Good High-high quality Plastic Mould pictures

Good High-high quality Plastic Mould pictures

Verify out these high-good quality plastic mould images:

Nomination 49 – Components – Controlled Crystallization Rate to Eradicate Paint
high-quality plastic mould
Image by spe.automotive
CONTROLLED CRYSTALLIZATION Rate TO Get rid of PAINT
•OEM Make &amp Model: Ford Motor Co. 2013MY Ford Escape CUV &amp Fusion® sedan, &amp Lincoln® MKZ® luxuary sedan
•Tier Supplier/Processor: TRW Automotive, Essential Plastics LLC
•Material Supplier / Toolmaker: Asahi Kasei Plastics North America / Liberty Molds, Inc., J&ampJ Tool &amp Mold Ltd.
•Material / Approach: Leona® 90G60 B3374 PA six/6 / 6I / injection molding
•Description: In order to assistance greater design freedom for any shape and length register vanes even though meeting stiffness, durability, and perceived high quality needs, a partially aromatic injection-molded PA six/six / 6I resin was utilised to enhance modulus without having growing wall thickness or adding glass reinforcement to obtain a high-top quality, MIC Class A surface without paint. Owing to the &quotkinked&quot crystalline structure of the semi-aromatic PA resin, crystallization rate can be better controlled, so components fully pack out ahead of skins freeze off, leading to a resin-wealthy surface with a smoother surface and much better look, eliminating the need to paint.

Image from web page 1040 of “Hardware merchandising March-June 1921” (1921)
high-quality plastic mould
Image by World wide web Archive Book Images
Identifier: hardmerchmarjun1921toro
Title: Hardware merchandising March-June 1921
Year: 1921 (1920s)
Authors:
Subjects: Hardware business Hardware Implements, utensils, and so on Developing
Publisher: Toronto :
Contributing Library: Fisher – University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: Algoma University, Trent University, Lakehead University, Laurentian University, Nipissing University, Ryerson University and University of Toronto Libraries

View Book Web page: Book Viewer
About This Book: Catalog Entry
View All Images: All Photos From Book

Click right here to view book on-line to see this illustration in context in a browseable on-line version of this book.

Text Appearing Just before Image:
. T. S. Simms &amp Co., Ltd.. Fairville, St. John. N.B. Stevens-Hepner Co., Ltd., Port Elgin. Ont.BRUSHES, General. Makers The Boeckh Firm. Restricted. Toronto, Ont. Meakins &amp Sons. Ltd., Hamilton, Ont. T. S. Simms &amp Co., Ltd., Fairville, St. John. N B Stevens-Hepner Co.. Ltd., Port Elgin. Ont.BRUSHES, SCRUB, SHOE AND STOVE MANU-FACTURERS The Boeckh Organization. Restricted. Toronto, Ont. Meakins and Sons. Limited. Hamilton, Ont. T. S. Simms &amp Co., Ltd., Fairville. St. John. N.B. Stevens-Hepner Co., Ltd., Port Elgin, Ont.Building PAPERS The Barrett Co., Ltd. D. J. Ladd &amp Co.. Winnipeg. Man. Alex. McArthur &amp Co.. Montreal. Que.BURLAP, DECORATIVE WALL The Dominion Oilcloth &amp Linoleum Co., Ltd.,Montreal.Business MACHINES The International Company Machines Ltd., Toronto. The National Money Register Co., Toronto.BUTTER MOLDS Wm. Cane &amp Sons Co., Ltd , Newmarket, Ont. Walter Woods &amp Co., Hamilton. Can. May 21, 1921 HARDWARE AND METAL— Advertising Section 83

Text Appearing After Image:
First Sales .Easy—Repeat Sales Sure When you handle Barrett Items youare aided by two robust promoting forces: (1) Our big national advertising cam-paign in the major newspapers, farmjournals and technical magazines. Thisadvertising is generating new business forBarrett Dealers in every city, town andvillage throughout the Dominion. (2) The higher top quality of the productsthemselves. This keeps the business. Therailroads, the huge industrial concerns,and a lot of thousands of person usersknow from their own knowledge that theBarrett trade-mark stands for confident de-pendability and sound economy. Are you carrying all these renowned BarrettProducts? Take up your pencil and check thi.- list. Everlastic Rubber Roofing Everlastic Liquid Roofing Cement Plastic Elastigum Patching Cement Liquid Elastigum Everjet Elastic Carbon Paint Creonoid (Ply Oil) Lice Destroyerand Cow Spray The demand for these goods far ex-ceeds the demand for any equivalent productson the Canadian marketplace. Their sale is in-

Note About Photos
Please note that these images are extracted from scanned web page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability – coloration and look of these illustrations may not completely resemble the original operate.

