Army/Navy Planes
Lockheed P-38L Lightning – N3800L
Built in 1945, this P-38 saw action as a fighter in WWII and
later served as a civilian mapping platform. It came off Lockheed’s assembly
line in June of 1945 as a P-38L-5-LO, serial number 44-53087; cost: $15,000. It
saw brief action as a fighter and then was converted to a night-fighter, but
never used in that role. When the war ended in August 1945, this plane was sent
for disposal to the U.S. Army Air Force “bone yard” at Kingman, AZ. When the
government offered several of its surplus aircraft for sale in early 1946, the
airplane was one of 48 Lightnings sold to a single buyer for $1,250 each. Most
of these P-38s were “parted out” at great profit. S/N 44-53087 remained intact
and passed through three private owners before being sold to a Canadian mapping
and survey company in 1951. It received a bubble nose and was used for aerial
mapping. It continued in that role with several owners until 1961, when it was
purchased by a member of the “Confederate Air Force” based in Texas. S/N
44-53087 was the CAF’s first P-38. CAF acquired another P-38 in 1963 and, once
again, S/N 44-53087 was sold to work as an aerial mapping and survey plane.
Sometime around 1970, another in the long succession of owners converted S/N
44-53087 back to fighter configuration, with a fighter nose purchased from MGM
movie studios. Finally, in 1981, the last private owners, Wilson “Connie”
Edwards and Will Edwards Jr., donated the airplane to the EAA Museum in memory
of Connie’s brother, Bill Edwards. Restoration by EAA staff and volunteers took
several years. The plane was painted in the accurate markings of one of Major
Richard Bong’s P-38s—named for his fiancé—and installed in the EAA Museum’s
Eagle Hangar, dedicated to the men and women of WW II aviation.
It is widely agreed that the three best American fighter planes of WW II were
the North American P-51 “Mustang”, the Republic P-47 “Thunderbolt”, and the
Lockheed P-38 “Lightning”. Of these three, the P-38 was the first to be
deployed, the first to make a kill in aerial combat, the most advanced and
versatile design, and the only one to be in continuous production throughout WW
II. America’s two top WW II aces—Major Richard Bong (40 kills) and Major Thomas
McGuire (38 kills) both flew P-38s.
The Lightning was successfully deployed in every theater of combat and in a wide
variety of roles. It was especially effective in the Pacific Theater, where its
exceptional range and the security of two engines allowed long-range combat
missions over large expanses of water. P-38 variants were used as pursuit
fighters, bomber escorts, ground-attack fighters, radar-equipped night fighters,
light bombers, and target-marking “pathfinders. The Lightning could carry a
2-ton bomb load—as much as some medium bombers—drop its bombs, and immediately
convert to a ground attack role. P-38s were even modified to carry two 1-ton
torpedoes, but that variant never saw action.
One of the most common variants was the F4/F5 unarmed photoreconnaissance
aircraft, which carried up to five cameras in its nose. Nearly 1,000 P-38s were
built or converted as photo recon aircraft during the war. By some accounts,
P-38 photo missions brought back 80 to 90 percent of all aerial recon photos
from that period.
The P-38’s unique design offered some advantages and disadvantages over the
P-51, P-47, and other front-line fighters of the day. While the P-38 was
considered no more difficult to fly than most single-engine high-performance
fighters, pilots said it took about twice as much flight time to master the
P-38’s full potential. It had excellent stall behavior when it was clean, but
stalls became violent and dangerous when underwing stores (bombs, rockets, smoke
canisters, or drop tanks) were added.
trainer
High-speed dives created turbulence and reduced elevator effectiveness, making it difficult or impossible to pull out of the dive—a phenomenon later understood as “compressibility’—the turbulence that builds up on a wing just before an airplane’s speed reaches the speed of sound. Lockheed engineers solved the problem with a speed brake that slowed the P-38’s dive and reduced the turbulence. Eight-degree “maneuvering flaps” could also be deployed at 250 mph or below, to slow the aircraft and tighten combat turns.
The cockpit was roomy and high. The “greenhouse” started at just above waist
height on the pilot. That should have created exceptional visibility, but the
engine nacelles and complex cockpit bracing created significant blind spots. The
high seat position also meant less protective armor for the pilot. The tricycle
gear gave good over-the-nose visibility and made the airplane much easier to
land and taxi than its single-engine counterparts.
When it first entered combat, the P-38 could fly missions of four to five hours
duration—a 500 to 1,000 mile combat radius, with 45 minutes over the target.
Working for the Army Air Force in the Pacific Theater, Charles Lindbergh
developed “cruise control” techniques that extended the P-38’s endurance to
missions of seven to eight hours.
The fire from wing-mounted guns in single-engine fighters typically converged at
about 300 yards. The P-38’s four .50-caliber machine guns and one 20mm cannon
were mounted on the fuselage centerline, permitting aerial kills and strafing
runs at ranges up to 1,000 yards, and the P-38’s guns and cannon could destroy
any aircraft, most locomotives, and some small ships.
When P-38 production ended in 1945, a total of 9,923 airplanes had been built.
As of 2003, 21 P-38s survived. Of those, seven were still flying.
Text from EAA
North American F-51D N3451D
A total of 14,855 Mustangs were delivered to the U.S. Army. Mustangs powered by the “Merlin” engine are often said to be one of the best propeller driven fighters ever built. Although originally designed as a fighter, Mustangs were also used as dive-bombers, bomber escorts, ground attackers, interceptors, trainers and for photo-recon. Some planes became high performance racers after World War II.
seaplane
North American B-25H “Mitchell “ - N10V
Regarded as the best medium-class bomber of World War II, the
North American B-25 Mitchell served in all theaters of operation during the war.
The B-25 was designed in 1939 by the North American Aviation Company, and was
named in honor of General William “Billy” Mitchell (1879-1936), one of the
earliest and strongest advocates of American airpower. From 1940 to 1945, nearly
10,000 B-25s were built by North American, more than any other U.S. twin-engine
bomber, at plants in Inglewood, California and Kansas City, Kansas
The gull-winged F4U-4 Corsair was one of the finest fighter-bomber aircraft produced during WW II. It stood at the summit of piston-engine fighter technology and development, and it was a formidable weapon from the closing months of WW II through the Korean Conflict (1951-53).
bomber gun turret
German fighter
Wisconsin manufactured leak proof battery
