cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/29570853
Light fighter fans would tell you everything about turn-rate, speed, and agility and how heavy fighters are nothing more than failures and death traps. But if you really think about it, heavy fighters are simply advanced machines too ahead of their time, failed by the technological limitations of their era. Being twin-engine do-everything multirole fighters they are literally the precursor to what modern fighters like the F-15 and Su-27 would become! I love heavy fighters, I love heavy fighters, I love heavy fighters, I want a P-38 to [My lawyer has advised me not to finish this paragraph]
It was experiencing “compressibility” where some of the airflow over parts of the wing was exceeding the speed of sound.
https://www.planeandpilotmag.com/news/2022/06/09/why-were-p-38s-falling-from-the-sky/
I remember reading a bunch about the P-38 when I was high school because I loved this design so much.
Wasn't one of the ways that early pilots dealt with these types of situations was to try to 'power' their way out of it ... thinking that increasing speed meant that it would possibly correct the problem they were having. It took a while before they figured out the problem with the 'compressibility' issue ... and they had plenty of pilots attempt to increase speed not knowing that they were signing their death warrant.