At some point, I will commence to save cash
high-quality plastic mould
Image by churl
I went out to Bed Bath and Beyond, because Williams and Sonoma has been unkind of my budget, and after some careful consideration, I picked up this mandolin. If you’ve by no means employed a single, it really is awful handy for big time slicing jobs, where you need to have every thing reduce to uniform size (aka all Asian cooking). Now, I’m quite good with a knife, but cutting an whole cucumber or carrot to slices or (God forbid) julienne, and getting almost everything come out the identical size, you’ve got to be kidding.

So I invested in a mandolin, and 1 that will last. It is not the greatest, but it’s a lot far better than the plastic crap ones out there. It’s constructed properly. I feel like items with blades must be of high good quality.

That being mentioned, my mom has really crappy knives and a mandolin produced of molded plastic.

Good Pc Moulding Components Produced In China images

Good Pc Moulding Components Produced In China images

A couple of good pc moulding parts made in china pictures I identified:

The Chengjiang Lagerstätte and the Cambrian Explosion: New Discoveries from China about the Early Evolution of Life
pc moulding parts made in china
Image by James St. John
These are my personal notes taken during a geology presentation. I give them here due to the fact they may possibly be of some interest. Do not expect them to constantly be in complete sentences, etc.
———————————–
The Chengjiang Lagerstätte and the Cambrian Explosion: New Discoveries from China about the Early Evolution of Life

Presented by: Loren Babcock (Department of Geological Sciences, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, USA) (earthsciences.osu.edu/people/babcock.five)

12 May possibly 1998
———-
[Note: this speak presents the then-current understanding of the Chengjiang fossil deposit – significantly data has because been revised.]
———-
The Chengjiang is emerging as one of the most important lagerstätten on Earth. (pictures.wikimapia.org/p/00/00/87/86/15_big.jpg) It dates to the latter stages of the Cambrian Explosion. It is 540-535/536 million years old – not a nicely constrained age. The Chengjiang is one of the few lagerstätten that represents a point inside the Cambrian Explosion. The Burgess Shale has broadly been heralded as representing the Cambrian Explosion, but it isn’t – there is at least 1 major extinction amongst the Cambrian Explosion and the Burgess Shale.

The Cambrian is not the time of the initial appearance of organisms, or even metazoans and metaphytes. Life starts at 3.55 billion years ago with procaryotes and eucaryotes at 2.1 billion years. At 1.two billion years, one particular sees the first multicellular algae. Cnidarians and sponges are present before the Cambrian. Ediacaran organisms (570-650 million years old) are also around ahead of the Cambrian. (www.flickr.com/photographs/jsjgeology/albums/72157647055182319) Evolutionary connections amongst these Precambrian life forms are unclear. At the Precambrian-Cambrian boundary is a dramatic appearance of most major clades of organisms (&gt95% of creatures right now appeared at the Precambrian-Cambrian boundary). At the Precambrian-Cambrian boundary, there is dramatic proof that multicellular organisms were active all over the Earth – lots of trace fossils. The boundary is defined by a trace fossil, Phycodes pedum. (geokogud.info/git/specimen_image/181/preview/181-1.jpg)

Tiny shelly fossils (SSFs) became abundant soon after the Pc-C boundary. (palaeo.gly.bris.ac.uk/Palaeofiles/Cambrian/fossils/ssf/ss…) They represent disarticulated sclerites worn by organisms with several kinds of sclerites. In South China, ~100-150 meters above the Pc-C boundary (not confident how a lot above, although – the Pc-C boundary is unclear – lots of faulting and unconformities) is a fairly typical Cambrian assemblage – trilobites (mineralized), brachiopods, sponge spicules, echinoderms (rare), hyoliths, and molluscs – a low diversity assemblage. Apart from Burgess Shale and Chengjiang, the Cambrian Explosion would be reasonably tiny identified. Lagerstätten are deposits of exceptional preservation – nonmineralized cuticle is common, and gut contents are less typical.

