Capt. Doug wrote:

Sunworshiper wrote in message Really ? How do you find out this # ?


It has to do with something called 'P factor'. When climbing, one side of
the propeller's disk will have more thrust than the other, Designers prefer
to have the side with more thrust be closer to the centerline so that the
rudder has more directional control.

In my stash, I've got a book or two on the P-38. The Anmerican version used
handed engines--IIRC, the tops of the propellers went inward to the fuse. The
Brits ordered a version that 1) used the same handed engine and 2) deleted the
turbocharger. They hated it so much those planes got used by the USAAF for
training.

FWIW, the XP38 crashed on its first cross country flight (literally, Burbank to
NYC). The plane was coming in to the final location (Long Island?) and both
engines' carbs iced up. No serious problems, though the prototype was written
off.

One of the reasons why the 8th airforce didn't like the P-38 for escort duties
in Europe was the fact that the cockpit heating sucked. With the range of the
plane, it was rough on the pilot. He generally had to be helped/pulled out of
the cockpit after a mission. OTOH, in the Pacific, heating wasn't as big an issue.

BTW, anybody remember how many kills Charles Lindberg had in the P-38? I
gather they were unofficial, since he was a civilian....

Pete Brooks