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P-38


Pandacat

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Well I'd use it for ground strikes myself, not as a fighter. Regardless, how much accurate and verifiable RL data is there available for the bird? Because if you do it, do it right.

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The strategic ETO air war of the 8th Air Force was the one arena that the the -38 struggled; the high altitude long endurance nature of the fighting and very low temps there conspired to expose mechanical weaknesses that hitherto had been fringe problems.

 

The early Mediterranean losses were more indicative of poor tactics and understanding of the performance of their opponents. Their comparative performances improved as the campaign evolved but nonetheless the Bf 109 was a match in most, and superior in some regards to the Lightning.

 

In the Pacific the story is different, mainly due to the more polarised ethos of the US v. Japanese fighter design philosophies. Here the -38 had a clear advantage over the vast majority of it's opponents in speed; unlike in the west where it was up against more contemporary performing types. This allowed tactics to be developed that exploited the P-38s advantages to greater effect than could be achieved in the West. Indeed it was so liked by the 5th Air Force that it wanted no other fighter type!

 

It remains perhaps the third best of the USAAF primary fighters in histories but considering it could out climb and out manoeuvre both the Pony and the Bolt, could carry a heavy payload and with the four .50s and a 20mm (which did not require convergence) it had a lot of good going for it and has been slightly unfairly represented when history biases towards its performance in the West.

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That video from the first page is kinda haunting too. That's Jeffry Ethel, and he's flying Tangerine out of Tillamook Air Museum, OR. Sometime later he was killed flying a P-38, not Tangerine, but at the same airfield.

 

I agree with Fenrir on this to a certain degree, but as always the pilot makes the plane. Robin Olds and Jack Ilfrey are two pilots that come to mind that took the P-38 and showed the Luftwaffe what they were up against. While some folks hammer the plane for having been inferior to the 109 the Germans themselves gave it a well earned nickname, indicating that they thought it was a plane to respect!!

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I think there was quite a difference between the 1943 P-38 and the late 1944 P-38Ls and Js with the 150 octane fuel and so increased power and hydraulically boosted controls and the introduction of the dive recovery flaps (approx. June 1944) but unfortunately the aircraft couldn't shake off the bad rep it had built up.

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I think there was quite a difference between the 1943 P-38 and the late 1944 P-38Ls and Js with the 150 octane fuel and so increased power and hydraulically boosted controls and the introduction of the dive recovery flaps (approx. June 1944) but unfortunately the aircraft couldn't shake off the bad rep it had built up.

 

Surely the increased performance of the late-J or L over the H would help it be more competitive, but I suspect it would still have trouble with the 109K or 190D in a dogfight, if they keep the fight fast.

 

Another factor in the 8th AF turning away from the Lightning was probably the complexity and expense of the airplane, both in construction and maintenance. The '51 was rolling off assembly lines in both Ingelwood and Dallas, and could handle high altitude deep escort better than the Lightning. The 9th AF made use of the '38s solid ground attack capability though.

 

It's just a very unique looking jack-of-all-trades aircraft that saw action in every theater and was in production throughout the War. I hope ED will someday include it in DCS World.

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I disagree with keeping the fight fast. While hydraulically boosted controls certainly helped the P-38 in the "modern" fight, it's low speed handling made it perfect for that kind of fight. there are countless stories of Lightning pilots turning so tight at such slow speeds that the 109 pilots were flying themselves into the ground! A P-38 could turn itself at around 90kts pulling the yoke into the lap, there isn't a single engine plane on the Axis side that could match that except maybe the Oscar. Having handed props made it more than a handful in a low speed turning fight.

 

As for dealing with Kurfust and Dora - by the time both of these planes were seen in numbers there weren't quality German pilots to fly them. Now we're back to what I have been saying, that the Germans didn't stand a chance; pilots were showing up with average 13 hrs to the US aver rage of around 200, and when the US met the Luftwaffe late war they enjoyed a 5:1 advantage in numbers.

 

I do think the -P38 was a great fighter. I am vehemently against the Mustang taking any credit or glory since it showed up so late that it had a very easy time establishing itself as an air superiority fighter due to the lack of trained Luftwaffe pilots and lack of fuel and other resources to train Luftwaffe pilots. Everyone who knows anything about the air war over occupied France and later Germany knows that the Wolfpack did all of the heavy lifting.

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