Re: The Atomic Packard returns

Posted by JWL On 2013/3/10 12:05:48

Hello All,

Here is an important fact I was not aware of when I wrote the article several years ago.

The U.S. Army Air Force had an aircraft that would have functioned well as a high-altitude long-range bomber escort in the early days of the bomber war against Nazi Germany. It was the Lockheed Lightening P-38. The P-38s were powered by two liquid cooled, turbo supercharged Allison V-12 engines. Unfortunately, this airplane had a couple of problems that kept it from being a major player in the bomber escort role.

First, was the reluctance of the USAAF to use auxillary fuel tanks for extended range. This thinking was later changed when the Mustang was tapped for the escort role.

Next, and more serious, was the air flowing over the wing sections between the engines and the fuselage would go supersonic when the plane was in a high-speed dive from high altitude. This condition would result in a loss of control and the plane would crash. In some situations this condition could have been overcome if the pilot would have waited until the airplane got down to lower altitude and thicker air where control could have been restored. This would have taken a very brave pilot and one who knew what was going on.

As these crashes increased, the P-38 was withdrawn from escort duty. Lockheed quickly figured out what was going on and designed and built a kit to be installed on the aircraft in theater. Basically, the kit consisted of an air brake to disrupt the air flow and prevent it from going supersonic. The kits were loaded on a transport for shipment to England. The transport crashed enroute and all the kits were lost.

The Lightenings were withdrawn from high altitude service and the bombers suffered tremendous losses because of the lack of fighter escort to and from the targets.

Later the RAF fitted one of their Mustangs with a Merlin and quickly realized the potential of this combination. The AAF grabbed on to this, and starting with the "C" versions equipped their Mustangs with the Merlins and drop tanks. The rest, they say, is history.

It needs to be noted that the P-38 served well in low altitude support roles in North Africa and Europe. It also had a notable record in the Pacific with its long range and performance. I wonder what history would have been like if the P-38s had been fitted with drop tanks and retrofitted with the kits. Surely, there would have been far less bomber losses.

Thanks

(o{}o)