My Great - Uncle Jerry Finn Built P -38s throughout WWII @ Lockheed's Burbank plant; Went to school with test pilots Milo Burcham's & Jimmy Mattern's grandkids; met Tony LeVier & Richard Bong's widow Marge later ln life; Still my favorite WWll fighter plane!
The P-38 is extremely missrepresented in a lot of world war 2 air combat games, particularly in war thunder. For its time it was an amazing fighter, probably the best fighter for its time.
When I was an inspector of aircraft altimeters I worked with a Raymond Whitehouse. He had worked at a company in WW2 that made parts for the P38. It might have been hydraulic pumps but I cannot recall. Ray discovered a problem with the parts and red tagged them. He said a supervisor came and took them off saying they were made to "government specifications" per government contract. Ray wrote to the appropriate government office who investigated. He had a framed letter in his inspection cage. It said the government was changing that government specification. He also had a poster listing government specifications which included the revised specification that matched his framed letter. He would point at it proudly and say "That's my spec!"
my dad would have liked this film. he was a flight instructor in the rcaf back in the 50's and early 60's. sadly both him and my brother have their wings now :-(
Not desintegrate. What you're referring to is the flutter effect. What happened to the P-38 was called compressability, which was something that was poorly understood at the time. It made the controls of the plane very unresponsive.
there had been a serious problem with cockpit temp control in high altitude scraps over Europe...some of those got up to around 40,000 where the air temp is about -70 F
i love the cartoons.. do you think our current USAF training videos have the animaniacs teaching flight characteristics of the joint strike fighter? cow and chicken explaining flight procedure of an ac-130? spongebob and patrick teaching dog-fighting in the raptor..
By far the most awesome fighter plane of all time. Heck, they must have even recognized back then given that it got a COLOR training film rather than the B&W training films for other planes,,,
My dad's outfit in Luzon got hold of a few during the war and he loved flying it when they could. Though he was a p40 and p47 guy. He actually flew it and I was lucky enough to ride in one with him when I was little. Scared me. The plane is powerful
So many gauges and gauges with needles, red lines, numbers and more gauges. All the little levers, big levers, buttons, switches on top of more switches !!!!!!!! And not a MFD/ laptop or I phone in sight!! Don't get me started on all the smoke and noise.
No word on the tendency of the P-38 to desintegrate in high-speed dives... Reportedly the P-38 was one of the first aiplanes that would actually reach the speed of sound in powered dives, and would break up in flight when that happened... Research into these high-speed "freak accidents" would lead into the X planes supersonic speed research...
The airspeed gauge tops out at 700 (gotta hand it to those boys-- they were optimists!) and pilots reported their gauges pegged in these dives-- this was from the shockwaves in the pitot giving false readings.
manifestgtr I could never figure out why they never stretched the center pylon a couple of feet to help with that problem. 2-3’ feet would of made a big difference,
@@lestermiller2717 That would entail burdening Lockheeds already stretched thin production lines, and would need redesigning for center of balance, new center fusalage parts, new canopy design, enough room to install another cockpit, which must mirror the front one, so it would be another five to six feet, rather then two or three
The term "hanger experts" goes back as far as the date of this film and probably much farther back. Now we call them "hanger flyers" but at least we know were there term came from.
The original FAA regulations we all learned from as student pilots back in the 1960s were based on what was learned from WWII fighter pilots. The procedures for learning stalls were also learned from the heyday of pilots from the 1940s-60s. It's a sorry sight today that the present FAA has taken away knowledge from the true pilots and is teaching them to become a bunch of wusses for new students. FAA, why have you turned what was a well-established protocol into new procedures only baby wusses can handle? Please explain why modern-day pilots can no longer be allowed to demonstrate power-on stalls with a full brake (break) anymore? Who taught you guys how to fly? Who is your Co-pilot? God, or your lawyers? "God is my Co-Pilot". FAA, who is your co-pilot?