The Burgess Shale is renowned – ~515-520 million years old (= 15-20 million years soon after the Cambrian Explosion) – identified from a series of middle Middle Cambrian internet sites in British Columbia, Canada, in Yoho National Park. Lots of trilobites (student.societyforscience.org/sites/student.societyforsci…), brachiopods (www.museumwales.ac.uk/media/7869/thumb_480/popov-five.jpg), and non-shell-bearing organisms. Internal soft component-bearing organisms are celebrated. The mode of preservation of the Burgess Shale is unknown. There’s legs with cuticle on trilobites (like Olenoides – www.trilobites.information/Olenoides.jpg). How this leg cuticle got preserved is unknown. Function on Chengjiang helps to realize the mode of preservation. The Burgess Shale has been metamorphosed, destroying the original signature. Why are Burgess Shale-variety biotas essential? They have nonmineralized creatures (+ internal soft parts/organs) preserved – they tell us about physique organization they preserve for us a record that is a lot more complete than most rocks show. There are five-6 clades of typical Cambrian creatures. A Burgess Shale-sort deposit has &gt15-20 major clades of creatures. Also, they are critical because they are in an critical interval in Earth history. At least, they are at occasions close to the Cambrian Explosion.

Exactly where are Burgess Shale-variety biotas located? About two dozen internet sites have been identified in the Cambrian. The Burgess Shale is along the Cordilleran margin of Laurentia. The Cordilleran margin has yielded ~20 or so Burgess Shale-type deposits. Most other Cambrian Burgess Shale-sort deposits are from Gondwana. The Chengjiang is on the Yangtze Platform, on the edge of Gondwana. The Cambrian was a time of relatively dramatic sea level (eustatic) rise. There are two excellent Reduce Cambrian lagerstätten – Sirius Passet (a Laurentian deposit in North Greenland – now believed to be older than Chengjiang, but much less diverse) and Chengjiang.

Chengjiang deposit – a series of Early Cambrian websites (a dozen or so websites) in Yunnan, China. ~535 million years old at the leading &amp ~540 million years old at the bottom (an overestimate?). Shelly &amp non-shelly creatures are there, several with soft components preserved. Chengjiang stratigraphy – has been revised the lithostratigraphy and allostratigraphy has now been worked out. Lots of unconformities (most previously unrecognized) and faulting make understanding the stratigraphy hard. Some ages have been revised as properly. Have also revised the Proterozoic part of the stratigraphy.

Chengjiang deposit – yellow shales, some siltstone/sandstone in the Yuanshan Member of Heilinpu Formation. The Chengjiang can be characterized as the whole Yuanshan Member, or as pods/lentils inside the Yuanshan Member. Preserved soft parts are 1-two meters above the 1st trilobites on Earth, and 200 meters above the initial little shelly fossils in China. Exactly where that relates to the Avalonian section is unknown: no a lot more than 400 meters above, no significantly less than 200 meters above. The Chengjiang is before the 1st archaeocyathans in the Chinese sections. The Chengjiang is known from a number of localities, but the very best is the original locality – Maotianshan (“hat-shaped mountain”). Situations are typically rainy there, making field operate tough. The hillside is fairly much cleared off. There are phosphate mines in the Meishucunian in the location [= Meishucun Stage, decrease Reduce Cambrian]. Material weathers very swiftly – the shale weathers to mud in the rain just before your eyes.

Depositional environment of the Chengjiang – initially based on the Burgess Shale – believed to be an anoxic basin adjacent to the base of the Cathedral Reef, where fossils have been washed down by slumps, where they had been stunned, buried, and preserved. This model has been applied to all other Cambrian lagerstätten. However, the Burgess Shale model jives with its geologic proof. It does not actually apply elsewhere. The model has been applied to Chengjiang. Interpretation – creatures living in shallow, nearshore setting &amp washed downslope into a deeper anoxic area like Burgess Shale. So, inferring turbidites.

Matrix of Chengjiang samples – not black shale. A black shale unit does exist subjacent to the Yuanshan Member – it is reduce in the Heilinpu Formation – there no exceptionally preserved fossils there – only a handful of pelagic trilobites. So, the black shale model doesn’t function with Chengjiang. Chengjiang has pinstripe bedding – like tidal rhythmites – combine that with a setting in a shallow marine platform, with occasional proof of fluvial/flood deposits entering the principal basin. Some bacteria look like they had been desiccated and rewashed out. Deposited in a tidally influenced setting, it is concluded – lagoonal, estuarine – this explains the strange faunal variation from one particular locality to the next. A couple of supratidal locations? Areas of fluctuating salinity – why they were preserved – get tough component remains like trilobites + nonmineralized organisms (which includes appendages).

