Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire XP-82 flies at Fun and Sun

Talk about a wacky design.

Wonder why the tail wheels were still down? Seems there's a post flight gripe to work off assuming they should go up with the mains.

Scott, not so whacky actually. First 3 NORK aircraft shot down by US in the Korean War were perforated by the F82. The aircraft had very long range, a heavy armaments and very high speed capability. Timing of production was the thing that killed it, not capability.

Scott, thanks for sharing. I had thought the F-82 was extinct.

She does kind of look whacky, but what could be better than having a Merlin engine under your butt? Two Merlin engines!

The 82 was designed to have the range to fly missions alongside the B-29. It would have been a very critical tool in the invasion of Japan. And is also known to have flown missions out of Japan into Korea, during that conflict.

The story of the XP-82's initial test flight, when the plane refused to leave the ground is interesting. As is a record breaking endurance flight in 1947 from Hawaii to New York of over 5000 miles without refueling or landing..

Simply beautiful. Bet you can't pop down to the local Merlin store and find left-turning Merlins every day.
What a pity that the right cockpit was empty.

Only the first ones had Merlins, the latter bunch had Allisons. It danged near got cancelled because Allison couldn't get it's act together. When they finally got their act together for the F82, the USAF was already flying some jets, so it didn't last long in inventory. They were pretty interesting aircraft. "Betty Jo" is at the USAF Museum, it's an 82B, which DID have the Merlin engines, and it was the one that flew from Hickam Field to NYC nonstop.

The Air Force had it's problems with Allisons, they were great below 15000 ft. and dodgy higher than that, without turbochargers like they used on P-38s, and there was no room for turbochargers on single-engine aircraft, it took Allison a long time (until after the war was over) until they got it pretty well fixed and ready to fly.

The Air Force didn't want new aircraft with Merlins, because Packard had gone back to the car business postwar, and the USG did NOT want to pay royalties to Rolls-Royce for new Merlins, that was a "no-no". The USAF wanted American engines in their planes.

Pretty cool. Thanks for posting.

Met the pilot, Col Bob Thacker, at a R/C model sailplane meet in Illinois that my Dad I were flying in when I was a kid. I was maybe 10-12 years old and leaning up against his Mustang (car). "Get off my car kid". I had no idea who he was until my Dad told me.

I noticed the counter rotating props too. The P-38 had them long before the P-82.

But the P-38 props turned inboard and the P-82s turned outboard. Apparently the airflow from inboard turning props created some weird and undesired aerodynamics between the two fuselages.

The first P-82 couldn’t even get into the air because of the way the props spun. They had to switch the engines and then it flew fine.

From what I've read, it's a pretty simple gear reduction application that makes for the props and which direction they spin in. The Allison was designed from the git-go to have them added, the Merlins were not, so there was some serious engineering going on to get that done.

I understand that the inward turning props on a P-38 allow for maneuvering on one engine because it lessens the torque/yaw/p-factor effect.
I remember seeing Lefty Gardner kill one engine and roll the plane into the dead motor demonstrating that there is no 'critical' engine on a P-38.
The P(F)-82's outward turning props should make both engine 'critical'. It apparently uses its own set of aerodynamic rules due to the twin fuselages.
On the engines that turn in the opposite direction as the prop, I wonder how much the two forces negate each other.

That's pretty cool. Flying something like that would be rather nerve wracking. Can't say I'm a fan of the looks of the -82. Looks like a Siamese twin. The P-38 on the other hand looks amazing to me!

That's quite a story!

A now deceased friend flew these in the Korean war.

Coincidence - I met him at an RC meet at Kenneth Copeland's airport near Eagle Mountain Lake (N of Ft. Worth) back around 1988, I've got his autograph by a picture of Betty Jo that was in a warbird magazine.

Here I am in 1982 flying my Goldwing ultralight at Sun n Fun. I had just built it.
We had a great time down there at the Sun n Fun!

IIRC, counter rotating props turning inboard increases roll rate or gives the same roll rate turning either direction and props turning outboard eliminates a critical engine.

The April issue of Air Classics has a write-up on this bird if anybody ever sees it at a local newsstand.

https://xp-82twinmustangproject.blogspot.com/2019/01/28-january-2019.html