Thought you might be interested in the below news story. I've included the web-link, so you can see the story's phot of the P-38's nose. - Mike
http://www.sanangelostandardtimes.com/s ... 29,00.html
By Perry Flippin, editor emeritus, pflippin@sastandard times.com or 659-8217
March 6, 2006
pictureProfessor Jim O'Hara has assigned himself the ultimate lab project - design, build and fly his own two-thirds scale replica of a P-38 Lockheed Lightning.
The retired aeronautical engineer from Tulane University has been working on the airplane for 11 years, a project he started from scratch.
''I always thought I'd reach a point where I wouldn't know what to do and I'd quit, but I haven't yet,'' he said recently, while standing beside his gleaming creation in his hangar at San Angelo Regional Airport/Mathis Field.
At 77, O'Hara has learned the value of patience, meticulously fashioning each component in the 3,000-pound flying machine. He settled on two-thirds scale after calculating the smallest he could build it and still accommodate two people. He won't say how much money he has spent.
At the beginning of World War II, the twin-engine, twin-boom Lightning was the fastest plane, but its wide turning radius made it a poor dogfighter. German aviators called the P-38 the ''Gabelschwanzteufel'' (meaning ''Fork Tail Devil'') because they couldn't overtake it.
''Right now, I'm working on the cowlings,'' O'Hara said. ''There's a lot of engineering involved.''
Cowlings cover the two 220-horsepower Continental engines, streamlining the surface and directing the airflow past the cylinders and cooling fins. The job could take six months.
His other big job will involve fairings, elements where the wing intersects with the fuselage and engine mounts. Without fairings, the plane encounters excessive turbulence and buffeting.
O'Hara said he has been building airplanes since the age of 12, although never on a scale this grand. His plane's wingspan is 38 feet.
He tried to become a pilot in the Air Force, but was rejected because he is colorblind.
''I didn't start flying until 1990,'' he said. ''I was 62. I've been at it ever since. Flying changes your life.''
When he retired in 1994, O'Hara and his wife, Mitzi, decided to leave New Orleans. Both had attended the University of Texas, and they wanted to return to the state.
They surveyed several cities, including Corpus Christi, but settled on San Angelo mostly because they regarded Mathis Field's aircraft facilities superior to all others.
The following year, O'Hara gathered some information about the distinctive P-38 and embarked on a plan to build a scaled-down version. His 87-year-old mentor in New Orleans told O'Hara he was crazy.
Homebuilt kits for such warbirds as P-51 Mustangs are much easier to build, but O'Hara wasn't interested in a kit plane.
''This was a one-person airplane, and I was trying to make a seat in the back for my wife,'' he recalled. ''I built a wooden mock-up of the fuselage. We're both about two-thirds size.''
Without Computer Aided Design (CAD), he never could have completed the plane's blueprints.
He satisfied himself that he could build ribs, then attach them to the main wing spar.
''One of the challenges is you build something and see if you can fit the next piece onto it,'' O'Hara said. ''So far, it hasn't fallen down.''
Engines have been tricky. He tried pre-war inverted inline engines, but parts were scarce. He settled on horizontally opposed engines from a scrapped Seneca that landed with its wheels up. The oversize engines will create slight bulges in the otherwise streamlined airframe.
Most of the instruments are already installed beneath the canopy made of Lexan,which resembles Plexiglas.
He expects the plane will fly faster - 200 miles per hour - than he usually flies in his Meyers 200.
Range? ''I hope it gets to the next gas station.''
Besides, it won't be a comfortable ride, so one hour in the air will be about all the enjoyment O'Hara can stand.
Mitzi said her husband's project has been enjoyable for her, too.
''I never considered his project to be a waste of time, money or effort,'' she told me.
The retired engineer has been serious about protecting his privacy.
''I'm known out here as the old guy who keeps the door closed,'' he said, adding that people have left him alone to work. ''You have to like this and come out every day.''
Last October, O'Hara agreed to roll out his fighter for the annual air show if it would taxi under its own power.
''I got the engines started,'' he recalled. ''That was kind of a thrill.
''It will be a thrill to step in it and try to take off, but that's a long way away.
''I've been 90 percent finished for about two years,'' O'Hara quipped, while predicting his maiden flight could come in 2007. ''That means I have only 50 percent to go.''
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All metal construction, and probably big enough to fit into comfortably I would guess.
