors, I would have to say the turbos are probably pretty useless but were used on "Ruff Stuff" for the sake of historical originality.
Really the Allison and the Merlin are alike only in general concept, i.e. a V-12 cylinder arrangement of closely similar displacement. The Allison has several thousand less parts than the Merlin (I know that is hard to believe but it is true). All WWII operational Allisons had superchargers, but the Merlin had a two-stage supercharger. The exhaust on the P-38 exits through a single pipe on the turbochargers located on top of the tail booms, just about at the trailing edge of the wings.
Great video. What a beauty - long may they keep her flying.
Great History! My old neighbor's father was a pilot in WWII and the Korean War. He flew later with H.S and T.L. with Lockheed in California. I will never forget all the memorabilia he showed me. My neighbor's father ferried BT-13s from Downey, CA to Oklahoma in '42; flew the 'Hump', flew many planes including the B-17 and the P-38 (out of Palm Springs). I remember him saying three things that stuck with me: 'Emergency Procedures', 'as soon as I take off, I look for a place to land', and, 'Bite into the Turn'. BTW - great video. I wrote some of the pilots that he flew with; Smilanich; Ament; Melichar; Hahn; Emigh. His name was Ernest ('Ernie').
I am amazed how (relatively) quiet this plane is. I read that because of the way the exhaust is routed that they were quiet...and it obviously was true.
Of course, all P-38s also have mechanically driven SUPERCHARGERS that are mounted directly on the rear of the Allison engines. Yes, P-38s have both turbochargers AND superchargers. This is what enabled the P-38 to be the only operational, Allison-powered aircraft of WWII to have adequate high-altitude performance. All the rest of the Allison-powered aircraft just had the supercharger and really pooped out at about 7000-8000 feet.
They rotate in opposite directions. It gives the Lightning extra stability which allowed some aircraft to be converted for photo recon work, by replacing the guns in the nose with cameras.
The Germans said that they could hear a P-51 Mustang coming from 8 kilometers away. Not so with the P-38 which is very quiet due to routing of the exhaust through the turbochargers, as you said. By the way, the P-38 Allison engines ALSO have mechanically driven SUPERCHARGERS mounted on the rear of the engines. It was this combination of engine aspiration methods that gave the P-38 such good high-altitude performance (speed that is, not great dogfighting and maneuvering ability).
One of the P38s was built just 1 mile from my house it took over 10 years. They sold it and flew it out about 2 years ago. Hated to see that thing leave it was amazing i live in direct route of the air port so my last glimpse of the p38 glacier girl was 50 feet over head.
Actually, this aircraft is the Chino, California based Planes of Fame Museum's P-38 "23 Skidoo." It does not have operational turbochargers. As of December 2009, of the six flying P-38s, only "Ruff Stuff" has operational turbochargers. Thanks!
If I'm not mistaken; This P-38J you see in this video was once on static display outside in back of the museum in chino for a number of years before the start of it's restoration in the 80's I Have Pic's. I'm a BIG-FAN of the Chino Museum & their work to restore "Old WW-2 War Bird's;" & I paid for a ride in the in the P-40 Curtiss War Hawk when I got back my income tax return in 84. What A Rush! Flying over Big Bear Lake & Back To Chino For The Afternoon; What A Great Plane!:
BFC-EEEE YA!:
The most beautiful machine built by man. Thanks for the vid.
Peace.
The turbos on this aircraft are not functional, but they are still there and all the exhaust is still routed through them. The exhaust exits out of the turbos, which are located on the top of the tail booms, right at the trailing edge of the wing. That is why the exhaust note is so muffled, the same as if the turbos were still operational. The latest P-38 to take to the air, "Ruff Stuff," DOES have operational, exhaust-driven turbos and is the only P-38 of the four flyable today that does.
Nice vid! for thos who may not know the P designation such as p-51, p-47, p-38 ect...the p stands for pursuit ... the f- prefix is fighter and b of course is for bomber....my dad (retired military man)and I used to build & fly lots of giant scale rc planes until he died ....good hobby and you learn a lot about aerodynamics and electronics etc, the p-38 is a real high speed and commendable warbird in the U.S. air campaign !
It has had its share of operational issues, they chopped them because the 51 was deemed to be a better fighter overall... but it surely is one of the most beautiful WW2 aircraft...
The P-38 is still my favorite WWII fighter.
just awesome! the damn thing looks like a racecar
The turbo impellers on top of the booms are freely rotating; I've checked these myself. There is only one exhaust for each engine and these exhausts exit upwards right behind the turbo impellers. I don't know what happens with the waste gates though. Good question!
The exhaust from the engines is routed back to a turbocharger before going out the exhaust pipes, so it won't be near as loud as the open exhaust of a P-40 or P-51.
