Lockheed P-38 Drop Tanks

[MIflyer]

WWII Article on the P-38 drop tanks construction. They were made out of steel.

 

[drgondog]

WWII Article on the P-38 drop tanks construction. They were made out of steel.

do you have a page 3?

 

[MIflyer]

Good question! It must have downloaded Page 1 twice. Here is Page 3 - I hope

 

[fshort]

Hi MIFlyer:

Great story! Thanks!

Did you scan these from a magazine?

Regards,
James

 

[MIflyer]

Not exactly. I downloaded them from the Aviation Week 100 Year Archive of issues, which you can get access to if you subscribe to the magazine.
Their Design Analyses on the P-38, P-39, P-51, B-17, B-24, DH98 Mosquito, A6M3, Fw-190, Me-262, Junkers Propeller, Mitsubishi Kinsei engine are the really good items. The P-39 article is really huge, thirty pages explaining the design and construction. There are numerous other smaller articles along the lines of the one on the drop tanks, such as Building the B-25 and substituting non-metallic materials in the BT-13. In the case of the A6M3 they even got access to a captured Zero and took it apart

It is fabulous stuff and I have spent much of my spare time looking through it for the past week or so. For example look at this Mossie drawing:

 

[fshort]

Hi MIFlyer:

AW is expensive - does Aviation Week & Space Technology, All Digital Access ($59.00) include the Archive?

Thanks for the tip!

Regards,
James

 

[MIflyer]

James:

I don't know. But AW with the paper magazine coming in the mail , some digital current issue access and the 100 year archive is only $69 a year.

For only $10 more a year you may as well get the paper copies, too. I got a "professional rate deal" for $29 a year for 2017.