Was the Lightning I a good plane?
>>27960003
It was a lemon filled with too much worthless junk
We need more planes that are two plaines joined into one.
>>27960003
Yes.
>>27960869
>P-38 Lightning
Twin boom twin engined single-seater
>English Electric Lightning
Twin engine vertically side by side config
>F-35B Lightning II
Lift fan debacle
Has there ever been an aircraft called the Lightning that wasn't at least moderately retarded in powerplant choices/layout/config?
>>27960003
Good enough for Richard Bong, good enough for me.
But I may be biased, grew up around the Glacier Girl project.
>>27960003
Yes.
>>27960003
Yes, but in the future please refrain from asking this retarded board anything, or making any threads, in relation to aviation. Hopefully the subject will be banned altogether soon.
Instead, read a book
Fourth best airframe of the war, after the Mosquito.
>>27961463
>Mosquito
>an attack plane that had no where near the performance of the 38
And another prime example of why you never ask this board anything
>>27961358
>implying you will ever get the mods to care enough about /k/ to ban a clearly weapons related subject just because no one really knows anything about it from first hand experience.
>>27961606
>implying some of us didn't earn wings
>>27961555
what the fuck are you talking about tripsman.
Mosquito and Lightning are comparable aircraft. They're both twin engine multi-role aircraft that were produced in similar numbers and were kept in post-war roles for a time.
Admittedly the DH like 7% slower and the Lightning was a dedicated fighter over anything else.
And are you calling the Mosquito an attack plane, or the Lightning? Because the 'Squito was first a recon aircraft before a light bomber.
>>27961622
Fair to say, but I will go out on a limb and say that at any one time the number of people on /k/ with actual piloting experience is rather low. My point still stands, the mods are not going to start banning aviation threads just because most of the people here aren't pilots.
>>27961652
Posters on /k/ can hardly reliably prove they own guns even.
Attempting to ban all weapon discussion by people who don't have experience with weapons is impractical at best and entirely impossible at worst.
>>27961643
>Mosquito and Lightning are comparable aircraft. They're both twin engine multi-role aircraft that were produced in similar numbers and were kept in post-war roles for a time.
Having the same number of engines or being produced in the same numbers us NOT what constitutes aircraft being comparable.
The P-38 was designed as a fighter first and foremost, the mossie was not, and the 38 rightly outperforms it.
The Mosquito was a great attack plane, but every real fighter outclasses it
>>27961720
I'm glad we understand each other.
Back to the subject at hand, the P-38 was a great plane, but it did have some issues that took a while to really iron out.
>>27960892
The EE lightning arrangement was ingenious. It allowed for perfect weight distribution whilst achieving maximum potential performance due to the sleek design.
This allowed it to carry out interception up to heights exceeding 60,000 feet.
>>27961761
In 1941 the Mosquito was the fastest frame in the skies. It had among the highest ceilings and a ferocious climb angle. It literally outclassed enough fighters that four years later it was still relevant as a strike fighter and as a bomber escort.
The biggest difference between the p38 and the Mosquito was that the Lockheed craft had three more years of technological improvements over the Mosquito. The Lightning is better, but I believe it's better only because of technological and material improvement in the intervening years. The Mosquito was virtually a pre-war craft, and the Lighting was definitely a wartime era dedicated fighter.
That and the Lightning was actually made in real aircraft factories and wasn't put together by greasy Englishmen in boatsheds so it has that as a benefit as well.
>>27961874
The mosquito was not a real fighter capable of performing any real acm. It could not actually engage one on one witg a german fighter and hope to actually turn with or against it, nor could it make use of vertical fighting.
You literally know nothing the mossies performance. It doesn't seem like you even grasp what air combat is evwn comprised of or what the basic abilities if a fighter needs to be.
You're literally proving the point of why it's worthless to talk about here
>>27960003
It's purty.
>>27961463
what would be the first then? p-47?
It is my favorite aircraft.
>>27962048
Hurricane, then Gladiator, and Bristol Blenheim. All non brit aircraft are shit, m8. Mosquito 4 life. Long live the Queen.
>>27962117
I think you're joking
>>27962180
You don't really have to think about it, do you anon?
>>27962117
>Forgetting
Based Swordish
>>27962195
>Ironically posting the Stringbag like it wasn't actually accidentally a god-tier torpedo bomber
>>27960003
>Lightning I
>I
Don't do that.