Trilobites are preserved as internal molds of once-calcitic skeletons. Other soft bodied creatures are entire body fossils – have been phosphatized (fluorapatite). So, Cambrian (&amp Pennsylvanian) lagerstätten are preserved because of thin phosphatic deposition (7-ten days to 3 weeks following death). Can get phosphatization if salinity fluctuations knock out bacterial biodegraders and scavengers. Saltwater creatures decay gradually in freshwater and vice versa. Saltwater creatures decay speedily in saltwater and vice versa.

Chengjiang creatures – some are Proterozoic holdovers (like spiral bluegreen bacteria). The overall composition of creatures at Chengjiang (we have a census of &gt3000 specimens) – arthropods dominate the biota. The subsequent most abundant group (~30% of the biota) is bacteria &amp algae remains, talhough it is hard to quantify broken thalli and clumps of organisms. Every thing else (which includes “typical” Cambrian creatures) is &lt3% of the Chengjiang biota. Arthropods dominated the living Chengjiang communities, just like today. Arthropods right now are 90-95% of all animals on Earth, in terms of number of species. New arthropods are continually getting described from Chengjiang. Most organisms (including tough-part fossils) are not abundant.

Nonmineralized creatures (97% of biota) – they stand nearly no opportunity of being preserved under regular circumstances. So, 97% of a Cambrian community does not normally get preserved.

Holdover from the Proterozoic – there is a single type of frond-like/seapen-like fossil related to Charniodiscus (paleontology.edwardtbabinski.us/vendian/ediacaran_fossil.jpg). If it is connected to Charniodiscus, it is clear that there have been Ediacaran holdovers. The Chengjiang frond-like fossil was found close to the best of the Chengjiang zone – a single specimen was found lying atop a trilobite sclerite.

Sponges are typical – clearly holdovers from the Proterozoic. Proterozoic sponges are known.

A single mollusc specimen – the earliest mollusc on Earth.

Nonmineralized animals – worms (priapulids with everted heads &amp have sediment-filled guts), arthropods. Arthropods consist of massive bivalved items, naraoiids (&quotsoft-bodied trilobites&quot – a bit strange have walking appendages, gills, gut tract, attachment points for muscles for legs), earliest chelicerate (possibly) – a primitive scorpion? No definitive chelicerates are recognized before in the Cambrian. In the Burgess Shale, there is a single chelicerate, but it is a bit problematic – that a single lacks chelicerae. The Chengjiang has a chelicerae-bearing arthropod. Chengjiang also has an early chordate, according to some (Yunnanozoon – palaeo-electronica.org/2000_1/fossils/photos/fig_6a.jpg) – it is an early protochordate according to some researchers, but a hemichordate according to other folks. There are also strange things – Eldonia pineapple rings – strange (www.fossilmuseum.net/Fossil_Websites/Chengjiang/Eldonia-eumo…). Also anomalocaridids – big, with ferocious mouth components – 3 meters long. (lejournal.cnrs.fr/internet sites/default/files/styles/lightbox-hd/…)

Chengjiang tells us that the Cambrian Explosion was quite rapid – much more speedy than previously believed. Significant body plans appeared early. There was considerable physique program experimentation (most went extinct). Predation was an critical aspect. Complicated nervous systems created early.
Sea pen interpretation – the dilemma is we never see soft components. We by no means see a single tentacle from these, regardless of fossil hydroids getting them in the Mazon Creek Lagerstätte. Ediacaran holdovers in the Chengjiang are in the bases of tempestites, not in the shales.
The Chengjiang stuff is all clearly transported (parautochthonous). We do not know regardless of whether they had been alive or dead when transported.
There are laterally adjacent fluvial deposits. Some sandstones near the best of these sections are channels.
Often a kneejerk reaction: lagerstätten imply anoxic basins. But, this does not function at Chengjiang.
————–

Good China Precision Plastic Injection Molding Factory photos

Good China Precision Plastic Injection Molding Factory photos

Some cool china precision plastic injection molding factory pictures:

Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center: British Hawker Hurricane, with P-38 Lightning and B-29 Enola Gay behind it
china precision plastic injection molding factory
Image by Chris Devers
Quoting Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum | Hawker Hurricane Mk. IIC:

Hawker Chief Designer Sydney Camm’s Hurricane ranks with the most important aircraft designs in military aviation history. Made in the late 1930s, when monoplanes were regarded as unstable and as well radical to be successful, the Hurricane was the initial British monoplane fighter and the 1st British fighter to exceed 483 kilometers (300 miles) per hour in level flight. Hurricane pilots fought the Luftwaffe and helped win the Battle of Britain in the summer of 1940.

