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Hmmmm;
I saw some photos the other day that were mixed in with train Photos in a box the Museum recieved. There were three photos of P-38s. One of them had the Engine top Turbos or Superchargers that looked different from any I have seen . Can anyone clarify this for me?
P-38s had both superchargers and turbochargers. The supercharger (gear driven) was close to the engine, and the turbos were out on the booms. I believe most of the turbos were GE, but there may have been different models of the turbos. Can you post the photos or a link to them?
Don Stauffer in Minnesota
Don, I always wondered about the ”turbo supercharger” description, and it had confused me. I learned something new today - and I haven’t even got out of bed yet! (It’s 5:00 am here at the moment.)
“Ya ya ya, unicorn papoi!”
Only GE made turbosuperchargers in WW II, and their expertise in high temperature turbines gave them an edge in early jet engine development.
The P-38 did use different superchargers but both were GE, B-2, B-13 and B-33. The B-2 was used thru F production, the B-13 in the G and H, although the B-33 was phased in during H production and was used in all later P-38's. I read somewhere that there was a cover over the top of part of the turbocharger installation that was deleted, but I can't find the details of that now.
John
To see build logs for my models: http://goldeneramodel.com/mymodels/mymodels.html
Real G Don, I always wondered about the ”turbo supercharger” description, and it had confused me. I learned something new today - and I haven’t even got out of bed yet! (It’s 5:00 am here at the moment.)
a turbocharger is a type of supercharger. Most superchargers are driven mechanically by belt or gears from the engine. A turbocharger is driven by a turbine wheel driven by exhaust gases. By WW2 fighters had reached the need for so much supercharging (primarily to meet rate of climb needs) that a single supercharger could not meet the demand. There were two-stage superchargers, but they had two problems. First, the power needed to drive them was high, and reduced the output of the engine delivered to the prop. Second, there needed to be a way to control the amount of boost. The boost need at high altitude (thin air) would blow the engine if boosting that high at low altitudes.
The turbocharger featured a neat, easy way to control the boost. A waste gate in the exhaust piping controlled the amount fed to the turbine, the rest bypassed around it. The development of the control system required an unexpectly high complexity, but by mid-ww2 they got the bugs out of them and they worked fine, with little pilot control needed.
The P-59 was originally designed to use the turbocharged Allison but the charger was not ready by the time they had to get the plane into production.
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