Homebuilt Warbird: 2/3 scale P-38 Lightning walk around

[tonyp]

Absolutely a work of art, and a lot of time and labor. Thank You

[tu_alum]

There is a very nice article about this aircraft, by Budd Davisson, in the August 2024 issue of Sport Aviation magazine. The aircraft was designed/scratch built some years ago, by Dr. Jim O'Hara, a retired engineering professor from Tulane University, and he and his wife flew the airplane to a number of EAA activities. Professor O'Hara was my faculty advisor when I went through the Tulane School of Engineering from 1965 to 1969 and he taught aero classes as well as worked on projects for NASA. I'm glad that he was able to pursue and complete his dream -

[digsbyjames]

Incredible looking plane. Well done and thanks for posting the video of it.

[joevanseeters]

First and foremost, all praise and RIP to the former owner, engineering genius, and designer of this 2/3 scale replica P-38. This is without a doubt, the most beautiful recreation of ANY aircraft, let alone being a war bird, and then one of the hardest planes to recreate due to it's complex design, the P-38. The attention to detail of this recreation is something to behold. I literally looks EXACTLY like a P-38 Lightning down to the shaved rivet's to prevent wind drag, the canopy which is an exact duplicate of a real P-38, glazing and all, including the hinged opening canopy exactly like a real P-38. The counter rotating propellers also helped the P-38 fly like a dream as there was little to no torque to worry about like on most other fighters and bombers of the era which could be deadly if not controlled properly. Twin engines are great when they are both working, but if you lose one during take-off, and you don't know what you are doing and react very quickly to counter the tremendous torque you immediately receive due to the lost engine, you can easily roll the aircraft over and straight into the ground. Some pilot's in WWII lost their lives due to this phenomenon. The interior design is simpler than the real P-38 for obvious reasons but the designer did stick true to the original design and engineered a yoke assembly which mimic's the real P-38 with it's "steering wheel" yoke design, which many P-38 pilots loved due to it making the aircraft easier to fly and operate in stressful maneuvers at high speeds and during either a pursuit or if they were being pursued. Being of TWIN engine design, the P=38 pilots had to worry about TWO engines instead of one like single engine fighter pilot's did. On the contrary however, the twin engines saved many P-38 pilot's from certain death, many limping back home after being shot up on just one engine, but landing safely back at their home base. Also, if you were on a long mission and one engine failed for mechanical reasons, you had another engine to get you back to the closest allied base safely, which happened on many occasions. The engines on this recreation look very close in appearance to the original Allison engines which also had three bladed variable pitch propellers like the ones installed on this aircraft. How a person could even complete a project like this is remarkable. Especially to the level of craftsmanship he put into getting this 2/3 scale recreation as close to the original P-38 as possible, even down to the boosted ailerons, although the ones on the scale recreation are powered manually by a screw lever in the cockpit, but still, it mimics the real P-38's later "boosted" ailerons which helped to prevent compressibility. It would be very interesting to see if this plane reacted like a real P-38 and experienced the compressibility? That would be a very interesting test, if a certified test pilot was allowed to take this thing up and see if it would go into it. Having the aileron boost flap, the plane could be recovered when adjusted properly. There is a company out there that makes a P-51 Mustang 2/3 scale recreation plane that is marketed for sale commercially. It would be really cool if that same company, or any company for that matter, make a 2/3 scale P-38 Lightning for commercial sale. They would probably have enough orders for 25 years! I am really surprised some company hasn't attempted to recreate or re-engineer a P-38 Lightning (and many other aircraft of yesteryear such as the BF109, the Focke Wulf 190, etc.) in carbon fiber. With all the advances in 3-D printing, computer aided drafting, and use of carbon fiber for making machines (such as automobiles, some exotic's like Bugatti making the entire automobile (except the engine) out of carbon fiber, even the wheels. I'm surprised an aircraft company or even a super wealthy aviation enthusiast or pilot has commissioned something like this in a full carbon fiber aircraft and then using some sort of modern day really nice, super charged, and high horsepower aircraft engines, and then using 3-D printing, autocad, laser scanning, and other modern computer aided tools to recreate the interior exactly like it was in a real P-38, down to the most minute detail! That would be an achievement for sure. And again, no doubt you'd have a line waiting all the way down the street to purchase one! No matter what the price. Even if they sold the thing for 5 million dollars, you'd still probably have a ton of buyers waiting in line for one, as long as it was a quality engineered machine, not a kit. This recreation is a true engineering masterpiece and all credit goes to the designer of this amazing recreation. I doubt there has ever been a recreation of a P-38 Lightning done to this level of craftsmanship.

[bluetopguitar]

That is Awesome! My favorite plane of all time. Kudos for building this beautiful replica.

[richardbrowne]

That is a good looking airplane. Go check out the scaled down B - 17 Bailey Bomber.

[taofledermaus]

Now I'm trying to find some videos of it flying. Amazing that two people can fit in that.

[CZPODUTY]

Great article in Sport Aviation. What’s with the muggle crawling under & up the wheel wells? 😮

[linctexpilot]

Good for building twin engine time in your logbook

[mtacoustic]

Why has this innovative home built been ignored by the aviation press?

[frustratedfriar]

Wowee! A beautiful replica of one of my top 10 aircraft. (actually, one of my top 3) Thankyou for showing it to us. I'm in Australia so I would not have seen it otherwise! Is it a one or two seater? Do you know? If you go to the show again, do you think you might be able to get him to video the cockpit and lift an engine cowling?

[crackerbarrel]

Beautiful! Now let’s build a 3/4 scale F-18!

[ussling]

Beautiful aircraft. Does the pilot have to be 2/3 size to fly?

[grandsport]

Why is there no build videos on You Tube. Very disappointing.

[outlawflyer]

Eh, it's ok. Whatever is on the side of the engines nacelles looks weird. The dummy radiators look weird as well. He didn't even bother to make fake superchargers. Could have just 3d printed those. Hopefully he adds those later. I would have gone with the olive drab paint scheme.

[Strigon]

I'm surprised the builder/pilot didnt get sued by Lockheed.