This Mark IIC was built at the Langley factory, near what is now Heathrow Airport, early in 1944. It served as a education aircraft for the duration of the World War II in the Royal Air Force’s 41 OTU.

Donated by the Royal Air Force Museum

Manufacturer:
Hawker Aircraft Ltd.

Date:
1944

Nation of Origin:
United Kingdom

Dimensions:
Wingspan: 12.two m (40 ft)
Length: 9.8 m (32 ft 3 in)
Height: four m (13 ft)
Weight, empty: 2,624 kg (five,785 lb)
Weight, gross: three,951 kg (8,710 lb)
Best speed:538 km/h (334 mph)
Engine:Rolls-Royce Merlin XX, liquid-cooled in-line V, 1,300 hp
Armament:4 20 mm Hispano cannons
Ordnance:two 250-lb or two 500-lb bombs or eight 3-in rockets

Materials:
Fuselage: Steel tube with aircraft spruce types and fabric, aluminum cowling
Wings: Stressed Skin Aluminum
Horizontal Stablizer: Tension Skin aluminum
Rudder: fabric covered aluminum
Manage Surfaces: fabric covered aluminum

Physical Description:
Hawker Hurricane Mk. IIC single seat, low wing monoplane ground attack fighter enclosed cockpit steel tube fuselage with aircraft spruce forms and fabric, aluminum cowling, stressed skin aluminum wings and horizontal stablizer, fabric covered aluminum rudder and control surfaces grey green camoflage top surface paint scheme with dove grey underside red and blue national roundel on upper wing surface and red, white, and blue roundel decrease wing surface red, white, blue, and yellow roundel fuselage sides red, white and blue tail flash Rolls-Royce Merlin XX, liquid cooled V-12, 1,280 horsepower engine Armament, 4: 20mm Hispano cannons.

• • • • •

Quoting Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum | Boeing B-29 Superfortress &quotEnola Gay&quot:

Boeing’s B-29 Superfortress was the most sophisticated propeller-driven bomber of World War II and the very first bomber to residence its crew in pressurized compartments. Although created to fight in the European theater, the B-29 located its niche on the other side of the globe. In the Pacific, B-29s delivered a range of aerial weapons: traditional bombs, incendiary bombs, mines, and two nuclear weapons.

On August six, 1945, this Martin-constructed B-29-45-MO dropped the very first atomic weapon utilised in combat on Hiroshima, Japan. Three days later, Bockscar (on display at the U.S. Air Force Museum near Dayton, Ohio) dropped a second atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan. Enola Gay flew as the advance climate reconnaissance aircraft that day. A third B-29, The Great Artiste, flew as an observation aircraft on each missions.

Transferred from the United States Air Force.

Manufacturer:
Boeing Aircraft Co.
Martin Co., Omaha, Nebr.

Date:
1945

Country of Origin:
United States of America

Dimensions:
General: 900 x 3020cm, 32580kg, 4300cm (29ft 6 5/16in. x 99ft 1in., 71825.9lb., 141ft 15/16in.)

Supplies:
Polished general aluminum finish

Physical Description:
4-engine heavy bomber with semi-monoqoque fuselage and higher-aspect ratio wings. Polished aluminum finish all round, regular late-Planet War II Army Air Forces insignia on wings and aft fuselage and serial number on vertical fin 509th Composite Group markings painted in black &quotEnola Gay&quot in black, block letters on lower left nose.

• • • • •

Quoting Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum | Lockheed P-38J-10-LO Lightning:

In the P-38 Lockheed engineer Clarence &quotKelly&quot Johnson and his group of designers created one of the most productive twin-engine fighters ever flown by any nation. From 1942 to 1945, U. S. Army Air Forces pilots flew P-38s over Europe, the Mediterranean, and the Pacific, and from the frozen Aleutian Islands to the sun-baked deserts of North Africa. Lightning pilots in the Pacific theater downed much more Japanese aircraft than pilots flying any other Allied warplane.

Maj. Richard I. Bong, America’s leading fighter ace, flew this P-38J-ten-LO on April 16, 1945, at Wright Field, Ohio, to evaluate an experimental method of interconnecting the movement of the throttle and propeller manage levers. Nonetheless, his proper engine exploded in flight before he could conduct the experiment.

Transferred from the United States Air Force.

