Off topic, but have a look

[W J Pearce]

I recently acquired Warren Bodie's book "The Lockheed P-38 Lightning", published by Widewing. I found two photos so remarkable that I emailed Mr. Bodie, the author/publisher, for permission to copy the photos and captions and post them here at AAFO. Mr. Bodie was kind enough to grant me that permission and here are the photos with caption:

Bill Pearce

Pg: 162

[W J Pearce]

I highly recommend this book if you are at all interested in the P-38. Here is the photo on page 178:

[AAFO_WSagar]

Bill,

Thanks for the effort and thanks to Warren for the permission to put the shots on the board.. geez! Those guys were amazing pilots! The airplanes were amazing as well.. Hard to believe that an airplane can fly with that kind of damage.. but then, I seem to remember some F-18 shots that involved a midair between wingmen that tore the livin heck out of both and they made it in..

Simply amazing!

Looks like a great book... any word on where we might find a copy! Does look like a GREAT read!

Wayne

[hattend]

Amazon has it in paperback:

The Lockheed P-38 Lightning

[M.A. Edwards]

Amazing aircraft

My wife's father was a P-38 crew chief in the Phillipines during the war and had some stories to tell of the condition of aircraft returning from various missions. With the help of those two pictures, I can see in my mind's eye now what he was describing so vividly.

We were fortunate to bring him to Reno a number of years ago, connect up with Lefty and his crew to swap stories and info about the old days. Though we did get a few snaps, I didn't have either a tape recorder or video available and I regret it to this day. It was nice that through people he met there that day he was able to locate the pilot of the aircraft he spent so much time repairing and tuning. So many of these gents are lost to us forever now, and it's sad that their knowledge has gone with them.

I had suggested to RARA back then that they spot some passes to these veterans in exchange for an hour or so of their time in front of a video camera with an experienced interviewer so that some of this first-hand knowledge could be captured and edited for the rest of us to enjoy forever. I thought it would be a win-win for everybody, after all, most vets would come with others and the community would see their share... Too bad it fell on deaf ears.

Hat's off to these guys; they've shown the way for many that came later...

MAE - Comments@Reno-SteadAirport.com

[GWB]

...when my brother was in the airforce, he told me of an F-18 which the leading edge of one wing from the spar foward left the aircraft for reasons unknown. The pilot didn't even know it was missing and returned for a normal landing......

[Randy Haskin]

"Battle Damage Check", anyone? Hee hee.

[Jason S.]

Wingless F-15

Hey Randy you probably heard about this awhile back.
Jason

http://tailslide.firelight.dynip.com/f15wing.asp