P-38 Electric Cobra
Version 1
Back Story:
I was at the AirVenture Airshow a few years ago and watching the F-22 make lots of noise while on the front porch of
the Replica Fighters clubhouse. Vince Homer came up and joined the conversation that two other members were having
about the P-38. I said I liked the P-38 and it flies so nice in Simulation and it would make a good replica, but I
would never build one. When asked why, I said that it would be an engineering nightmare trying to get the drive shaft
under the pilot from the Chevy LS-3. Vince added that he had built a scaled prototype and he thought it could be
done. He was so convincing that I actually considered it.
For the rest of that airshow, I could not stop thinking about it and started just looking around to see how the RC guys
were doing it. They weren't! They where using electric motors and adding the necessary weight to the aft section
to balance everything. Could I do that with the current electric motors? NO, not yet but H3X is working on a motor
that would work and it is the perfect size and a little higher on the Horse Power than I need, but nobody ever complains
about too much horse power. Electric would be the perfect solution and the weight distribution is also mot a problem
as the battery pack would go where the engine would have gone, thus fixing that problem.
Design:
As this was just an idea at this point, I really did not want to start with Actual Blueprints, but I was not sure the
RC guys ad anything accurate. I search my normal places and came up dry. I got onto a thread where some guy with
links to the actual Prints the British had during WWII. He had the entire set minus a few bulletins. I contacted him
and paid him for all of it in electronic form.
Still it was going to be too much work for a concept/prototype so I looked towords the RC world again and found that
Jerry Bates had recently release his P-38 in a scaled up version. I didn't just order it, I called him to get permission
to use his design. Jerry agreed and also, he provided the electronic version so I didn't have to electronically trace the
paper scans. That saved me a few months of work.
