Warbird Information Exchange

Do any of the flyable P-38's have the boosted aileron set-up?
How did it work? Same as a current airliner?
Boosted all the time or manual up to a certain point?

Any other WW II a/c boosted? I think I read once the F7F had a boosted rudder????

Regards,
Mike

Mike,

I don't about the P-38 having boosted ailerons--there are certain to be systems differences in the early P-38s to the last production model so that's another aspect to explore. My old Lockheed designed T-33 jet (WWII era engineered from it's single seat sister ship, the P-80) has an aileron booster pack powered from a mechanical hydraulic pump driven off an accessory case on the front of the jet engine--a system configuration similar to a modern airliner, but more primitive of course. The rest of the flight control surfaces are manual actuated. Speedbrakes and landing gear are run by the same hydraulic pump as the ailerons and the landing gear system has a backup electric hydraulic pump for gear extension in case the engine-driven pump fails. There is a lever in the cockpit to manually shut off aileron hydraulic pressure in the event of a pump failure/malfunction to avoid further fluid loss and/or fluctuating pressure inputs to the ailerons that could cause controllability problems. Wouldn't be surprised if Lockheed used some of the same engineering in the P-80 as they did on the P-38 since they were designed not too many years apart by the same company.

My understanding is that the P-38 system works just as you describe. Most of the P-38s flying are the later built variety so I suspect they do have the boosted ailerons.

I seem to get from the above discourse that we are talking about a mechanical/hydralic boost over a servo tab boost?

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Charles Neely

Yes, a hydraulic boost.

I know for a fact that "PuttPutt Maru", N9005R has them and they work because I resealed and rigged them. It is a P-38L5-LO. It also has operating dive recovery brakes.

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If God had wanted man to fly behind a flat motor, Pratt Whitney would've built one.

What about Planes of Fame P-38 "Porky/29 Skidoo"?

Not sure about the PoF example which is a J-15 or 20 I think, so wouldn't have had them unless they were fitted later.

The Fighter Collections much missed example was built originally as J-10 but rebuilt with the aileron boosters and the dive recovery flaps, therefore bringing it up to J-25 standard.

From the roll rate charts I've seen and the pilots comments I've read, they improved the roll rate a fair bit and made the ailerons much lighter and more pleasant than the earlier versions.
Cheers

Paul