Wow!! A complete P-38 has been found on a beach in Wales. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,311724,00.html
That's an awesome story. Says it all. Great info in that story too. I thought there were more of them, but 10k built and only 10 MAY be still flying. Not much of a survival percentage. Amazing how technology kills older technology. Love the P38 though. GREAT look'n plane and even now, an amazing leap for it's time. Thanks for posting that!
I believe these early Lend-Lease planes were delivered without the turbo-superchargers, didn't perform all that well at higher al***ude like the Spits and 109s. The British called them "castrated Lightnings. P-38s never did all that well in Europe. I bet the skin on that plane is almost as thin as aluminum foil. But what a find. Talk about beachcombing!
Wow amazing, makes a change from a barn find to have a beach find! wonder how bad it really is after all that salt water. Kev.
being its taken a salt bath for 60+ years ,that thing will turn to white powder as soon as it dries out. But it goes to show you that they are still out there. Cool find....
Not only did the early lend lease P-38's have the non turbo supercharged Allison's they also had both motors turning in the same direction. Later models had the props on either wing turn in opposite directions, this eliminated the torque and torque induced poor rate of roll. Australia took two on charge to evaluate and hated them, wonder what may have been if they had the latter models?? Hmm, belly tanks all round for us Aussies................. Instead we went with the P-400 ('Export model' P-39Q) Airacobras, glad to say our pilots had the best kill ratio for the type in WWII. Not hard when you think it was only us and the Russians that operated them in the front line as long as we did. Doc.
And I always wondered what those people at the beach found with their metal detectors. Sounds like a big project, but the right people are involved to bring it back to life. SWEET!
It wont ever fly again, submerged in that shallow salt water had done ireperable damage. It will however make an awesome static display. Heres something dragged from water that will fly again though, cold fresh water is like a time capsual. http://lend-lease.airforce.ru/english/articles/sheppard/p39/index.htm
Thank you for that post & link. It deserves to be removed and put on display, but you have to wonder if it can survive the move.
The British-spec aircraft also didn't have counter rotating props, so they were far less maneuverable. But the article makes it sound like it's a USAAF plane, so it should have all the good stuff. -Dave
The Jalopy Journal
