P-38 Controls and Switches

[MIflyer]

The picture below is the best I have seen of a P-38 cockpit. The buttons on top of the control wheels grips are for firing the machine guns and the cannon. The red switch on the support next to the Left control wheel grip is for activating the "dive brakes" which actually were for controlling compressibility. The white button on the support next to the Right control wheel grip is the mike transmit button. Not seen is the bomb/drop tank release, the hydraulic pump on/off control, the control for selecting fuel tanks, and the lever for turning on the aileron boost, introduced on the P-38L.

On earlier versions of the P-38 the mike transmit button was in the center of the control wheel, like a horn button. At least one P-38 unit decided to simplify the switches and hook both the machine guns and cannon to one gun switch, since there was little or no chance of needing to fire the guns separately. The other gun switch became the mike transmit button. The former mike switch in the center of the wheel became the drop tank/bomb drop switch, since they did not like fumbling around to find that button in the heat of combat.

Not a small thing, getting used to all those controls!

 

[MIflyer]

And of course when they figured out that the chin-type intercoolers were over-cooling the fuel air charge and leading to sometimes violent engine failures, they added cowl flaps to the controls. For the 9th PRS F-5's they blocked out some of the intercooler air exit area rather than use cowl flaps.

 

[Tiger11]

And of course when they figured out that the chin-type intercoolers were over-cooling the fuel air charge and leading to sometimes violent engine failures, they added cowl flaps to the controls. For the 9th PRS F-5's they blocked out some of the intercooler air exit area rather than use cowl flaps.

What is your source for this? I owned several P-38Ls post-war & the only cowl flaps on the birds were for the oil coolers.

 

[MIflyer]

What is your source for this? I owned several P-38Ls post-war & the only cowl flaps on the birds were for the oil coolers.

My friend Ward Duncan was the maintenance chief of the 9th PRS. The intercooler overcooling was a particular problem for them, since their flights were mainly long distance high altitude missions operating at speeds and altitudes that were significantly faster than P-38 fighters could handle. They generally had no fighter escort because nothing could keep up with them and resorted to "escorting" using their own airplanes, one F-5 hanging back to look for threats and warn the other one. They blanked off part of the air exit of the cowl to cut down on the airflow. He said that some of the fighter P-38's had variable cowl flaps fitted.

 

[Tiger11]

My friend Ward Duncan was the maintenance chief of the 9th PRS. The intercooler overcooling was a particular problem for them, since their flights were mainly long distance high altitude missions operating at speeds and altitudes that were significantly faster than P-38 fighters could handle. They generally had no fighter escort because nothing could keep up with them and resorted to "escorting" using their own airplanes, one F-5 hanging back to look for threats and warn the other one. They blanked off part of the air exit of the cowl to cut down on the airflow. He said that some of the fighter P-38's had variable cowl flaps fitted.

Interesting. Never heard of that. Thanks for the reply.

 

[MIflyer]

Interesting. Never heard of that. Thanks for the reply.

Obviously the fighters had to contend with a much wider range of operating conditions than did the recon birds, so just blanking off the air exit area to meet one set of requirements would not work.

The other thing they found on the later P-38 recon conversions was that the engine mounted manifold pressure regulator would "fight" with the turbosupercharger regulation. So they took the manifold pressure regulators off the recon aircraft. I have no idea what the fighter guys did about that problem.