17:53 I can pretty well see why men over about 5' 9" or so didn't qualify to fly the '38. Jeeze, there not much room in that cockpit! May dad trained in advanced flight school to fly the P-38 until he got injured and transferred to the field artillery to fly as a spotter. He was 5' 10" and he said he barely fit!
i remember a wII vet who flew these birds, said you could do things you could not in a single prop. and he would tale this to a dog fight first. he had a lot of confirmed kills. something about being about to fly the plane against the single prop. you could turn faster by cutting power to one of the engines etc. like any tool, you have to understand the basics, before you can truly take advantage of whatever the machine was built for. wish i could remember who or where i read or saw that.
P38 were interesting , did very well in the Pacific theatre ( Bong 40 kills ) , but not so much over Europe in fact Gen. Galland of the Luftwaffe said that it was an easy kill , fwiw.
@@garytarr8216 You know, Gary, are people too stupid these days to do little a research before they say such moronic things? The Betty was armed to the teeth and Yamamoto had 6 fighter escorts. Here is the only one who survived the ambush, Kenji Yanagiya, a top fighter ace of the Imperial Navy: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenji_Yanagiya
Actually, no P-38 Lightning ever flew with Merlin engines, Packard or Rolls Royce. The Merlin literally will not fit in the fuselage of a P-38 Lightning. A design study was conducted. The Merlin would have reduced performance in every category.
@cobrachoppergirl The props were controlled electrically by an automatic pitch control system, if the revs go too high, the revs get out of control, overspeeding can lead to oil pressuredrop/oil starvation/bearing damage. All bad news. In the film they tell you 15 secs is a long time to comit 1 hand to 1 control, throttling back was the answer, so that then you can pop the breakers back in. Hope this helps!!
@HiWetcam : I wish it had a better oil pump system to permit extended inverted flight, even thought the WD deemed it unnecessary to dog-fighting. She's still my favorite ship!
@@rayg9069 I thought both engine and booms were identical other than reversed rotation and there being a battery in the left (and a tiny storage area in the right). Of course that may have only been the radar equipped variants, those early tube radars ate power.
It's a little complicated. To begin with, every P-38 came with a generator on the left. A lot of early birds only had the one generator when they came off the assembly line because they didn't know if they would have enough to go around. But generators _did_ come around, and soon enough you might just get a P-38 off the assembly line with two generators installed. And just because your P-38 might have had only one generator when it was built doesn't mean it had to stay that way, and practically every P-38 would get a second generator installed by Army mechanics on the field... ... but, we're talking about Army here, and you can't count on the field-installed generator to stay under warranty, in a manner of speaking. So, the rule was you could practice single-engine flight with your right engine/generator _if your generator was installed at the factory,_ where it was signed off and certified. If your mechanic added a generator to your right engine, rule was you still practiced with flying on the left engine only.
The speed of the engine is being held back purely by the wind resistance of the propellor blades. If the propellor is broken, the engine will overspeed.
P.38 was worse than useless until late 1943 when they had finally sorted out all the problems and the L version was introduced . No comparison to the alll round versatility and excellence of the De Havilland Mosquito
Mosquito couldn't hang in combat with single engine fighters in aerial combat. P-38 could and did. Not taking anything away from the Mosquito, great aircraft...it just wasn't the twin engine fighter it was originally designed as.
The P-38J was introduced in August of 1943. The P-38L was introduced in June of 1944. Several pilots made ace before either were introduced. So, no, it was hardly "useless".
My Great - Uncle Jerry Finn Built P -38s throughout WWII @ Lockheed's Burbank plant; Went to school with test pilots Milo Burcham's & Jimmy Mattern's grandkids; met Tony LeVier & Richard Bong's widow Marge later ln life; Still my favorite WWll fighter plane!
The P-38 is extremely missrepresented in a lot of world war 2 air combat games, particularly in war thunder. For its time it was an amazing fighter, probably the best fighter for its time.
