Michel Lemieux , please excuse me from being off the georgous P38 topic
But please let me have the opportunity to clarify somethings.
I had hoped that my remarks on the posting of
the Inspector with the use of the words "imagine" and a

wouldn't be taken so seriously.
In my short ( 20 years ) experience in the aircraft industry I have worked with people from : Boeing, Airbus, Gulfstream, Lockheed, McDonald Douglas, Bell Helicopter, Cessna, British Aerospace. From 90% of the people I have met , these persons were dedicated , responsible and aviation minded. I worked with allmost all european nationalities, americans and canadians and I never noticed any difference being proud of what they were doing.
That being said every persons ( including me) makes mistakes in their work, the person who claims otherwise isn't doing much.
I believe that Boeing cannot do without Airbus and vice versa. Businesses need a good adversary to keep them sharp.
Businesses need to take risks , for Airbus this turned out to be the A380 ( A huge aircraft compared to what they build before ) and Boeing with the 787 ( going from moderate use of composites to go the whole 9 yards )
But business make also mistakes , like the Airbus A340 ( 4 engines ? ETOPS ), which is outclassed by the almost perfect Boeing 777. There was the JSF Boeing ( good aircraft , but just too ugly ). The Britisch Aerospace BA-146 , regional jet with 4 engines ??. The list is endless.
I as a composite tool designer am awed by the comlexity to build an all composite jetliner. I would have been very surprised that there weren't going to be considerable starting up problems.
Composite have allmost unlimited posiblities in surface design and manufacture.This being said , if an uneven surface is better , were is it on the all composite 787 ??
BONDO on a business jet can only serve on purpose, that is to please the owner with a sleak toy. Aerodynamicly it isn't doing much good, like small dents are not doing bad. I bet that the amount of BONDO applied to the entrancedoor side is twice as thick as the other side.
Back to the P38 ..............................

_________________
Pim Pouw
Early Birds Foundation
www.vroegevogels.org/
the Netherlands
Fokker G1 replica project
www.fokker-g1.nl