Is there such a thing as a 3-seater P-38?

[Lockheed Bob]

Re: Is there such a thing as a 3-seater P-38?

In my Lockheed books I have one by "Bill Yenne" that has a photo of a P38 "Droopsnoot" in England designed by WWII Lockheed Engineers that had a glass bubble in its nose for a bombardier. Acting as a sort of "self-propelled" squadron bomesight,the "Droopsnoot"flew as the lead plane for special formations of "lightnings",each plane carrying 4,000 lbs of bombs. (I'll give Betty the photo in Reno."

[Leo]

Re: Is there such a thing as a 3-seater P-38?

They tried a lot of things with the P-38. Most of them made a gorgeous airplane fugly!
I want to meet the man that tried out the droptank litter conversion...
Used to do a lot of work with Cartwright Aerial (even drew maps for them one summer) and way back then they had a wall of photos in the office of aircraft, mostly P-38's, and other equipment they had used over the years.

[Lockheed Bob]

Re: Is there such a thing as a 3-seater P-38?

There use to be a pilot out of Bishop,CA that used a P38 for seeding clouds to make rain (He wrote a book about it) & he claims at altitude he would shut off both engines and while he was gliding he would do his cloud seeding. Anyone one else heard of him?

[Leo]

Re: Is there such a thing as a 3-seater P-38?

I would think a deadstick P-38 would fall kind of like a pretty brick...

Forgot about cloud seeding. A bunch of P-40's were used also, remember reading that there was a bunch of corrosion issues due to the chemicals used (mercuric iodide or something like that).
I've never seen pics of any P-38's used, would be interested though.

[stuntflyr]

Re: Is there such a thing as a 3-seater P-38?

That's the original "Scatterbrain Kid" which was a single seater. "Scatterbrain Kid II" was the one fitted with the two seat P-38M cockpit from Champlin and also retained it's photo mapping nose, thus making it a (very ugly) three seater.

Thanks for putting these two pictures together, Chad. Regardless of how ugly one might think it is, it is really cool.
Chris...

[J.A.W.]

Re: Is there such a thing as a 3-seater P-38?

Yeah, great pix, cheers..

Poor ol' P-38 really got benched in the ETO, dumped for the hot Merlin pony in air-superiority,
but then couldn't cut it in mud-moving against the Jug,
& ended up relegated [not too successfully, at that either] to the B-26 role..

Should've maybe just on-shipped 'em to the PTO, where their limitations weren't too bleedin' obvious, eh?

[Leo]

Re: Is there such a thing as a 3-seater P-38?

They had horrible reliability problems in the ETO with the high altitude and cold. Pilot comfort, turbos and engines. By the time later models solved a lot of them it was too late, it's role had changed. It did good in Africa and great in the pacific where it's benefits of firepower, a second fan and range really made it shine.

[J.A.W.]

Re: Is there such a thing as a 3-seater P-38?

Critical Mach/compressibility/low Vne issue was never sorted to compete with ETO rivals though, was it..

Not so much of an issue in PTO,- although even there, P-51s did bounce 'em for the Iwo Jima B-29 escort gig..

[Leo]

Re: Is there such a thing as a 3-seater P-38?

The compressibility issue was pretty much un-solvable without major airframe improvements i.e. new wing, etc. Not practical. The dive brake solution helped keep it out of the speed range but forget to push that button and...
In the PTO they didn't fight at such high altitudes so the problem was not as pronounced.
By the time the mustang took over the escort for the B-29's it had evolved into a better plane for the job (or at a minimum, equal) than the Lightning IMHO.
The P-38 though was the sexiest looking and sounding plane produced I think.
Had to have something going for it as several of our top aces rode it into combat.

[J.A.W.]

Re: Is there such a thing as a 3-seater P-38?

Indeed, some PTO Lightning jockeys did rack up impressive scores..

My pick for 'sexy' piston twin engine fighter though? D-H Hornet..

https://www.wwiiaircraftperformance.org/Hornet/Hornet.html