# P-38 Swordfish



## Zipper730 (Jan 20, 2019)

The P-38 Swordfish was a variant of the P-38E with an extended gondola to improve high-speed dive-performance. I have basically three lines of questioning

Design: Did the P-38 Swordfish have laminar flow sections from the outset, or was that added at a later date?
Chronology: When was the extended gondola first conceived as an idea, first tested in the wind-tunnel, from what it seems it first flew June 2, 1943
When was the P-38 first known to have compressibility effects? The first event I recall mentioned was in 1941, but...
Ezra Kotcher first mentioned a proposal to General Arnold to develop a high-speed wind-tunnel program, and high-speed research aircraft involving some form of jet-propulsion (jet in those days meant anything that used exhaust gases directly for propulsion, so that meant rockets, gas-turbines, and caproni-campini style engines).
Lockheed had supposedly started the L-133 design to get around compressibility problems encountered in the P-38 as of 1940 with gas-turbines as a good fit. Some even listed 1939 as a date they had first started to entertain some kind of idea.


S
 Shortround6

M
 MIflyer


 Wurger

W
 wuzak

X
 XBe02Drvr


----------

