Aleutian P-38's

Very cool stuff .... Anyone know if P-38's, or any other WW2 type fighter had any heating system in the cockpit? .... My guess ... NO! ... just a lot of layers of clothes I would assume ....

Mark the non-poster

[muddyboots]

^You better watch your posting, buster. Nasty attacks like this will get you in trouble around here.^:wink:



Those are gorgeous pics, man! Hellcat, I wouldn't be surprised if you are right, but it seems strange that a power plant that produces that much heat would'nt have some way to vent a little into the cabin...I guess the Carbon Monoxide risk would be too great...

I guess the Carbon Monoxide risk would be too great...

That's what some people here think I'm suffering from .... .... or is it Bi-Polar Monoxide? ....

[D Hansen]

I would think they had some sort of heat system...heated air from an exhaust or electricly heated suits. The PV and B-25's had both...but there is alot more area to heat in the larger aircraft. Would be interested to know.
Dave
PV-2 "AW"

[b29flteng]

Two tone camo? Or is it just a clean area vs a dirty area?

[RickH]

It would be very easy to heat the cockpit of a liquid cooled aircraft.

[D Hansen]

Lighter areas seem to be mostly on the leading edges...re-paint due to the snow and ice taking the origial paint off??
There are carbon monoxide detectors all through the heat system on the PV...what ever thats worth.
Dave
PV-2

[ww2John]

Heat in a P38
From current issue of Warbirds Digest (January/February 2009)
"Twenty Five Yankee" on the Red Bull P38, pg 28 picture & 29 caption:
"One of the innovations that Nelson Ezell incorporated into the Flying Bulls P38 is an effective cockpit heater. The intake can be seen on the lower part of the planes nose. The original P-38 came equipped with intensifier tubes which heated the cockpit. Unfortunately, that system didn't work very well as many World War Two pilots will attest."

[51fixer]

IIRC when Stephen Grey's P-38 was restored I remember small alum lines under a funky plate on the floor that was tied into the coolant systems. Since that A/C had been converted to a Photo Recon trainer I believe they also used warm coolant in small lines in the nose to keep cameras warm. That was an early J model converted to a F-4 in TX and served in OK.
Rich

[John Dupre]

Not a fighter but the TBM Avenger had a gasoline combustion heater installed.

[51fixer]

Not a fighter but the TBM Avenger had a gasoline combustion heater installed.

Early Corsairs had a combustion heater but it was fed the same fuel air mixture as the engine ran on. ie it lacked a fuel feed and blower to atomize the fuel. A 5/8ths line fed off of the supercharger down the wing in the wing root and then into the cockpit. Unless it had some kind of pump it would have only worked at above atmospheric engine power settings.
Rich

[Larry Kraus]

Here are a few pages from a manual covering the P-38H and P-38J that reference cockpit heat.I have an earlier manual for the P-38D and it says nothing about cockpit heat,but one cockpit picture in that manual shows the cockpit heater control in about the same place as the one in Figure 5-3 below.There is a picture in Roger Freeman's classic book "The Mighty Eighth" that shows a pilot being lifted from the cockpit of a P-38 after a ferry flight over the Atlantic.He was practically frozen solid.Freeman mentions more than once that P-38 pilots suffered badly from lack of adequate heaters,especiially at low cruise power settings.

I know the feeling from flying High Gross Twin Beeches that had been modified by removing the long exhaust stacks and replacing them with short stacks that were tuned and acted as attenuators.Unfortunately,that also removed the excellent heat exchangers for cockpit and cabin heat.The Janitrol or Southwind gas heaters in the wheel wells and Scat tubes to the fuselage just weren't up to the job when the outside temp got to about -10 degrees F or so.I have permanent circulation problems in my feet to prove it.

[gunnyperdue]

Very cool stuff .... Anyone know if P-38's, or any other WW2 type fighter had any heating system in the cockpit? .... My guess ... NO! ... just a lot of layers of clothes I would assume ....

Mark the non-poster

The P-38 has a fairly good heater... but it all blows out on the left side, behind your back... so your right side gets sorta cold. The Mustang is a hot water 12 and you sit over the radiator... no problem with heat. I've heard the P-47 is rather warm as well.... don't know about the P-40.

gunny

[Tillerman]

I always thought that heater systems generally were omitted in WWII-period aircraft because of the lack of time to design reliable systems, the extra maintanance required and the short life-expectancy of the airframes?