Two two-engined WWII wonders (P-38 and P-61)

Wonderful airplanes. I always liked the P61C best.


Tom Tanner/Ferrari Expo 2013-Chicago March 2013

 

Wow, the P-38 rotates at 90 on take-off.
Plus, the 2500 fpm climb must be a blast.
I liked the bit about using asymmetric thrust to turn on a dime during a dogfight.
.

 

The Mid-Atlantic Air Museum in Reading, PA is restoring a P-61 to flyable condition! That will be a sight to behold.

http://www.maam.org/p61.html

 

Great videos, have seen the P-38 one several times.
I believe the pilot in that video later died in a P-38, can't remember the details but surely others here know.

The Lightning is my favorite plane, ever.
Also love the P-61; converted a plastic model of one when I was about 12 with little motors on a ~6' long pole and a couple D batteries as a counter balance so it would fly circles around my room.

Getting to see these WWII planes still flying, or even just sitting on the tarmac gives me chills.

Lots of fans in the RC Airplane community as well:
http://ferrarichat.com/forum/showpost.php?p=141500344&postcount=171

Thanks for posting, really enjoyed the P-61 vid.

 

I was thinking about those who are a bit younger than I...most of the world is younger than I am...who never had the joy of seeing WW2 military airplanes in action. I got to see just about everything in flight from 1933 until the end of the Vietnam thing. Living my younger days in Washington, D.C. put me near Anacostia Naval Air Station where I saw Grumman F3F's, Vought SBU's, and a lot of little stuff. Then next to Anacostia was Bolling Field where one could watch Hawk P6-E's, Hawk 75's, Curtiss Falcons, Keystone Bombers, Martin B-10's, Douglas B-18's, Boeing B-17 B,C,&D's, Sikorsky's first helicopter, the first P-38's, P-39's,and in 1940 I saw a traveling War Bond demonstration that featured a Spitfire (early mark), an ME 109, a P-40, and a P-39. The most impressive sight in 1936 was the Hindenberg cruising over our house in Bethesda and then watching it crisscross Washington all day long. I never thought of it then but I figure that they were running their cameras at full throttle mapping the city. So my time spent in the USAAF allowed me to see just about everything else except a P-61.

 

What was really amazing is after the war you could buy a P38 for almost scrap value. The pictures you see from Walnut Ridge are amazing, although mostly bombers ready for scrapping.

 

Like many people here, I bet, I used to put WWII airplane models together when I was younger. The P61 was the wild one of a really large bunch of models.

 

Always loved the P-38 & remember craning my neck every time my parents drove me past DuPage Airport in Illinois when I was a kid - a silver Lightning emblazoned with "Fork Tailed Devil" lived there & could often be seen on the tarmac.

 

Lefty Gardner used to bring is P-38 White Lightnin to the Reno air races every year....watching it race and listening to it go around the pylons (and in the old days partially over the crowd! ) was something to remember....I hope someone brings it back! Its now a Red Bull plane...