From Captain Arthur W. Heiden, 79th FS, 20th FG writes:
"The P-51 was a new airplane and we were eager to fly it and were happy with it. It was so easy and comfortable to fly. The P-38 had kept us on our toes and constantly busy--far more critical to fly. You never could relax with it. We were disappointed with the 51's rate of climb and concerned with the reverse stick, especially if fuel was in the fuselage tank, the rash of rough engines from fouled plugs, and cracked heads which dumped the coolant. With the 38 you could be at altitude before landfall over the continent, but with the 51 you still had a lot of climbing yet to do. The 38 was an interceptor and if both engines were healthy, you could outclimb any other airplane, and that's what wins dog fights. When you are in a dog fight below tree tops, it is way more comfortable in a 38 with its power and stall characteristics, and for that matter, at any altitude."
Interesting how some guys found the P-38 more of a challenge to fly than the P-51.
Heiden continues:
"Let me repeat this again and again. It can never be emphasized too strongly. It makes up the Gospel Word. The P-38L. Now there was the airplane."
"Nothing, to these pilots, after the hard winter of 1943-44 could be more beautiful than a P-38L outrolling and tailgating a German fighter straight down, following a spin or split-S or whatever gyration a startled, panicked and doomed German might attempt to initiate. You just couldn't get away from the P-38L. Whatever the German could do, the American in the P-38L could do better."
It is important to remember that Heiden logged over 300 combat hours in the P-38, with another 120 hours in the P-51. He gained two air to air kills, and another two on the ground. The air-to air victories came
one each in the Lightning and Mustang.
Captain Stan Richardson writes:
"The P-38 was a large fighter with much mass. 52' wingspan and long, wide-chord ailerons contributed to slow response along the longitudinal axis of the early airplanes. The higher the indicated airspeed, the slower the response. At very high IAS it took plenty of muscle to roll the airplane. I don't believe that a joystick would have improved matters over the wheel. The Luftwaffe soon recognized the slow roll rate of the "H" and early "J" model Lightnings and used it to their advantage. It also learned of the dive restrictions caused by "compressibility" and used that advantage also.
Sometime in the development of the P-38, the design engineers must have realized that P-38's didn't have great roll capability. When Tony Levier, Lockheed test pilot, visited the 55th FG, he heard a common thread of complaints from the pilots. Cold cockpit, poor "flick" roll rate, and inability to dive after the Bf-109's and FW-190's from high altitude.
The complaints were relayed to the Lockheed factory, and design changes were incorporated in the P-38L. Prior to the arrival of the "L's" at Wormingford, many modification kits were shipped to Langford Lodge, North Ireland, for field modifications of the "J" model Lightning then arriving in the theater. Unfortunately, an early shipment aboard a DC-4 was lost at sea when the Brits shot the cargo plane from the sky. It took several months to replace the lost modification kits. Early P-38J-5-LO's were modified at Langford Lodge by the addition of the replacement kits. The kits added dive recovery flaps under the wings, outboard of the engines, and a 3000psi hydraulically boosted aileron system. The P-38L's were now coming down the production line with the aileron boost and "speed boards" installed.
P-38's from the J-25's onward were what we should have had when we went operational in October 1943. The compressibility problem of the P-38 was also experienced by P-47 Thunderbolts, and was not a mystery to aeronautical design engineers.
The P-38J25-LO and P-38L's were terrific. Roll Rate? Ha! Nothing would roll faster. The dive recovery flaps ameliorated the "compressibility" (Mach limitation) of earlier Lightnings. An added benefit of the dive recovery flaps was their ability to pitch the nose 10-20 degrees "up" momentarily when trying to out turn the Luftwaffe's best, even when using the flap combat position on the selector. Of course the nose "pitch-up" resulted in increased aerodynamic drag, and must be used cautiously. High speed is generally preferred over low speed in combat situations. Properly flown, the Fowler flaps of the P-38 allowed very tight turning radius."
Lt.Col. George Ceuleers writes:
"We had less prolems with the P-38 than those proups who went active before we did. They helped to debug the P-38 considerably. Comparing the P-38 to the P-51 if difficult to do. At low altitude and low airspeed, the P-38 would eat up the Mustang in any turning contest. My experience is that the P-51 was faster at those altitudes where we usually ran into the Luftwaffe. We could follow the Germans down with the P-51. Then again, we could usually escape in the P-38 by climbing in a spiral, which was not possible in the P-51.
The biggest advantage offered by the P-51 was that it was far easier to fly, and to fly to its limits, than the P-38. It took an exceptionally good pilot to really make the P-38 shine."
Major Jack R. Hill writes:
"I did not like the P-38. Too many things to do and keep an eye on. The P-51 was a sweetheart, although a real handful at its envelope limits. I liked the Jug a great deal. It was viceless and could out-fly the P-51 way up high."
Thus say the pilots.....
My regards,
Widewing
[ 08-24-2001: Message edited by: Widewing ]
