Warbird Information Exchange

Hi,

Last week on a construction site a landinggear was excavated from an unknown aircraft. Someone suggested that it once belonged to a Lockheed P38. Is there anyone who can comfirm that?

Regards,

Mathieu.

Edit: Photos deleted on owners demand.

Sure looks like it

Might be a main gear, definitely not a nose gear as it does not have the offset fork.

I'd say no. It appears to be a main gear (no nose wheel steering gear I can see) and it looks like it retracts 90 degrees to the direction of travel of the wheel. P-38 main gear retracted in line to the direction of wheel travel.

P-38 main gear

No. The large curved forging at the top is NOT Lockheed P-38. The lower portion of the leg does appear very similar to the P-38 main gear. There is nothing in the wheel well of a P-38 that looks anything like that large curved forging.

_________________
"If that's a goddamn 'Jug' in front of me, you sure as hell better wiggle your wings." 80FS/8FG Cape Gloucester, December 1943. And the entire 41st Fighter Squadron rocked their wings.

ALWAYS LOOKING FOR P-38 PARTS

It looks more like the left main gear from a Spitfire (that scissor hinge especially), but there should be a pivot arm at the top.

_________________

All right, Mister Dorfmann, start pullin'!
Pilot: "Flap switch works hard in down position."
Mechanic: "Flap switch checked OK. Pilot needs more P.T." - Flight report, TB-17G 42-102875 (Hobbs AAF)

That is %100 not a Spitfire main gear leg.

OK. I looked at some others and crossed off Hawker Hurricane and Tempest as well as Fw190. Any other guesses?
And where is the construction site? Was this a crash site or a former airfield trash dump?

_________________

All right, Mister Dorfmann, start pullin'!
Pilot: "Flap switch works hard in down position."
Mechanic: "Flap switch checked OK. Pilot needs more P.T." - Flight report, TB-17G 42-102875 (Hobbs AAF)

Thanks for the replies! The consruction site is in The Netherlands at a place that was water during the war. During the sixties the Dutch relclaimed a big part from the IJsselmeer. During that period many aircraft wrecks were recoverd but not all. The work has been stopped on the spot were they found this landing gear and the authorities have been informed about their find. There is still a changed that the remainders of the crew are inside the wreck.

Best regards,

Mathieu.

It's from a Junkers Ju 88, I'm almost 100% certain of it.

Clues are the ribs along the main strut and the design of the oleo links.



I will be interested to see what else they turn up...

Lynn

Most landing gear seem to have the scissor links on the front side of the gear leg but this certainly is not the rule. The trunion at the top of this gear leg appears to have a pivot bolt running fiore and aft so this gear would retract either outward or inward not forward or backward as in the photos of the aircraft pictured above. It would also eliminate it being a nose gear. It appears that from the design of the trunion that this gear leg might retract toward the right as pictured. If the scissors on the front of the leg hold true with this aircraft then this might be an outward retracting left gear or an inward retracting right gear. If the scissors were on the back side of the gear then the opposite is true which might be a better possibility as the wheel is often below the yoke when retracted.

Quite the interesting mystery

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Would measuring the hardware give an indication as to its country of origin? If it is metric it would be German, French, or Italian. If standard (fractional) it would be British or American.

Just a thought from what I know about restoring old cars!

-Andrew

I would lean towards either inbd/otbd extension-retraction. Question is how many a/c flew with the gear retracted with wheel positioned down, using the tire/cap in lieu of a gear door (737), or up, with a door?? the small lug at the top might be for a ground safety pin

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Natural law. Sons are put on this earth to trouble their fathers.