Unusual photo mod on lightning!

[Maxrobot1]

Check this out...

USMC photographer David Douglas Duncan rode in this converted drop tank on two occasions. June 13 and June 15, 1945 to photograph USMC Corsairs attacking Japanese position on Okinawa.
The pilot is Major Ed h. Taylor, commnder, 28th Photo-Recon Squadron and the plane is a F-5E-2-LO Lightning, Serial No. 43-28957 out of Yontan airfield.
Duncan wrote that the converted drop tank had no vents so he found it very uncomfortable.

 

[pbehn]

That is a few classes below cattle class as a means of travel, pity he wasnt closer to the engine to keep him warm and have some nicer sounds to hear.

 

[bobbysocks]

just hope the pilot doesn't have a brain fart and hits the button to drop tanks by mistake...

 

[GregP]

Glad the passgnger didn't have real farts and have to live with them for an entire mission ...

 

[Gnomey]

Not a surprise it wasn't comfortable, at least it was in the PTO...

 

[fubar57]

Very cool photo but is there a bigger story as to why he was doing this? I mean, the contraption was connected to a photo-recon lightning. This being used for a Marine operation, did they not have their own photo aircraft?


Geo

 

[BiffF15]

All the Marines were at the O'Club laughing about what they got the Army to do...

Cheers,
Biff

 

[Maxrobot1]

The images appear in the 1966 work "Yankee Nomad" by David Douglas Duncan, an amateur photographer who developed a successful career out of it. Being appointed a Lieutenant in U.S.M.C. reserves, he was assigned to cover Marine activity. Besides ground action, he logs flights in TBM-3a, OY-1s, PB4Y-2s and P-38s. (He constantly refers to the photo Lightnings as P-38s)
For example-
13 June 1945: P-38 60 aircraft F4U napalm and rocket strike against Headquarters Japanese Army Okinawa. 10 runs 100 to 25 feet. Lt Duncan in belly tank under wing of P-38 shooting pictures through tank's plexi-glass nose. 1415 to 1600. Pilot Major E.H. Taylor, USAAF, 28th Photo Recon. Squadron, Commanding.

15 June 1945: P-38. Napalm and rocket attacks against Kushi Take, central Okinawa. 75 feet. Lt. Duncan in belly tank with plexi-glass nose under port wing of P-38. 1330 to 1515. Pilot Major E.H. Taylor, USAAF , 28th Photo-Reconn. Squadron, Commanding.

He says: "Perhaps the landing was the most tingling part of all, for Ed set her down on the runway with plenty of throttle since my tank created a drag at slower, normal landing speeds. So he took her in at well over a hundred miles an hour, with my nose seemingly an inch off the ground and about to plow that steel-grid runway from end to end."
He also relates how without ventilation, his perspiration condensed inside the tank fogging the Plexiglas. He claimed to have lost eleven pounds in sweat after a trip.
He says he did get good pictures though. However the few in the book from these trips are not noteworthy.
The bulk of the book consists of images from all around the world and are mostly of people.

 

[GregP]

Doesn't look like somethign I'd volunteer for ... maybe the pilot part.

Fast low-level runs might have been at least fun if not for all the pain of low-altitude turbulence.