Art Johnson's P-38

Once upon a time, there was a P-38 model that never flew.  It was built from a Royal kit.  I thought it was cool, but not many of them survived for very long.  To this day, I have only seen one P-38 model fly ( Wing Mfg ).  Several models were considered, mainly the VQ ( Legend ) model and the Ziroli.  Other ARF models look like cartoon character versions of the real airplane.  The VQ model was going to cost me $900 US just to get it here and the Ziroli is also a huge build that will cost more than I can spend at the moment, by the time you add up all the accessories, landing gear, engines, etc.  Not to mention that it would require a new vehicle or a trailer, just to transport the thing.

Enter Col Art Johnson

He was a WW2 veteran who had joined the USAAF in hopes of being able to fly a P-38.  Well, he ended up flying everything but and so when he retired, he decided to build a radio control model.  The plans for which were published in the June 1978 issue of Model Builder.  It's a good size ( 15% scale, or 1.8" to the foot ) and should *just* fit in my car.

Col Art Johnson AMA biography

Also, check out the construction article.

Construction article from June 1978 Model Builder

P-38L-5 44-25319 was destroyed on April 7, 1945 in a mid-air collision.  Edmond Schieve was the pilot.  The other aircraft involved was P-38 44-25579, piloted by Jerry M Brown.  Both aircraft belonged to the 59th FS of the 33rd FG in India.

This model placed fifth in sport scale at the 1977 Nationals at March AFB, in Riverside, California.  As a sport scale model, some compromises were made from true scale.  The most obvious being the landing gear.  The real airplane sat at a 5.5 degree angle nose up, when on the ground, with a 13 degree clearance angle to the tail skids.  Scale wheel diameters would be 4" for the nose and 5.5" for the mains, where the plans show 3" and 4" respectively.  Art used 90 degree Rhom Air retracts.  It's amazing that his airplane weighed only 13 lbs ready to fly, without fuel.  Art's airplane also did not have flaps.  He didn't know how to make operational Fowler type flaps and left it up to the builder.  Although, he could have incorporated a plain or split flap, as Ziroli had done.

For more scale accuracy, the following modifications should be made to the plans

1.  Correct wing tip airfoil ( NACA 4412 )
2.  Correct aileron span
3.  Constant chord flaps of correct span
4.  Correct spacing between booms
5.  Longer booms and center pod
6.  Correct geometry landing gear
7.  Span and chord of horizontal stabilizer