When I was an inspector of aircraft altimeters I worked with a Raymond Whitehouse. He had worked at a company in WW2 that made parts for the P38. It might have been hydraulic pumps but I cannot recall. Ray discovered a problem with the parts and red tagged them. He said a supervisor came and took them off saying they were made to "government specifications" per government contract. Ray wrote to the appropriate government office who investigated. He had a framed letter in his inspection cage. It said the government was changing that government specification. He also had a poster listing government specifications which included the revised specification that matched his framed letter. He would point at it proudly and say "That's my spec!"
I love how at the start of this instructional film they're already telling you how to bail out of it! :)
Airboyd: Thanks for this and other such videos! We get a sense of the times as well as detailed info about the aircraft we love : )
my dad would have liked this film. he was a flight instructor in the rcaf back in the 50's and early 60's. sadly both him and my brother have their wings now :-(
I wish pilot training was conducted like this today!
I don't know about you guys but I think the coolest planes were made during WWII
I just realized I've been watching this for twenty minutes. I eat this stuff up.
Thanks for sharing.
i always thought it was amazing how much the p38 and the me 262 look like from the front
Milo: "Ok, Tony, I want you to simulate take off with NO engines."
Tony LeVier could do it.
Ppl
Mo
Tony: *Breaks out a cigarette and starts smoking*
Milo: Good show, Tony.
So claustrophobic with two in the cockpit, lol!!
Not desintegrate. What you're referring to is the flutter effect. What happened to the P-38 was called compressability, which was something that was poorly understood at the time. It made the controls of the plane very unresponsive.
Ah the days when engineers wore trousers, ties, and vests while testing out high-powered machinery!
there had been a serious problem with cockpit temp control in high altitude scraps over Europe...some of those got up to around 40,000 where the air temp is about -70 F
i love the cartoons.. do you think our current USAF training videos have the animaniacs teaching flight characteristics of the joint strike fighter? cow and chicken explaining flight procedure of an ac-130? spongebob and patrick teaching dog-fighting in the raptor..
Well, having Disney studios practically just down the street made it really easy for Lockheed to get some animation work on their training films.
So this is what 1943 looked like...
I know right? Besides all the information about the P-38, seeing 1943 in color is also extremely interesting and a big reason for watching this film.
Planes are cheap, pilots are expensive. Keeping the pilot alive is job #1.
I love that plane - does it come in black, and when do you deliver ;)
By far the most awesome fighter plane of all time. Heck, they must have even recognized back then given that it got a COLOR training film rather than the B&W training films for other planes,,,
The factory was practically next door to the Hollywood movie studios. Getting the best film would have been easier for them than with other companies.
My dad's outfit in Luzon got hold of a few during the war and he loved flying it when they could. Though he was a p40 and p47 guy. He actually flew it and I was lucky enough to ride in one with him when I was little. Scared me. The plane is powerful
i'm pretty sure it was. Burbank Airport used by the Lockheed Plant.
I just enjoy the honesty and candid ad. It’s like a salesman selling a car.
Too small for a crew of 2. Claustrophobic.
6:24 notice the pilot has thick socks... one thing P-38 drivers where known for : Frozen feet... :)
So many gauges and gauges with needles, red lines, numbers and more gauges. All the little levers, big levers, buttons, switches on top of more switches !!!!!!!!
And not a MFD/ laptop or I phone in sight!! Don't get me started on all the smoke and noise.
No word on the tendency of the P-38 to desintegrate in high-speed dives... Reportedly the P-38 was one of the first aiplanes that would actually reach the speed of sound in powered dives, and would break up in flight when that happened... Research into these high-speed "freak accidents" would lead into the X planes supersonic speed research...
Bad buffeting, but with dive flaps, and careful attention, you could prevent that. ;-)
Bullshit !!! The P 38 hsd a pathetic Mach limit of 0.68!!!
The airspeed gauge tops out at 700 (gotta hand it to those boys-- they were optimists!) and pilots reported their gauges pegged in these dives-- this was from the shockwaves in the pitot giving false readings.
