Simviation Forums

The series continues...

Here we see an early P-38 outfitted for combat; I think this was a test flight.

     


Another factory shot, showing how the magazines were loaded.

     


The Lightning could carry all sorts of stuff...

     


Wings removed, a gaggle of Lightnings goes off to war. note how tidy they are compared to the P-47s sharing the deck...

     


Loading a P-38 in the field.

     


Not sure if the horizontal stab came free before or after the landing, but you can see this Lightning was torn up very badly, yet still made it home. Tough.

     


Speaking of tough:I can almost hear this guy's belly rumbling... like soldiers everywhere, these pilots often had very little to eat. But he is ready for more action, as is the airplane...




Next: Part 5: battle-proven

Wonderful set of shots Sean...very very nice.
You can really see how big the aircraft was by the man standing underneath it in picture #3.
Do you have any pictures of how they accessed that aircraft, I think I have seen pictures of a ladder at the rear of the aircraft.

Thanks for the set.

Wonderful set of shots Sean...very very nice.
You can really see how big the aircraft was by the man standing underneath it in picture #3.
Do you have any pictures of how they accessed that aircraft, I think I have seen pictures of a ladder at the rear of the aircraft.

Thanks for the set.  ;)

Cheers...Happy Landings...Doug

There may be pics in that mag, but I didn't scan them. Not sure where the original is, either...

But the Lightning had another interesting innovation: a very minimal ladder that swung down and back out of the aft section of the central gondola when a flush-mounted lever was pulled or depressed.

Wait a sec- here's a good picture of it that I just found:



It looks like the lever itself also provided a handhold when the ladder was deployed, but I'm not 100% sure about that.

Good afternoon Sean...

That is exactly what I thought, it has been years since I have seen any World War Two or World War One Aircraft on the ground or in the air.  We used to see them all the time around here.

We visit more bug smasher airfields now than we attend airshows.  ;)

Thanks for the pictures..

Cheers...Happy Landings...Doug