Originally posted by Saxman
I think the P-38K article pretty nicely highlights the problem with taking parts for one aircraft and using them in another. A lot of times, there's a LOT more work to be done than just slapping in a new engine, and often times will introduce NEW problems.
The only real issue with the P-38K was raising the centerline of the engine cowl to accommodate the props. And that only required a minor change, nothing major. The engine was a bolt in. Had the P-38 been properly second sourced, so that short production stoppages could have been tolerated, the P-38K could have been phased in easily. Curtiss Electric could have built the props, since their POS prop would no longer have been needed.
Had Lockheed NOT been building B-17's, but more P-38's instead, with the B-17 production at Lockheed shifted to Consolidated Vultee in Nashville, where the P-38 was SUPPOSED to be second sourced, the P-38K could have been phased in easily, one line at a time. There'd have been at least 5000 MORE P-38's produced, that the USAAF wanted badly, the P-38K would have followed the P-38J-10-Lo, or even the P-38J-1-Lo, and been in action in late 1943 or early 1944. Probably with twice as many available.