Actually, these are two different airframes, one is "Ruff Stuff", and the other one is "23 Skidoo".
Such a beautiful aircraft.
If I remember correctly they're still several buried under the ice in Greenland, part of "The Lost Squadron". It's one of my dreams that if I ever end up being obscenely rich someday with more money than sense I'd go try to retrieve one of them for restoration.
Wouldn't THAT make a bad ass family heirloom to pass down.
A bigger "what if?" is what would've happened if the USAAF had allowed Lockheed to put the P-38K into production.
This model had the much more efficient Hamilton Standard prop in place of the relatively poor Curtis Electric prop. Climb rate, acceleration, and top speed would all have been significantly improved.
Interestingly, Chino Airport where this video was taken (home of the Planes of Fame Museum and owner of this P-38) was a disposal location right after the war where hundreds of P-38s were chopped up for scrap.
Thanks!
Normally PB84 is right, but post-prototype P-38 engines turned the opposite of convention (on production P-38's, both prop tips turned outboard at tdc, giving the P-38 not one but two critical engines). I'd always understood this was done for aerodynamic reasons, but I've also read that Kelly Johnson reportedly said (years after the war) that the outboard-turning props were used as this configuration made the P-38 a more stable gun platform (thereby sacrificing safety for mission effectiveness).
In my opinion, that's the best of the american planes. This line of 2 tails... Wonderful.
@bl00dbon3 : Things have been moving very quickly lately with the numbers of flyable P-38s. As of June 2010, SIX are flyable in the USA, with one in Europe (the Red Bull P-38). Some very exciting news is that all six of the USA P-38 owners have indicated that they will bring their P-38s to the California Capital Airshow on September 11 & 12, 2010. What a sight that will be!! They will also move on to the Reno Air Races the next weekend (not to race, of course, but to show). Good times!
Adm. Yamamoto got to view the P-38 up close and personal!
Great taxi out and flight sounds. Thanks.
what makes the inline engine fragile is the fact that it uses a liquid to cool the engine. No amount of armor can account for that vulnerability. The radial engine uses air so besides the usual fuel and oil, it has one less vital liquid that can leak out due to battle damage. This is why the navy preferred radials for its fighters. They wanted to save weight on the aircraft carrier by not having to carry coolant fluid for the fighters.
Amazing piece of History...........Nice.
thanks for posting it.
How could such a beautiful aircraft be so lethal and deadly ? Ask Admiral Yamamoto and Lt. Rex Barber. They both know the answer to that question.....
that is one beautifully designed aircraft
proffromview The P38 did not get the Merlin because they were in short supply and needed for the Mustang and remember Packard was building the Merlin for the British, they had bought them from packard and also using the Merlin in the Mustang gave you twice as many planes. Mustangs were also half the cost of the P38 and required less than half the maintainence of P38. One other thing Allison did not want to give up that many engines, you know the old money thing.
Wow what can you say, awesome pilots,awesome aircraft, what a tremendous film. How lucky those guys are to have the opportunity to fly such wonderful aeroplanes.
My Dad a WW II vet was on a B-24,he said when the P-38's showed up the German fighter planes ran like hell to get out of there!!!
Although not my favorite, it is indeed a great plane. The top scoring US warplane to this day, hard to dis that. Thanke for the post Octane, keep em coming!
This plane has the coolest design ever.
Here is some info thats cool about the P-38. The top 2 american aces in the Pacific Theatre flew P-38 lightnings.
@sallymaggiespotty You're completely wrong. Nearly 10,000 P-38s were produced, almost 3,000 of those were J models.
Doesn't the sound of that P-38 doing a fly-by sound SWEET!!
@trevorpom I'm guessing that the relatively wide track of the main gear adds some stability when touching down. I know a P-47 pilot. He told me that in general warbirds were skitish and glitchy. Not designed for easy, comfortable flying. WWII was very serious business, as I'm sure you know.
What a fantastic Aircraft....a beauty of the sky !
@MowgliX I was under the impression that the Bearcat was inspired by the Hellcat. Mosquito was a beauty! Brits had some interesting designs. Simplicity wasn't the rule.
You damm right because not only were they streamlined & fast, but because they had guns that did not shoot "through" a propeller arc, they could put out a more intense stream of rounds.
@MowgliX I never knew that the 262s were used after the war. This has peaked my interest. Or, were you saying that the Gladiator was used in Argentinia? In either case, It's good to hear that Mr.Galland's talents weren't wasted after the war. Thanks for the info.
p38 is my favorite ww2 airplane
My favourite plane from WW2. Just beautiful.