Manufacturer:
Lockheed Aircraft Firm

Date:
1943

Country of Origin:
United States of America

Dimensions:
General: 390 x 1170cm, 6345kg, 1580cm (12ft 9 9/16in. x 38ft four five/8in., 13988.2lb., 51ft ten 1/16in.)

Components:
All-metal

Physical Description:
Twin-tail boom and twin-engine fighter tricycle landing gear.

Good Molds Made In China photos

Good Molds Made In China photos

Check out these molds made in china images:

Oh,Inspiring Wind, Make Thy Sweet Music Out of my Hollowness by your Soft Caressing strokes…..
molds made in china
Image by -Reji
Shot at Lal Bagh Gardens, Bangalore, India

Bamboo plants are one particular of the world’s most versatile resources. Bamboo, since of its strength and flexibility, has been employed for hundreds of years as a key building material in nations like Japan and China. But aside from furnishings constructing and architecture, bamboo plants are also used for a wide array of purposes. One particular of the most exciting areas exactly where bamboo is used is in the creation of instruments. Because bamboo is hollow like pipe, it makes for a natural wind instrument, and cultures from all more than the globe have utilised it to their musical benefit.

Wind moving via bamboo forests or thickets tends to make symphony orchestras appear impotent. Wind moving tiny pieces of bamboo to strike against every single other gives joy and peace to these who hear it.

Like grass it grows rapidly and propagates itself if left alone. Like wood it is powerful, grows numerous places and has a lot of, several uses. Offered its way, bamboo will hold hillsides in place against raging waters unleashed from above. Given its way, developing profusely among peoples judged materially poorest on the planet, with out gigantic industries cutting, gathering, processing, transporting it bamboo is right here, waiting to serve. It is right here to shelter, to style tools, to weave baskets, to aid water obey, to give beauty and sounds.
Bamboo is a group of perennial evergreens in the accurate grass family members (Poaceae, subfamily Bambusoideae, tribe Bambuseae). Giant bamboos are the biggest members of the grass family.

In bamboo, as with other grasses, the internodal regions of the plant stem are hollow and the vascular bundles in the cross section are scattered all through the stem rather of in a cylindrical arrangement. The dicotyledonous woody xylem is also absent. The absence of secondary development wood causes the stems of monocots, even of palms and huge bamboos, to be columnar rather than tapering.

Bamboos are also the quickest developing woody plants in the planet. They are capable of growing up to 60 centimeters (24 in.) or a lot more per day due to a special rhizome-dependent technique. However, this astounding development price is hugely dependent on regional soil and climatic conditions.

Bamboos are of notable financial and cultural significance in East Asia and South East Asia where the stems are utilized extensively in every day life as developing components and as a extremely versatile raw product, and the shoots as a food supply.

There are more than 70 genera divided into about 1,450 species] They are located in diverse climates, from cold mountains to hot tropical regions. They happen across East Asia, from 50°N latitude in Sakhalin by means of to Northern Australia, and west to India and the Himalayas.They also take place in sub-Saharan Africa, and in the Americas from the Mid-Atlantic United States south to Argentina and Chile, reaching their southernmost point anyplace, at 47°S latitude. Continental Europe is not recognized to have any native species of bamboo.

Bamboo is the fastest-developing woody plant on Earth it has been measured surging skyward as quickly as 121 cm (48 in) in a 24-hour period,[six] and can also reach maximal development rate exceeding one particular meter (39 inches) per hour for brief periods of time. A lot of prehistoric bamboos exceeded heights of 85 metres (279 ft). Mostly developing in regions of warmer climates during the Cretaceous period, vast fields existed in what is now Asia.

As opposed to trees, all bamboo have the prospective to grow to complete height and girth in a single developing season of 3–4 months. Throughout this initial season, the clump of young shoots grow vertically, with no branching. In the next year, the pulpy wall of each culm gradually dries and hardens. The culm starts to sprout branches and leaves from every single node. In the course of the third year, the culm additional hardens. The shoot is now considered a completely mature culm. Over the next 2–5 years (depending on species), fungus and mould start to type on the outdoors of the culm, which ultimately penetrate and overcome the culm. About five – eight years later (species and climate dependent), the fungal and mold growth trigger the culm to collapse and decay. This brief life indicates culms are ready for harvest and appropriate for use in construction inside 3 – 7 years

Source: Wikipedia, Odysey Leadership Centre.

