Earlier this summer, the well-preserved remains of what is believed to be Lockheed P-38F Lightning serial number 42-7677 were found on a beach in Wales by Cardigan Bay, where they had been covered and protected by sand since the plane was abandoned there after a forced landing in 1942. The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery is on the case and has already named the aircraft “The Maid of Harlech” after nearby Harlech Castle.This has caused considerable excitement as surviving P-38s in any shape are relatively few and there are even fewer individuals of the P-38F, in fact the other P-38Fs are “Frankenstein aircraft”, composed of parts from multiple individuals. Accordingly the plane will be excavated in the coming spring and after preservation placed in some suitable museum.
While the find in itself is quite fantastic I am also pleased that a “new” Lightning has come to light, as it is an interesting and beautiful aircraft. (I have modelled the P-38M nightfighter once.) It was very advanced for its time and in fact many of the problems that beset the aircraft during its service life were due to its high performance, as the then-current state of aerodynamics did not fully understand the phenomenon of compressibility, which led to the death of many a pilot who exceeded the maximum allowable dive speed. Another factor which caused problems was that the first prototype was lost by an inexperienced pilot during an ill-advised speed record attempt, considerably delaying the test programme so that the aircraft had to be rushed into service while still suffering from teething troubles and fixes had to be applied in the field.A good popular overview of the Lightning is Martin Caidin's Fork-Tailed Devil: The P-38, with the caveat that Caidin is aviation history's answer to Herman Lindqvist—a good story is always more important than uncertain and tentative history…
A Swedish literary connection is Bertil Cleve's Fantomen – Pojkarnas Flygbok 1940, in which two Swedish volunteers participate in the Finnish Winter War with a privately procured Lightning with a tail-gunner! In the spirit of the times the Swedes are handsome, upright and brave, the Finns are taciturn, tough and enormously brave, whereas the Russians are subhuman cowards. Sometimes I pretend people no longer think like that.
Thanks to Dr Whom for grammar control.
9 comments:
Thank you!
I wonder if they'll find any interesting small artefacts inside the wreck. I recently visited a conservator's studio in Gothenburg and saw some of the finds from the DC3 shot down in the 1952 Catalina incident.
Some post-modernist archaeologists in the UK recently "excavated" their old fieldwork van, finding lots of tiny artefacts and ecofacts in nooks and crannies of the structure.
I would be surprised if they found very much in the way of knickknacks in the wreck, anything that was lying around the cockpit floor would be in the pilot's face as soon as he pulled negative g, so there is a strong incentive to keep the plane clean inside. Admittedly there is often some kind of “glove compartment” (I'm not well enough oriented in the P-38 cockpit to tell if it had one) but there as well you don't want anything rattling around in flight, so my assumption (I could be wrong) is that it would mostly be used to store an extra set of underwear when redeploying to a new base, but nothing on combat missions.
Judging from the van investigation, you'd be likely to find a lot of dropped small objects like paper clips, shirt buttons, pen caps etc. snuck away in the structure.
Well, I'll make sure to follow the case and see what turns up come Spring and Summer.
Two more thoughts, musical ones this time, on rereading this post after the "Bridge over..." one:
1. W.r.t. "Maid of Harlech": In accordance with my motto (one of many) "There's a filk in there somewhere... for all values of 'there'", there's a filk in there somewhere of "Men of Harlech".
2. W.r.t. "Frankenstein Aircraft": Fugue for Resurrectionists
Heh, I have now looked up “Men of Harlech”. I'm not coming up with any immediate new words, but I'll see if anything pops up.
Whaddeye tellya!
Original article
My belief in the pristine cleanliness of combat aircraft interiors has been utterly shattered.
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