@@garytarr8216
Which means nothing, it absolutely *can* pull out of a compressibility dive. And did so regularly.
those piggy back p-38s must've been hell on earth....especially if you were tall
manifestgtr
I could never figure out why they never stretched the center pylon a couple of feet to help with that problem. 2-3’ feet would of made a big difference,
@@lestermiller2717 That would entail burdening Lockheeds already stretched thin production lines, and would need redesigning for center of balance, new center fusalage parts, new canopy design, enough room to install another cockpit, which must mirror the front one, so it would be another five to six feet, rather then two or three
The term "hanger experts" goes back as far as the date of this film and probably much farther back. Now we call them "hanger flyers" but at least we know were there term came from.
The original FAA regulations we all learned from as student pilots back in the 1960s were based on what was learned from WWII fighter pilots. The procedures for learning stalls were also learned from the heyday of pilots from the 1940s-60s. It's a sorry sight today that the present FAA has taken away knowledge from the true pilots and is teaching them to become a bunch of wusses for new students. FAA, why have you turned what was a well-established protocol into new procedures only baby wusses can handle? Please explain why modern-day pilots can no longer be allowed to demonstrate power-on stalls with a full brake (break) anymore? Who taught you guys how to fly? Who is your Co-pilot? God, or your lawyers? "God is my Co-Pilot". FAA, who is your co-pilot?
Stearman escort... love it..
they had a charisma....
Fav WW2 twin-engine, just ahead of the Mosquito and Me 410
A good instruction film for the pilots and at the same time a nice advertisement to the military. All in color!
Disney studios made the training cartoon for the US.
oh man, that passenger seat is crazy lol.
17:53 I can pretty well see why men over about 5' 9" or so didn't qualify to fly the '38. Jeeze, there not much room in that cockpit! May dad trained in advanced flight school to fly the P-38 until he got injured and transferred to the field artillery to fly as a spotter. He was 5' 10" and he said he barely fit!
hahahaha 14:04 "If for any reason the flaps will not extend, the airplane lands well enough without them....."
I want one.
i remember a wII vet who flew these birds, said you could do things you could not in a single prop. and he would tale this to a dog fight first. he had a lot of confirmed kills. something about being about to fly the plane against the single prop. you could turn faster by cutting power to one of the engines etc. like any tool, you have to understand the basics, before you can truly take advantage of whatever the machine was built for. wish i could remember who or where i read or saw that.
Nice of them to make a bailout guide
I'm no hanger expert, but wouldn't most bailouts be performed with the windows open (thus disturbing airflow and causing the wake to hit the tail)?
If you're leaving the airplane, the buffet is the least of your concerns.
Two guys in one P38 who knew? 28:44
love these old videos! Thanks for uploading them :)
This is a great video of a great aircraft. Thanks for posting
P38 were interesting , did very well in the Pacific theatre ( Bong 40 kills ) , but not so much over Europe in fact Gen. Galland of the Luftwaffe said that it was an easy kill , fwiw.
Galland was a notorious liar.
Read Steinhoff, who commanded the post war Luftwaffe.
Their one purpose, to ambush Yamamoto over Bougainville.
Yeh what a coup shooting down an unarmed transport plane!!!
@@garytarr8216
You know, Gary, are people too stupid these days to do little a research before they say such moronic things?
The Betty was armed to the teeth and Yamamoto had 6 fighter escorts. Here is the only one who survived the ambush, Kenji Yanagiya, a top fighter ace of the Imperial Navy:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenji_Yanagiya
P-38, my favorite WWII fighter
Orlando 1701 only built one with merlins
One with packards.
@@chipaultman3563 Okay?
Actually, no P-38 Lightning ever flew with Merlin engines, Packard or Rolls Royce.
The Merlin literally will not fit in the fuselage of a P-38 Lightning.
A design study was conducted. The Merlin would have reduced performance in every category.
@@chipaultman3563
Never.
A true, multi-role ass kicker!
Hesch da hinten gemacht ja nied obe uf
16:18 the 2hits of acid the pilot took pre flight have kicked in.
