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Thanks
Mike;
A co-worker phoned a friend of his this afternoon who is a
chopper pilot/owner and has an interest in aviation history. This guy
has a copy of the original newspaper report of the crash and will get me a copy.
He also has long wanted to try to find the crash site himself and has offered
his Bell 206 to lift the engine out if we have indeed found it. Unfortunately he
can only lift up to 1200 lbs. and it appears that the engines weighed 1500 lbs
each.
There is absolutely no chance of any airframe restoration
and I'd be extremely shocked if even the engine could ever be restored to
running condition, but it would still be cool to clean it up and put it on a
pedestal for display.
I've already been cruising the internet looking for nice
models of the P-38 and found several. Most people don't know what the P-38
Lightning was even if they had seen it before, so yes I'd like to build a large
scale model of it. This new house has a 24' ceiling in the living room and I
think it really could use an airplane hanging in there. I just have to convince
the wife.
I've had several offers of help to dig it out, but I'd
planned on waiting until next spring due to my schedule right now, but I will
keep you informed of any developments.
Todd
Yup I'm still here and Rusty is right... You BET I'll
throw in two cents worth here!
Now, if I am thinking correctly, the
Brit/Canadian version of the P-38 had Allisons with no turbos and also did not
have counter-rotating props. That was one of the mods. You had to have a
nearly entirely different parts inventory for the backwards engine. I don't
think there were any backwards Merlins, either, so that makes a lot of sense
in the supply line.
This is an amazing find, Todd. Charlie is
right, too. The Navy can use maritime law to reclaim anything in any country
for an unlimited time. The Air Force doesn't care once it is written off their
inventory. Sounds like you just bought yourself a P-38 my friend!
This looks WAY too far gone to salvage as
a restoration, though. Might be nice to build a model and paint it up as this
one appeared originally. That way you could show visitors what that ball of
metal sticking out of the ground really is. The RCAF might be able to help you
track down the records if you contact their historical dept. Contact one of
the museums up there and they will probably jump at the chance to help track
this down.
The number on the clamp is really not
very useful. That would be like trying to identify a car by a radiator clamp
number. You might look for a number on that prop, though. That should be
traceable.
You can email me directly about
this if everybody gets pissy about this being "off topic". This is
extremely cool. Mike C.
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