P-38 Lightning (oz6620)

About this Plan

P-38 Lightning. Control line semi-scale stunt model. For 2 x Veco 19 engines.

Quote: "Employing two Veco .19 RC engines and the J-Roberts control system, one of our best designers presents a well-proved fully acrobatic semi-scale version of the great Lockheed Lightning P-38. It's strictly for fun and a dream to fly. The Fork-tailed Devil. P-38 Lightning, by Lew McFarland.

It you are a little tired of a scale model that will do nothing but go around in a circle, or a stunt job that doesn't look enough like a real plane, then you might like to build something in between - the Lockheed Lightning, for example.

The P-38 has always been my favorite plane, I like scale planes but enjoy stunt flying. so what would be more natural than a P-38 semi-scale stunter? When Ted Wiseman decided to build the late Paul Del Galto's semi-scale B-25, 1 went to work on a P-38 in order to fly formation with him_ We decided to use throttles and brakes so that we could fly both ships in for-mation and come down for refueling, For power we selected the Veco 19 RC (ball bearing) for plenty of power with durability. But why the P-38?

Some planes simply seem destined to stand out in aeronautical history. Among them, the Lockheed Lightning P-38 is an all-time modeling favorite. Its twin-engined, twin-boom and fuselage-pod configuration was unusual and highly photogenic. And it had excellent performance, and a record to match, as a fighter, notably for long-range escort work.

The P-38 began life with a bang, so to speak, when, unheard of by the public, it made a transcontinental dash in 1939 of 7 hours and 45 minutes, landing short of the Mitchell Field runway in New York One early morning. At the time, the performance implications of this 'mystery plane' captured national attention. But, although quite advanced in concept, the P-38 did not get into production until 1941, later to participate in America's comeback from the early defeats of World War II. Many modifications would be made before war's end, all the way up to the P-38J with its total of 3,000 horsepower and speeds up to 450 mph. It fought in all theatres of the war and gave a good account of itself as the 'forked tail devil' - as it was called by German and Japanese pilots alike.

In designing my model, I simply found a set of scale P-38 plans and went to work on making the proportions capable of stunting. Conventional moments can no longer be used on a twin-engine stunter because of the weight distribution but, after some educated guessing, a little stretching, and some shrinking, the P-38 was on paper - and not too far from 1 in to a foot scale. The chord of the wing and stabilizer was enlarged considerably, and fuselage cross-sectional area made smaller.

Construction could have been accomplished in several ways. I chose a box-type construction of the fuselage and pods with inlaid triangle strips at corners to allow rounding. Fiberglass should be used to strengthen the nose section or a 1/16-in plywood doubler added on each side of the mounts if you are not a fiberglass user. It seemed rather impractical to cover the wing with silk or Silkspan since so much area would have to be covered with balsa between the engines, Soft and light 3/32-in balsa was used to plank the entire wing with a wood skin, resulting in a very strong wing with only a few small spars. Note the 1/16-in sheet between the spars in the center section..."

Direct submission to Outerzone.

Supplementary file notes

Article, thanks to Pit.

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