P-38 Glacier Girl to finish WW2 transport journey....

[devilmaster]

After a World War II crash landing in Greenland, 50 years under ice and nearly $7 million in recovery and restoration costs, Glacier Girl is about to complete its mission.

On Friday, the vintage P-38 Lightning fighter will depart from Teterboro Airport in New Jersey to finish what it started in 1942: a trans-Atlantic flight to England. This time, the only surviving relic of “The Lost Squadron” downed by bad weather will have thousands of people tracking its progress on the Internet.

Nearly 65 years after the Army Air Corps squadron of eight warplanes aborted its mission on Greenland’s ice cap, Glacier Girl’s weeklong journey will bring closure to “an Indiana Jones kind of story,” said Steven Hinton, the pilot who will fly the vintage warbird. He calls the flight a tribute to all World War II veterans and a way “to make everyone understand their story.”

http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2007/06/gns_glaciergirl_070619/

http://www.damninteresting.net/content/glacier_girl.jpg

http://www.damninteresting.net/content/glacier_girl2.jpg

[devilmaster]

The story on the exhumation.

http://www.damninteresting.com/?p=297

Website to track the plane's journey.

http://www.airshowbuzz.com/

[STD]

Thanks for the update. I remember the story and watching the recovery documentary. :thumbup:

[Andrew Longman]

I saw this in the morning paper. I wish I had known about it. I would have driven over to Teterboro to see it. Coolest of all WWII planes IMO.

[nissan gtp]

I love those planes. :thumbup:

[JohnHKart]

A friend runs the company that bought it from the Schoffner estate then resold it to Rod Lewis in Texas. It's been great to see the airplane flying at Nellis and together with two P-38s at Chino last month. Even though Lewis bought it, it's been pretty cool to see him let it go to England and come to Chino for the airshow, plans that were already in place before he bought it.

John

[manic mechanic]

The girl was brokered earlier this year at French Valley (about 200 yards from where I work) and I got to see her nearly every day for 2 months...

Glad to see that she's finally gonna finish the journey she set out to do 45 years ago.

She is a beauty!

manic

[stroker]

I wonder sometimes what the '38 would have been like with Merlin or Griffon engines... I would have thought that some air racer after the war would have done that conversion. It'd be interesting to compare the performance between that and the Allisons.

Any '38 fans should read Martin Caidin's novel "The Last Dogfight". Not much as literature, but a good read.

[manic mechanic]

The girl was brokered earlier this year at French Valley (about 200 yards from where I work) and I got to see her nearly every day for 2 months...

Glad to see that she's finally gonna finish the journey she set out to do 45 years ago.

She is a beauty!

manic

Error on the math..Should have said 65
years ago.

The amazing thing is that the crew recovered the 'girl, and most of 2 other aircraft (one complete and one too badly damaged to be restored, but a good "donor" of parts for the other two)...Luckily the sum of the parts may yield another flyable bird once all is said and done.

Another thing that sticks in my mind: I have known of 3 former P-38 pilots in my time, and only one of them has ever spoken of his time in the bird... One was killed flying recon, another passed away recently (he lived across the street from me for many years and never spoke of aviation with me), and the third (the one who spoke favorably of the design) was a late series test pilot who never saw combat duty in one, but told me it was an amazing, but unforgiving aircraft and that a pilot had to be ready for ANYTHING while at the controls.

manic

[Andrew Longman]

A perhaps little known fact is that the P38 heavily influence the design of the 1948 Caddy and subsequent Detroit land arks through the fifties.

The rear fins that first appeared on the Cadillac and led to the "fin wars" among automakers in the 50s were inspired by the Lightning's twin tails. Also the P38 twin propeller caps and fuselage air intakes showed up on Buicks and other GM cars for more than ten years.

It began when GM designer Franlin Hershey got a sneak peek at the P38 before the war, and he hung onto the design ideas for 6-7 years before he could act on them.

http://www.100megsfree4.com/cadillac/cad1940/cad48s.htm

I wouldn't be surprised if Bob Lutz's designers at GM look to the P38 for additional retro inspiration. :gomer:

[manic mechanic]

Hey, Lutz' guys recreated the '52 Suburban into the HHR, just wait for the Cobalt-based '57 Bel-Air interpretation! :rofl: :rofl:

At least this time around it won't weigh nearly 2 tons!

manic