@octane130 I was at the CCA and of the 6 supposed to be there, one didn't make it (Tangerine) and another cracked a head en route. 4 made it and flew and were amazing to see and hear. Glacier Girl, Thoughts of Midnite, Ruff Stuff and Honey Bunny.
Hard to believe this magnificent aircraft was designed in the mid 1930's!
Maybe it couldn't roll like a P-47 (what could?), but the P-38J-25 and Lightnings that followed rolled very well with their power-boosted ailerons and, thanks to those handed props, could do it in either direction! Because supply of P-38's remained critical until late in the war, the best Lightnings never saw production. Conversion to either the paddle-blade P-38K or the proposed (but never built) Merlin-powered model would have required a lengthy shutdown at Lockheed's sole production site.
I had a dream about this plane, and all i remembered was the dual wing connected together on the back, and finnally i found it! i still have no idea why it was in my dream tho...
I read an interesting article about how during the war some tests were done with the P38 and the RR Merlin motors and a National Standard (I believe) prop. The result was pretty stunning and if this configuration had gone into production then the P38 would have been the fastest and best performing aircraft of WWII, hands down. The war department wouldn't allow it because production would have had to have been shut down for two weeks for retooling. Couldn't stop. Sad.
Actually, no. An engineering study by Lockheed determined that the Merlin would never fit, and even if it did, the performance would be REDUCED, in every category.
There WERE two P-38's built with the J model configuration and Hamilton Standard High Activity paddle props, 13'6". The planes were tested in April 1943, and the performance exceeded even Lockheed's expectations. Top speed was 450+, operational ceiling was 36,000', rate of climb in WEP was up to 5,000 feet per minute, range was increased 15%. The War Production Board denied Lockheed permission to stop production for two weeks. In March of 1944, the Materials Command of the Army Air Corps again requested the P-38K, but it was again declined.
There are several well documented articles on the subject.
@@AlanRoehrich9651 Okay, that’s the configuration I was thinking of. Thanks for the clarification. 👍
Its not a matter of armor because armor can be pierced. Any aerospace engineer at this time knew that radial engines were overall more reliable than inline because of there ability to absorb much more battle damage. Where the radials did not measure up was in sleekness but the fw190 proved that even this problem could be fixed. But I guess we can count
Truely a gorgeous plane. Thanks for the vid. Wouldn't mind doing a mock dogfight with her at an airshow when I finish my 190. Unlikely, but one can dream. haha
The engines are quite because of the location and lengthy piping to the turbochargers on the =tops= of the engine nacells. The P-38 was not a great dogfighter, but was a =terrific= ground-attack plane in part as the result of its aural "stealthiness." It didn't "announce itself."
this is my favorite twin engine fighter, ingenious.
"The 5,000th Lightning built, a P-38J-20-LO, 44-23296, was painted bright vermilion red, and had the name YIPPEE" Wikipedia. The plane had a number of problems, including the "freezing" of the controls in a high speed dive that killed a number of pilots. Lockheed went to great lengths to solve this problem, and they eventually claimed to have solved it.
I am not sure how you can say that the P38 did not excel as a dogfighter. The most prolific aces of WWII were P38 pilots, including the all time leaders, Bong with 40 kills, McGuire with 38, Macdonald with 27, and the list goes on....
@warhawk40 They were building so many aircraft in the war effort that they needed many different engines of different types.Allison engines were a good choice because all the merlin engines were being used in other airplanes.Each lancaster bomber required 4 merlins,the mosquito 2 the spitfires 1 and the mustang 1.Some of the merlins were shipped to england because they could not produce enough merlins for their own aircraft.Packard had to change the original design for mass production.
Engine sound is amazing
@MowgliX Wow! Caravelle and DC-8? That was back when you could actually identify planes in the sky. Now, they all look alike to me. I love those old DC-8s. I've only seen a three engine Caravelle in a magazine. I toured Elvis's private four engine Caravelle. My brother flew a 727 before they switched him to an L1011, then an Airbus something or other. He loved the old 727. The Airbus basically pilots itself. You were an airline pilot?
Man, the p38's such a beautiful aircraft. It'd be something to see one of those gals up close, eh?
@MowgliX I knew what you meant. I was curious about the fate of the 262. I collect old Popular Science books from the forties and fifties, and quite a few British jet fighters as well as bombers grace the pages. My favorite edition shows the famous Comet airliner in it's infancy. B.O.A.C. was the first jet airliner I believe. I always loved that plane. A DH something?? Anyway, I need to look through some of those magazines again.
That may be true, very few at that time had that kind of money even if they had a pilots license and the means to fly it. The average GI even into the early 50's made $80/mo, and $1,200 was the cost of a brand new car.
Even still it's kinda neat, as that's like paying $50k today for a used F-15 in flyable condition.