P-38J 1st FG, 27 FS serial number
 

Picture of what seems to be a NMF P-38J with red tail markings, thus identifying as a 1st FG, 27 FS P-38. What bothers me is the serial number which appears to be 42-10426, which is not a P-38 serial number but that of a P-40. Can anyone shed some light?

Re: P-38J 1st FG, 27 FS serial number
 

One possibility would be a mis-applied serial number. So maybe 42-104426, a P-38J-15LO. The 42- seems obvious, as does xx426, since the 426 is repeated on the nose. Underneath the 426 on the nose is the Lockheed construction number which appears to be 5815. I don't have Warren Bodie's P-38 book at hand, but I think it has lists matching AAF serial numbers with Lockheed's construction numbers. If I can lay my hands on Bodie's book I will check further.

Enjoy!

Frank.

Re: P-38J 1st FG, 27 FS serial number
 

Thanks Frank. I also thought about this possibly being 42-104426, thinking maybe they left off the repeated 4. However, that particular A/c was lost with the 367th FG, 394th FS on October 4,1944.

Re: P-38J 1st FG, 27 FS serial number
 

This is 42-104261 of 1 FG, 27 FS, flown eg. by Phillip Edward Tovrea on July 2, 1944. Note '4261' on the nose, but the last digit is not visible on the shiny tail.
Gabor

Re: P-38J 1st FG, 27 FS serial number
 

Thanks Gabor for clearing this up.

Re: P-38J 1st FG, 27 FS serial number
 

I have to agree with Gabor that this is 42-104261, with the last 1 not shown on the tail. I have a little difficulty seeing the 1 on the nose, but it could be there. This was one of a block of P-38J-15LO aircraft, serials 42-103979 to 42-104428, Lockheed construction numbers 2813 to 3262 (I did find Bodie's P-38 book). So the construction number on the nose would seem to be 815, which means the construction numbers and AAF serial numbers do not march in order. I do not have a copy of the history card for 42-104261.

42-104261 appears in the inventory list for 12th and 15th AF aircraft of October 1944, as assigned to the 1st FG. It does not appear in the inventory list for April 1945. I have not (at least as yet) copied any other inventory lists.

Tovrea flew this aircraft when making claims on May 31, June 10 and July 2.

Enjoy!

Frank.

Re: P-38J 1st FG, 27 FS serial number
 

Glad to help. By the way, this is a great picture to me, because I did not know Tovrea's tactical No.20, which is clearly visible here and good addition to my database. Cheers,
Gabor

Re: P-38J 1st FG, 27 FS serial number
 

Interesting Frank

I never bought Bodie's book since I subscribed to his Wings/Airpower mags back then and money was very tight. His Skybolt article in many parts are many hundred pages and I never thought he was adding new stuff to the book. Anyway I trust the c/n details are the same as used by Francillon in the Putnam Lockheed book.

The Lockheed c/n looks to me like 2815, which would make it much more in line with the Bodie figures.

No idea how Lockheed applied their c/n vs USAAF serial numbers, but I doubt they were using some kind of 'Lotto' system... :). Some basic system must after all exist.

If applied upon order receipt I guess one would expect them to be in order, but there could be more to it than that. What we see are the final figures but with wartime orders you never really know the behind the scene dramas. Many production lines complicated matters as were airframes taken away from the production line for various reasons, and so on. Most were probably re-instated again while others were not. With such a scenario we can have the original c/n 2815 taken away and scrapped with the same plate now attached to an aircraft much further back on the production line. Did it happen? No idea... :) It is easy for us to then ask, why did not Lockheed make notes about it? Perhaps it was easier not to complicate the paperwork?...

I have never seen a Lockheed P-38 mfg plate, but did they stamp the USAAF serial number on it? When was that plate attached to the airframe? Do we know that every airframe which received a correct plate actually got the same tail number painted? With so many hundred of thousands aircraft delivered by the US Industry in WW 2 human mistakes were just bound to happen.

I settled a long time ago that the situation is....well, complicated, and should I add very fascinating!!

Cheers
Stig