- Randy Acord, Capt., AAC

During the winter of 1943-1944, I was assigned an airplane that turned out to be the aircraft that provided more information regarding problems in cold weather than most others. It was a P-38J-LO, "Lightning", #213565. This P-38 was specially equipped with 54 thermocouples located in as many places in the aircraft, and I could read the temperature of each through selectors with a potentiometer located where the gun sight normally was mounted. This special installation enabled us to study machine gun lubrication, engine lubrication, cabin heat, carburetor heat and fuel distribution problems, etc. The Lockheed engineer assigned to my project was Lee C. Chambers, a wonderful man, and a great help to many of the project officers in the Cold Weather Test Detachment at Ladd Field, Fairbanks.

Throughout the month of March, this P-38 was assigned a very special project testing a set of retractable skis. Mr. Frank Ditter, the president of Federal Aircraft Skis, Minneapolis, Minnesota, the manufacturer, assisted with the installation and testing. His personal interest was created by some problems which occured when another P-38 was ski equipped in northern Minnesota. It was damaged on the ground and never flew.

Would you believe that it snowed 26 of the 31 days that month, with a total accumulation of 34.5 inches? The conditions were ideal for our tests, and I made 165 landings, with complete retraction and extension of the skis between each landing. The interest around the base was high, especially among the Russians based at Ladd Field. Every operation was successful, even the dive test, during which the plane reached speeds up to 450 mph. The advantages were small, though. The ski loading was 640 pounds per square foot, and regardless of the depth of the snow, the skis went to the bottom of it. The propeller clearance was only 14 inches and we could plow that much snow on wheels. The skis worked well on rough snow, covered ground, or ice with cracks, while on glazed ice the landing slide was 7,000 feet. With no torque involved and the engines idling at 500 rpm, it was easy to do figure eights on the ground in the width of the runway.

P-38J-I #42-13565m while Capt. Acord was testing it with retractable skis. Only ten J-1s were built, in August, 1943; they were the prototypes for the "J" series.

It was a pleasure to be the project officer on this aircraft and make it do all the special things that it was capable of doing. While testing the skis, the right engine was flown with the first synthetic oil ever flown, carrying a 165 gallon belly tank on the right side only, with a quantity of synthetic oil just to service the right engine. This unbalanced looking condition drove some of the Russian pilots up a tree, wondering how the P-38 flew with all that weight on one side.

We were able to start the Allisons without heat and off the battery down to -30 degrees. It was a very good cold weather airplane and I was always first off the ground on cold mornings.

Many changes were accomplished on the P-38J and placed in production on the P-38L, such as lubrication on all the electrical actuators, lubrication on armament and low temperature "O" ring seals in the hydraulic system. The most important, and probably the longest, was the testing and establishing of the operation of the carburetor heat system necessary for successful operation on extra-long-range cruise missions.

After many hours of flying to collect all the data necessary, a final test was scheduled to be made at -40 degrees F or colder, at low altitude, with power stting of 1600 rpm and 24 inches manifold pressure and carburetor heat "on" for eleven and a half hours. At the end of this test I was to put carburetor heat in the "off" position and apply war emergency power (60 inches mp and 3000 rpm) for five minutes. Both engines performed perfectly; no spark plug fouling had occurred due to poor vaporization and distribution of leaded fuel. Fuel consumption; 53 gallons per hour, both engines.

Lee Chambers gave a daily report of our accomplishments to his boss, Kelly Johnson, at Lockheed. General Arnold and Kelly were very good friends, and all this information was passed on. In July 1944, long-range cruise was necessary for an important mission in the South Pacific. Charles Lindberg took this information to the P-38 pilots in that theater, and as you know the rest is history.

Norman Jackson shares with us his memories of a very exciting day in his life:

"Several of us from Class 42-H arrived at the 14th Fighter Group in North Africa shortly before it shipped back to Casablanca to reorganize in January, 1943. We were transferred to the 82nd Fighter Group, where 'tail-end Charlie' would be our assignment. On my seventh mission - March 15, 1943 - we were returning under broken clouds. Knowing the radio didn't show much, as I attempted to look behind me, a 20mm cannon shell smashed into my instrument panel, mission my head by inches! I feathered my left prop before realizing that both engines were out. I'd heard that the P-38 crash-lands nicely and decided to do that, since I had lost some skin while bailing out previously.

"When I hit the ground th feathered prop threw me around violently. The Me 109 pilot who shot me down gave me a buzz job and waved. When the dust and smoke cleared, a couple of Signal Corps guys laying temporary phone lines came to my rescue - through land mines that had not been cleared! I will never forget the combination of burning and death smells, the recent battle having left smoldering ruins and dead animals. I   was provided with a hot meal and a warm bunk. On the following day a C-47 provided a ride back to Telegma, and I retrieved the few personal items that had been divided up by my buddies."

The Lockheed P-38E Floatplane

A combined product of Kelly Johnson's and Ben Kelsey's imagineering, the floatplane version of the P-38 was to solve our fighter transportation problem to the Southwest Pacific.  At that time, shipping was scarce and equipped with fuel tanks within the droppable floats themselves, the Lightning was to fly west to Hawaii, and then stage out of there directly to operational bases in the Pacific.  Approaching these, the floats would be dropped and the P-38 could then enter combat as a pure fighter since its regular landing gear remained intact.  Delay in production obviated this need and after our success at Guadalcanal and a dramatic increase in the availability of cargo carrying freighters, the project was dropped.