That is a true work of art!!! My Grandfather flew just about every single aircraft during ww2 both fighters and bombers except the B-29 and he always said the P-38 was by far his favorite aircraft of all time.. God I miss him!!!
gorgeous, our granddads here in Germany didn`t liked it so much, during WW II. they called her the "split tail Devil". the sound is great, the chargers bring the nois down a bit. thr contra rotating props are great benefit. thx for sharing with us.
This man is one of the luckiest men alive to be able to fly that incredible machine. Very VERY VERY few Pilot's in the world today have the chance to fly an operational and flight worthy P-38 Lightning. Everyone has their favorite WWII era warbird, but this aircraft was truly a masterpiece of design. It was the Bugatti of the sky! Most pilot's who flew the P-38 loved the YOKE (steering wheel) instead of the traditional "stick" design. The Yoke made the P--38 an incredibly easy aircraft to maneuver in flight, especially in dogfight's! The Pilot show's this as he just yanks the yoke to the right or left and the P-38 quickly responds to his inputs. Hopefully at least a few of these survive in flight worthy condition well into the future so people way in the future can see this majestic beauty in flight.
Some Japanese called it the whispering devil. The Germans called it 'Der Teufel' I have tried to build it in model form over many years, but I never quite got it right. ( I have a large painting of Richard Bongs 'Marge' hanging in our hallway, and it is my pride and joy.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I had read somewhere about the history in the development of the P-38, and that it's design concept originally was to shoot down enemy bombers. That is why it was designed with twin engines .... to allow it to get up to high altitude quickly to intercept and shoot down incoming enemy bombers. Also notice how the P-38 uses a yoke control like a bomber rather than the typical joystick in other fighters.
Compare this to the cockpit videos of the P-51s. Response appears immediate with subtle movement of the stick in the 51 with no constant correction needed. The P-38 pilot input here looks like me in my manual steering 72 Vette ragtop with bias ply tires on a uneven road versus the P-51 required pilot input which looks comparable to a new C8 Vette.
Dont want to say that the P38 has a poor manoeuvrability but it seems to be quite slow to respond to command input. How does the other planes stands in that aspect?
Jardamuth yes I noticed exactly the same thing. The Germans found them to be not overly difficult to shoot down and along with other issues with the engines they were taken out of the European theatre. They did fit power operated ailerons to the P38 (this must be an early aircraft) which increased it's rate of roll quite a bit.
the ONLY P38 problems with engines was the 8th airforce period.. because they had the early version that didn't get enough air to cool it (hence the J and L models) and it was harder to shoot down than the 51. at high speeds the 38 could out roll anything cept the zero at slower speeds and lower altitude
I know I'm replying to an old comment, but did you know this plane is actually twin-charged? It has both a turbo charger and a super charger. I believe they referred to it as "turbo-supercharged" back then.
Absolutely stunning! Yeah, me too, I want one also but it take enormous amounts of $ which I don't have.This like other WWII fighters, I would love to see with helmet cams at 27 to 30,000' and put these things through their paces.You can't do the real maneuvers down low, you'll crash for sure Thanks for posting a kick ass video.
A very strange choice indeed. Feels very strange in simulators even though it shouldnt matter. Placebo i guess. It also blocks the view of about 5 gauges, too, sadly. Very hard to see Airspeed, Attitude, Altitude and climb-rate without crumpling your neck over the yoke..... Suction and 3-hand clock dials are easily visible though.... for some reason.
I do wish I could have seen the beast in Galveston, Texas fly while I was there in 2003. I did get to see a few beautiful beasts fly though: B-17, P-51 (stock and race modded), Hellcat and a Corsair. But I was sad that they did not have the P-38 flying that year.
For some reason I kept expecting the pilot to morph into Chris Farley and start hollering all sorts of outbursts of approval as he rolled the plane about.
P-38 is the baddest WW2 fighter. The kids that flew them were real soldiers, fighters, defenders of freedom. Here's to all those who designed, built, maintained and drove these great american aeroplanes.
Beautiful, just wonder whether the Turbos are still in place and functional. Also the Ailerons seem quite sluggish, being a relatively late J Model shouldn't it have boosted Ailerons ?
The turbos are non functional due to a lack of need for them, we do not fly high altitudes. The hydraulic boosted ailerons came online with the L model.
Thx for the info, since I have no access to the data of the Allison V1710/-Turbo Series, how much manifold pressure is provided by the gear attached Compressor ? I suspect you still route the exhaust the original path out the waste gate within the Turbo ? Otherwise a lot of sound is lost. To the ailerons as I understand it, the late J-Model had them together with the divebrakes. But then still the pilot has a lot of leeway on the ailerons, while they were described as being crisped and very precise, so I suppose it's the old age of airplane ?
fisharmor I thought the same thing. An old truck is a good analogy. The trusty old farm truck without power steering that has 1/4 turn of floppy play before any movement of the wheels.
Yeah, I kinda noticed the aircraft required rather large control inputs and a slow rate of response to it. It kind of looks like a fair bit of slack in the aileron controls. Is this normal for this type of aircraft? Or is it just age... But is was a good video with some awesome sound. Thanks.
Lord think about the young men in their late teens and early twenties flying the fighters and bombers in combat. They don’t call them the special generation for nothing.
I was just thinking the same thing. Imagine multi-ace Richard Bong tearing up the skies back then. Must have been an incredible adrenalin rush for a young fighter pilot.
