The problem of fuel was discussed over on The Great Planes forum. A gentleman provided some documents pertaining to some fuel problems however was it ever discovered why so many P-38 engines failed in early '44? It was mostly the H models that gave problems right? http://warbirdsforum.com/showthread.php?t=2893
Info on the P-38H from, 'The Mighty Eighth, War Manual, by Roger A. Freeman'. It appears that in attempt to cure the problems with turbo-supercharger inter-cooler on the J model lead to a separate set of problems with the H
Well it's also being discussed over on this website. Shorthound has produced some interesting documents & info. Beware False Aircraft Comparisons - The Great Planes and warbirds Community
Some later posts in the debate over on GreatPlanes... Beware False Aircraft Comparisons - Page 21 - The Great Planes and warbirds Community and it seems fuels had something to do with it. It also seems the problems happened when engines were at cruise settings.
The H model was only an intermin model that was never supposed to be produced. The USAAF had to accept it because the J egg assembly was not ready for production. The H had the J's engine but the intercoolers were in the leading edges of the outer wing panels which worked well in the 1000 hp range. As the hp climbed into the 1500 + range thes intercoolers were considered totally inadequate for full power. Power restrictions were put in which were ignored in the heat of combat causing many mechanical failures in that model. Later in the J model the oil coolers were moved into the scoop under the engine and the J's performance and reliability began to improve. The outer wing panels had a 55 gallon fuel cell installed improving the already good range of the Lightning. One of the biggest problems Lockheed ran into was the refusal of the Gov't to authorize a second production source for the Lightning until Jan. 45 (Vega,Tennessee). had they done this there would have been less interference in solving problems as the production of new models could have switched factories as they were developed. Compessability was also a huge problem as the Lightning had two different wings. The wing section bettween the engines were of the thick wing design to hold the largefuel tanks and support the gondola. This gave the plane a great climb rate. The outer wing sections were of the thin wing style for manuverability. Unfortunatly when diving these two different type of wings had a different high speed stall charcteristics and would lose lift at a lower speed. The "compessability flap was developed to disrupt the airflow. Two hundred sets of retrofit flaps were sent to the bottom of the ocean when a British fighter shot down the transport thinking it was a FW 200. As a result the Lightning didnt have this problem solved till well after D-day and the P-47 and P-51 were dominant in the AO
