Prior to WW2, Stinson built a plant in Nashville, Tennessee. After the merger with Consolidated Vultee, the plant was dedicated to military programs building such aircraft as the L-5, BT-13 and Vultee Vengeance. They received a contract to build 2000 P-38L's. The first P-38 was delivered in January 1945 and 113 were delivered prior to the war contracts cancellations. The plant operated for many years as AVCO Aerostructures but starting in the 1990's it has constantly changed ownership and names, now being owned by Tect Aerospace. It has had a niche as a sub-contractor, primarily building wings although they also built motorhomes at one time. An article from 1981 is attached. At that time they still had a few former Vultee employees.
P-38 Second Source
- Thread starter BobB
- Start date
Ad: This forum contains affiliate links to products on Amazon and eBay. More information in Terms and rules
Post pictures if you have any.
It was wrecked in 1974. No P-38 on the FAA Registry carries s/n 43-50281 or c/n 8638.
registry.faa.gov
Aircraft Inquiry
Aerial Visuals - Airframe Dossier - Lockheed F-5G-6-LO Lightning, s/n 43-50281 USAAF, c/n 8638, c/r N38LL {1}
This Aerial Visuals page provides airframe history details of a specific airframe from the airframe database.
www.aerialvisuals.ca
Last edited:
Check post above. I stated it was destroyed. The new owner changed the registration to N38LL which it was wearing when it crashed.It was wrecked in 1974. No P-38 on the FAA Registry carries s/n 43-50281 or c/n 8638.
View attachment 855806
Aircraft Inquiry
Aerial Visuals - Airframe Dossier - Lockheed F-5G-6-LO Lightning, s/n 43-50281 USAAF, c/n 8638, c/r N38LL {1}
This Aerial Visuals page provides airframe history details of a specific airframe from the airframe database.www.aerialvisuals.ca
Tiger,
Out of curiosity, who or how did you get checked out in the P38? Today I think guys get some B25 time first but not completely sure.
Cheers,
Biff
I was jet pilot in the USAF, and was current in multi engine aircraft as a copilot for a commercial airline. I rode a hop sitting on the main spar, all hunched up behind the pilot. Watched what he did, read the Dash 1, and took off. Hoped nothing went wrong immediately since I was about 10 minutes behind the airplane. Wrung the plane out for about 30 minutes, went through a fake landing at about 3000 feet, and was pretty comfortable by the landing. That's the way things were done since no one had a lot of time in military surplus aircraft back then.
special ed
1st Lieutenant
- 6,572
- May 13, 2018
As I remember, that P-38 was named Scatterbrained Kid, crashed Lafayette Louisiana. One of our local model club members was a line ramp boy then, and saw the plane go in.
Correct. Repainted and re-registered N38LL. And with fighter nose replacing the civilian photomapping nose.
Attachments
- Thread starter
- #11
The first Lockheed P-38 test pilots went from Lockheed 14's to P-38's. In 1946, Hasson Callaway was making trips to Walnut Ridge to pick up C-47 & C-54 aircraft for Eastern Airlines and he said the sales manager made him an offer he couldn't refuse on a P-38. He checked himself out and flew it back to Atlanta where he rolled it into the Eastern hangar. After a while the station manager came around asking "Who owns that P-38 in the hangar?" When Hasson admitted ownership, he was told "You can't keep that in here." He said "Have you ever flown a P-38?" The manager said "No." He said "Would you like to?" and that solved the problem of keeping it in the hangar. After failing to finish the 1946 Bendix Race, Hasson consigned the P-38 to a broker who sold it to a wealthy Bolivian who managed to fly it as far as Washington, DC where he had a midair collision killing everyone on an Eastern DC-4.
Last edited:
special ed
1st Lieutenant
- 6,572
- May 13, 2018
A few shots of Scatterbrain Kid from my late friend Frank Landry.
Although the "YIPPIE" colors had more history associated with it, Scatterbrain Kid's period combat colors look great!
IdahoRenegade
Airman 1st Class
Did any of the Vultee P-38s see combat? Seems like I read that none did-but I don't recall where I'd seen that. There is a little display about the Vultee plant in the Tennessee Museum of Aviation in Sevierville, maybe there? Given how late in the war-I assume all L-models? Looks like Scatterbrain Kid is.
IdahoRenegade,
I believe you are correct about the CV P-38L's seeing combat in WW2. The attached paper follows the disposition of all 113 P-38's. It appears about half stayed in the US, and the other half were sent to the Panama Canal Zone.
Sources the paper below, and "P-38 in Latin America" by Dan Hagedon. (For US deployment in the Canal Zone in WW2)
See pages 56 and 57 of the paper.
Eagledad
I believe you are correct about the CV P-38L's seeing combat in WW2. The attached paper follows the disposition of all 113 P-38's. It appears about half stayed in the US, and the other half were sent to the Panama Canal Zone.
Sources the paper below, and "P-38 in Latin America" by Dan Hagedon. (For US deployment in the Canal Zone in WW2)
See pages 56 and 57 of the paper.
Eagledad
Nice find!
Users who are viewing this thread
Similar threads