>>27960003
P-38 was baller as fuck, especially in the early stages of the war.
>>27961874
The P-38 and the Mosquito were designed at about the same time, based on specifications for an aircraft that came only a few months apart. In fact, the P-38 first flew before the Mosquito and was introduced into service before the Mosquito. The reason the planes are so different is because they were designed to do different things, and it shows.
>>27962210
this desu, best service record of any strike aircraft in history
>>27960003
Arguably the plane that had the most impact of the war. It was the long range escort before the P-51 could be a thing, and saved tens of thousands of bomber crew because of it. It was fighting the Luftwaffe when it was at its height, and it did it with fewer losses per sortie than the P-51.
>>27960892
>five guns in the nose that didn't have to fiddle with convergence range or synchronization gear
>counter-rotating props to negate torque >tricycle landing gear with improved takeoff visibility
>first fighter to exceed 400 mph in level flight
Seems the P-38's layout worked pretty well.
Was the P-38 really displaced by the arrival of the P-51? Just wondering why the plane was shipped off to the east when the P-40 and the A36 was kept around in the Europe and North Africa.
>>27962964
Great answer as long as you're speaking in terms of that class of aircraft. Surely on the whole, strategic bombers had the most impact.
>>27963776
Yeah, probably should have made that caveat clear.
Although really, I highly suggest watching this video. A different perspective. http://livestream.com/nww2m/events/4477761/videos/105054353
>>27960003
Still my favorite airplane. It looks damn sexy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojYFIfOtp3A
Also cool enough for the Japanese to make it the face of two different series of arcade shooters.
obligatory
>>27963847
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Mk2cn7fn5E
>>27963849
the tail design certainly wasn't immediately discarded
![Pioneer_Unmanned_Aerial_Vehicle[1].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/bbl0MHD.jpg "Pioneer_Unmanned_Aerial_Vehicle[1].jpg")
>>27963860
Pioneer Drone too
>>27962715
>The low speed of the attacking aircraft may have acted in their favour, as the planes were too slow for the fire-control predictors of the German gunners, whose shells exploded so far in front of the aircraft that the threat of shrapnel damage was greatly diminished.
>>27964197
All torpedo bombers are slow when they go in for a torpedo run.
>>27963728
I was told that they were assigned to ground attack and reconnaissance after single engine long range fighters like the p-47 And the p-51 became available in numbers.
>>27965214
>>27965220
>>27960003
>>27963619
Yep. The top US Aces flew the P-38. In the hands of a good pilot, probably one of the best energy fighters of the war, up there with the P-51 and FW190D series, despite being an older design.
Besides, it was a Kelly Johnson plane. Everything that guy touched turned to gold.
>>27960174
fuck yea
My wife's grandfather was a P-38 pilot back in WW2. Her family usually has him hang out with me since I'm the only other war vet around, and he seems to like me. When I can get him to focus long enough and the conversation calls for it, I'll ask him about the P-38 and how it was to fly. He said it was nice when it worked. He also said that during take off it had an issue of one its engines giving out, which would caused the plane to flip over, crushing the pilot.
Otherwise, he liked the fact that it had a 20mm gun. And when he flew in it he enjoyed the fact that he had a wide range of view.
>>27960917
Not biased, Richard bong was the greatest lightning Ace.
>>27960174
>>27960003
if you want to get technical, no, it wasn't.
The Lightning I was the British lend lease version of the Lockheed P-38 Lightning.
It lacked the turbochargers of the American version, giving it abysmal high altitude performance and also did not have the counter rotating props to offset engine torque. British flyers called it the "Castrated Lightning" and they were returned to the U.S. to be used as trainers.
The American P-38 from the "J" model on was a hoss. It was good as a high altitude fighter, was great in the ground attack role with quad .50s and a 20mm cannoin and could carry over 4000 lbs of external ordinance in the form of bombs and rockets.
>>27962117
>best
>hurricane
Laughing_girls.png
>>27962117
Long live the Quran!
>>27967517
Please do. Ask him if he has any old pics you can scan in for him as well.
Lightning will always have a place in my heart
>>27968540
>lower propeller arc
>below waterline
lol
>>27968540
I always thought the Sea Duck looked more like an amphib P-61 Black Widow.
>>27962117
I think you meant to say "Allahu Akbar"
>>27969047
just realised I posted an RC model
>>27963619
the exhausts on this plane give me a boner every time
