Are any P-38s coming into the U.S.?

[L. Thompson]

Are any P-38's coming into the country from Pacific wreck sites? Which ones have come in the 5-7 years?

[Mike]

I suspect that your question will be met with a deafening silence - a VERY emotive subject and one which the owners concerned, since they have kept this information out of the public domain so far, would probably rather it remained that way for the time being.

[bdk]

Substantial parts (wings, tailbooms, empennage and one nacelle- no center section though) are available with provenance. Anyone have a Corsair in like condition to trade?

[airmanual]

I suspect that your question will be met with a deafening silence.

Absolute silence indeed ! Looks like you were right.

Laurent

[hang the expense]

[A36pilot]

I have heard through the grapevine (so take it with a very very large grain of salt) that the Fighter Factory has parts for more then one. I have no idea where these projects came from. I just heard they are sitting in a warehouse with a few other rare birds.

[bax101]

So this may sound strange, but with other recent things i have read about pacific wrecks it seems like you have to be a "pirate" in order to salvage warbirds in those regions without having to deal with conflict. Is this the reason why the people that have these aircraft don't want to be known that they have them? or am i totally thinking wrong?

[Lightning]

Howdy All !

Much of this Pacific wreckage has come from Jungle Bob who is cashing in on the American Market
As everyone knows P-38s are the most sought after warbird on the market. ( If one can be found that is ! )

Get Em Flying !

LIGHTNING

[RickH]

What happened to all of those buried P-38s we heard were dug up in the Philipines ? We all know they are there, we saw the pictures of them stacked before they were buried. Has anyone really dug some of them up ? I know that John Setter was run out of town on a rail shortly after dropped this tidbit amongst us. Was it real or just another story ?

[Mike]

Was it real or just another story ?

All evidence points to the latter, unfortunately.

[bdk]

As everyone knows P-38s are the most sought after warbird on the market. ( If one can be found that is ! )

Not likely. There are a few P-38s being restored to flight, but I don't think any of those were Pacific wreck recoveries. Even Paul Allen isn't bothering to restore a P-38 Pacific wreck recovery.

[marine air]

I'm not that optimistic on the P-38's. There can't possibly be any spare parts left to speak of. Look at how many times each one of them have been wrecked in civilian use. They are so much bigger, heavier, more complex than say a P-40. There just aren't any more of them in a farmer's field that someone dragged home behind their pick up truck after the war. Those have all been found . Also, look at the crash photos; P-38's are really fragile. They don't suffer off field landings well or people accidently raising the gear handle while they are parked.
The remaining "projects" in the U.S. are pretty desparate cases and the ones still out there in the Pacific have been sitting in those jungles for 65 years now. They are just corroded sillhouttes of real live P-38's.
The "good news" is that preserved examples may come available as collectors pass away and collections get sold off.