Jets are for kids ;)
world class bad-ass
@cobrachoppergirl The props were controlled electrically by an automatic pitch control system, if the revs go too high, the revs get out of control, overspeeding can lead to oil pressuredrop/oil starvation/bearing damage. All bad news. In the film they tell you 15 secs is a long time to comit 1 hand to 1 control, throttling back was the answer, so that then you can pop the breakers back in. Hope this helps!!
Was that Burbank Airport?
You got to wonder who made the animation bits:
Warner Bros and Disney are literally on the other side of town from these guys.
This guy's callsign is "Dead Meat".
I had a great uncle that flew a recon p38
2:07 That guy was strafing Malibu?
TNK'S NICE GOOD VIDEO UP LOADED
if you got F18/ F22 tutorial, please upload it and i will drive it to the sky
@flexyco
Me too, don't forget it have airbrakes ; ) for dive bombing.
Beautiful aircraft.
It’s corny to have the student behave like a child. But I guess that’s the way they did it then.
Well, they were only in their twenties. Heck, I'm in my twenties and act like that. Haha
16:15 Hell yeah! LSD!
If only technology had stopped advancing in 1944 war would be so much better...
Chumer noch kranz
@cobrachoppergirl skip to 17:45 and it explains
1943 GoPro angles
P-38,P-39良いアイデアまた操縦席の機能超近代的やはりアメリカはすごい
l'd like to see some practice with "Left engine failure", the critical engine!
@HiWetcam : I wish it had a better oil pump system to permit extended inverted flight, even thought the WD deemed it unnecessary to dog-fighting. She's still my favorite ship!
@HiWetcam Yes left engine is the one powering the generator, lose the left and flight time is limited to how long the battery holds charge.
@HiWetcam My bad, so yes the craft could still fly but possibly with no radios or instruments?
@@rayg9069 I thought both engine and booms were identical other than reversed rotation and there being a battery in the left (and a tiny storage area in the right).
Of course that may have only been the radar equipped variants, those early tube radars ate power.
It's a little complicated. To begin with, every P-38 came with a generator on the left.
A lot of early birds only had the one generator when they came off the assembly line because they didn't know if they would have enough to go around. But generators _did_ come around, and soon enough you might just get a P-38 off the assembly line with two generators installed.
And just because your P-38 might have had only one generator when it was built doesn't mean it had to stay that way, and practically every P-38 would get a second generator installed by Army mechanics on the field...
... but, we're talking about Army here, and you can't count on the field-installed generator to stay under warranty, in a manner of speaking.
So, the rule was you could practice single-engine flight with your right engine/generator _if your generator was installed at the factory,_ where it was signed off and certified. If your mechanic added a generator to your right engine, rule was you still practiced with flying on the left engine only.
. ****** 38'S 4 EVER
Bitte
It's USAAAFEty first
What does he mean by the propellors / engine running wild
The propellors will go to fine pitch, and the engines will over speed.
The speed of the engine is being held back purely by the wind resistance of the propellor blades. If the propellor is broken, the engine will overspeed.
@@BogeyTheBear Yeah that's when instinct tells you to hit the kill switch or chop the throttle...
A huge fighter
Any clue were the animation comes from?
Hollywood. Literally the next town over from Burbank where these planes were built.
@@BogeyTheBear actually I think Disney in burbank...but I definitely could be misremembering
How did we go from people who can design,fly and explain how to fly this plane to people who can’t decide what gender they are?
Can't believe the dramatic music score at 31 min... It's a TRAINING VIDEO...! :-\
That looks like a very uncomfortable sitting position.
P.38 was worse than useless until late 1943 when they had finally sorted out all the problems and the L version was introduced . No comparison to the alll round versatility and excellence of the De Havilland Mosquito
Mosquito couldn't hang in combat with single engine fighters in aerial combat. P-38 could and did.
Not taking anything away from the Mosquito, great aircraft...it just wasn't the twin engine fighter it was originally designed as.
The P-38J was introduced in August of 1943. The P-38L was introduced in June of 1944.
Several pilots made ace before either were introduced. So, no, it was hardly "useless".
Tell that to Admiral Yamamoto, who was killed by a flight of P-38Gs.