Man builds his own P-38

[beaupower32]

Jim O'Hara is a member of EAA chapter 493 in San Angelo .. He is a retired college professor (I believe in Aeronautical Engineering) who learned to fly when he was about 60 years old. He's now 81 years old. 15 years ago, he began construction of a 2/3 scale P-38. Using information he obtained from various sources about the P-38, he drew up a set of plans using a computer aided design program. Jim and his wife Mitzi built the entire aircraft by themselves. He first flew his plane in July of last year, and has just completed flying off the time (I believe it was 50 hours). He designed the plane to have a small jump seat behind the pilot for his wife. She's tiny, and it's a good thing; the jump seat doesn't have much room. He made his first cross-country with Mitzi from San Angelo to Fredericksburg Saturday, accompanied by many of his friends from Chapter 493.

Forget the Su-27 in my other post, I want this!


Oshkosh 365 - Discussion Boards - Two-Thirds Scale P-38!

 

[FLYBOYJ]

Saw this recently - very cool!

 

[vikingBerserker]

That's awesome!

 

[Aaron Brooks Wolters]

Just shows what you can do when you put your mind to it. That's not only cool but very amazing also. Way to go Mr. O'Hara!

 

[RabidAlien]

Frikkin-A, that's awesome!!!

 

[Clay_Allison]

I hope they come out with a kit for it somewhere. I'm still leaning toward the Legendary Aircraft 70% scale P-51, but I could be persuaded to change.

I could see a scale P-38 with a pair of aircraft quality V-8s. That would be amazing.

 

[wheelsup_cavu]

That's a cool find BP.


Wheels

 

[GrauGeist]

Outstanding!

Mr. O'Hara did a great job on that Lightning!

 

[Heinz]

Wow

 

[Colin1]

Is he too late to enter that in the heavy-hitters group build?

Fantastic job 8)

 

[Gnomey]

Awesome! 8)

 

[mudpuppy]

What a great story. Learning to fly at 60 and then building his own plane over the next 15 years! Is just amazing! Thanks for posting the story.
Derek

 

[ToughOmbre]

An awe-inspiring story, no doubt about it!

TO

 

[diddyriddick]

Very nice! The wife must be tiny, indeed, to fit behind O'hara.

 

[comiso90]

Wow... he could have chose an easier plane to build...

I'd like to see the pilot of Glacier Gal fly his to see what the differences are.

 

[DBII]

The next group build will be a 2/3 scale fighter, any plane used between 1930 and 1945. I better get started

DBII

 

[beaupower32]

This will have to be a 15 year build instead of the 4 month build.

This guy did a excellent job in my opinion. A warbird still looks good, even if it is in 2/3 scale.

 

[Shinpachi]

I now understand how big the original P-38 was

 

[ccheese]

All it takes is time and money...... lots of money !!

Charles

 

[RabidAlien]

I'm always a little bit surprised whenever I stand next to a warbird in person. They look so small up in the air, and the pilots seem so big in the cockpit. My question, though, is why he chose to scale down to 2/3? Why not make a 1:1 replica?