P38 Lightning question
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Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: Too close to Croydon for comfort
Age: 60
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My left hand on the stick was usually rewarded with a clip round the ear 'ole and a crisp reminder from the instructor that left hand is needed for cable release and airbrakes!
Answer for Treadigraph
I always used my right hand on gliders' control sticks. It felt natural and reserved my left paw for actuation of the speed brakes/spoilers and release knob. I'm trying hard to remember back thirty-eight years to the Ross Barnett Reservoir in Jackson, Mississippi, where I took my initial soaring instruction, but I clearly remember climbing into the cockpit and having my elderly instructor place my right hand on the stick. He said "Y'all use this here contraption along with them there rudder pedals to maneuver this here aereoplane. (sic)" I do recollect with absolute clarity wondering why an all metal beast with forward swept wings would have flight characteristics any better than a greased anvil. It did, but not by too much! 
After release from the Piper PA-25 Pawnee tow plane on my first flight, I spied a vulture spiraling upward in a well-developed thermal close to our position. I banked into the thermal and was immediately rewarded with a +2,000 f.p.m. variometer reading. My Good Old Boy instructor, who had flown a Waco troop carrying glider during the Normandy invasion and who had amassed thousands of hours subsequently (without being shot at!) whispered loudly from the rear seat: "Son, I reckon you is gonna be right good at this here soarin'!")
- Ed
After release from the Piper PA-25 Pawnee tow plane on my first flight, I spied a vulture spiraling upward in a well-developed thermal close to our position. I banked into the thermal and was immediately rewarded with a +2,000 f.p.m. variometer reading. My Good Old Boy instructor, who had flown a Waco troop carrying glider during the Normandy invasion and who had amassed thousands of hours subsequently (without being shot at!) whispered loudly from the rear seat: "Son, I reckon you is gonna be right good at this here soarin'!")
- Ed
Is it true that USAAF P38s had both clock and counterclockwise engines installed and the ones the RAF operated both turned in the same direction?
USAAF aircraft all had props that turned outboard at the top, the prototype had props that turned inboard at the top. The USAAF set up produced a more stable gun platform because of reduced pitching moments with power alterations.
The RAF aircraft turned in the same direction as they used the same power plant as the P-40 for commonality, but as mentioned by others they never took delivery except for a few for test purposes.
The de Havilland Hornet had handed Merlins that rotated inwards at the top. This was to reduce that asymmetric efforts of losing an engine in the same way as the P38 prototypes. However on the Hornet this didn't give rise to the stability problems that the P38 had. In fact, it could hold it's own with single engine fighters of it's day on one engine alone.
A slim fuselage with a single rudder compared with twin booms and two rudders directly behind the propellors seems to be a good a reason as any.
A slim fuselage with a single rudder compared with twin booms and two rudders directly behind the propellors seems to be a good a reason as any.
I've always wondered why they chose those rotation directions for the P38 because it increases the bending stresses at the wing roots, whereas "inwards at the top" (as per Hornet etc) actually provides bending relief. So the P38 must have had a higher structure weight than was strictly necessary.
PDR
PDR
FED, the twin boom layout would have been dictated by the necessity to house the turbo chargers, intercoolers and all the plumbing. Look at the bulk of a P-47 to house the identical items, a single fuselage would have required nacelles of enormous size. The USAAF had a penchant for turbos rather than engine driven supercharges as on the Merlin.