Molds Left to Gather Dust
molds made in china
Image by Henry Hemming
Or ‘Mouldy Molds and the Saga of Spode’. Spode, when a pre-eminent china maker, saw its factory closed down in 2008. The website now belongs to Stoke council and is falling into disrepair. The molds with which Spode’s greatest wares had been created now accumulate dust in a forgotten shop. Spode, and indeed Stoke, are an remarkable part of our heritage. Some of Spode’s greatest designs are now made by the brand’s owners Portmerion, but basically the fantastic name is all but gone. The Spode factory is an incredible part of our heritage. There is a visitor centre, run by wonderful volunteers – go visit! Spode is in the town of Stoke, one particular of the five towns of Stoke-on-Trent. Taken 19 October 2014. I spent the day touring our pottery past with Pete Taylor (@ForrestGrump), whose significantly more fantastic photographs of the day are a should.

Good China Injection Molding Design and style photos

Good China Injection Molding Design and style photos

A few nice china injection molding design images I found:

Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center: View over World War Two aviation wing, including Japanese planes and B-29 Enola Gay
china injection molding design
Image by Chris Devers
See more photos of this, and the Wikipedia article.

Details, quoting from Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum: Steven F. Udvar-Hazy | Nakajima J1N1-S Gekko (Moonlight) IRVING:

Originally designed as a three-seat, daylight escort fighter plane by the Nakajima Aeroplane Company, Ltd., and flown in 1941, the IRVING was modified as a night fighter in May of 1943 and shot down two American B-17 bombers to prove its capability. The Gekko (meaning moonlight) was redesigned to hold only two crewmen so that an upward firing gun could be mounted where the observer once sat. Nearly five hundred J1N1 aircraft, including prototypes, escort, reconnaissance, and night fighters were built during World War II. A sizeable number were also used as Kamikaze aircraft in the Pacific. The few that survived the war were scrapped by the Allies.

This J1N1 is the last remaining in the world. It was transported from Japan to the U.S. where it was flight tested by the U.S. Army Air Forces in 1946. The Gekko then flew to storage at Park Ridge, IL, and was transferred to the Smithsonian Institution. The restoration of this aircraft, completed in 1983, took more than four years and 17,000 man-hours to accomplish.

Transferred from the United States Air Force.

Manufacturer:
Nakajima Hikoki K. K.

Date:
1942

Country of Origin:
Japan

Dimensions:
Overall: 15ft 1 1/8in. x 41ft 11 15/16in., 10670.3lb., 55ft 9 5/16in. (460 x 1280cm, 4840kg, 1700cm)

Materials:
All-metal, monocoque construction airplane

Physical Description:
Twin-engine, conventional layout with tailwheel-type landing gear.
Armament: (2) 20 mm fixed upward firing cannon
Engines: (2) Nakajima Sakae 21 (NK1F, Ha35- 21) 14- cylinder air-cooled radial 1,130 horsepower (metric)

• • • • •

See more photos of this, and the Wikipedia article.

Details, quoting from Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum: Steven F. Udvar-Hazy | Boeing B-29 Superfortress "Enola Gay":

Boeing’s B-29 Superfortress was the most sophisticated propeller-driven bomber of World War II and the first bomber to house its crew in pressurized compartments. Although designed to fight in the European theater, the B-29 found its niche on the other side of the globe. In the Pacific, B-29s delivered a variety of aerial weapons: conventional bombs, incendiary bombs, mines, and two nuclear weapons.

On August 6, 1945, this Martin-built B-29-45-MO dropped the first atomic weapon used in combat on Hiroshima, Japan. Three days later, Bockscar (on display at the U.S. Air Force Museum near Dayton, Ohio) dropped a second atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan. Enola Gay flew as the advance weather reconnaissance aircraft that day. A third B-29, The Great Artiste, flew as an observation aircraft on both missions.

Transferred from the United States Air Force.

Manufacturer:
Boeing Aircraft Co.
Martin Co., Omaha, Nebr.

Date:
1945

Country of Origin:
United States of America

Dimensions:
Overall: 900 x 3020cm, 32580kg, 4300cm (29ft 6 5/16in. x 99ft 1in., 71825.9lb., 141ft 15/16in.)

Materials:
Polished overall aluminum finish

Physical Description:
Four-engine heavy bomber with semi-monoqoque fuselage and high-aspect ratio wings. Polished aluminum finish overall, standard late-World War II Army Air Forces insignia on wings and aft fuselage and serial number on vertical fin; 509th Composite Group markings painted in black; "Enola Gay" in black, block letters on lower left nose.

Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center: P-38 Lightning, with B-29 Enola Gay behind it
china injection molding design
Image by Chris Devers

See more photos of this, and the Wikipedia article.

Details, quoting from Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum | Lockheed P-38J-10-LO Lightning

In the P-38 Lockheed engineer Clarence "Kelly" Johnson and his team of designers created one of the most successful twin-engine fighters ever flown by any nation. From 1942 to 1945, U. S. Army Air Forces pilots flew P-38s over Europe, the Mediterranean, and the Pacific, and from the frozen Aleutian Islands to the sun-baked deserts of North Africa. Lightning pilots in the Pacific theater downed more Japanese aircraft than pilots flying any other Allied warplane.

Maj. Richard I. Bong, America’s leading fighter ace, flew this P-38J-10-LO on April 16, 1945, at Wright Field, Ohio, to evaluate an experimental method of interconnecting the movement of the throttle and propeller control levers. However, his right engine exploded in flight before he could conduct the experiment.

Transferred from the United States Air Force.

Manufacturer:
Lockheed Aircraft Company

Date:
1943

Country of Origin:
United States of America

Dimensions:
Overall: 390 x 1170cm, 6345kg, 1580cm (12ft 9 9/16in. x 38ft 4 5/8in., 13988.2lb., 51ft 10 1/16in.)

Materials:
All-metal

Physical Description:
Twin-tail boom and twin-engine fighter; tricycle landing gear.

Long Description:
From 1942 to 1945, the thunder of P-38 Lightnings was heard around the world. U. S. Army pilots flew the P-38 over Europe, the Mediterranean, and the Pacific; from the frozen Aleutian Islands to the sun-baked deserts of North Africa. Measured by success in combat, Lockheed engineer Clarence "Kelly" Johnson and a team of designers created the most successful twin-engine fighter ever flown by any nation. In the Pacific Theater, Lightning pilots downed more Japanese aircraft than pilots flying any other Army Air Forces warplane.

Johnson and his team conceived this twin-engine, single-pilot fighter airplane in 1936 and the Army Air Corps authorized the firm to build it in June 1937. Lockheed finished constructing the prototype XP-38 and delivered it to the Air Corps on New Year’s Day, 1939. Air Corps test pilot and P-38 project officer, Lt. Benjamin S. Kelsey, first flew the aircraft on January 27. Losing this prototype in a crash at Mitchel Field, New York, with Kelsey at the controls, did not deter the Air Corps from ordering 13 YP-38s for service testing on April 27. Kelsey survived the crash and remained an important part of the Lightning program. Before the airplane could be declared ready for combat, Lockheed had to block the effects of high-speed aerodynamic compressibility and tail buffeting, and solve other problems discovered during the service tests.

The most vexing difficulty was the loss of control in a dive caused by aerodynamic compressibility. During late spring 1941, Air Corps Major Signa A. Gilke encountered serious trouble while diving his Lightning at high-speed from an altitude of 9,120 m (30,000 ft). When he reached an indicated airspeed of about 515 kph (320 mph), the airplane’s tail began to shake violently and the nose dropped until the dive was almost vertical. Signa recovered and landed safely and the tail buffet problem was soon resolved after Lockheed installed new fillets to improve airflow where the cockpit gondola joined the wing center section. Seventeen months passed before engineers began to determine what caused the Lightning’s nose to drop. They tested a scale model P-38 in the Ames Laboratory wind tunnel operated by the NACA (National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics) and found that shock waves formed when airflow over the wing leading edges reached transonic speeds. The nose drop and loss of control was never fully remedied but Lockheed installed dive recovery flaps under each wing in 1944. These devices slowed the P-38 enough to allow the pilot to maintain control when diving at high-speed.

Just as the development of the North American P-51 Mustang, Republic P-47 Thunderbolt, and the Vought F4U Corsair (see NASM collection for these aircraft) pushed the limits of aircraft performance into unexplored territory, so too did P-38 development. The type of aircraft envisioned by the Lockheed design team and Air Corps strategists in 1937 did not appear until June 1944. This protracted shakedown period mirrors the tribulations suffered by Vought in sorting out the many technical problems that kept F4U Corsairs off U. S. Navy carrier decks until the end of 1944.

Lockheed’s efforts to trouble-shoot various problems with the design also delayed high-rate, mass production. When Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, the company had delivered only 69 Lightnings to the Army. Production steadily increased and at its peak in 1944, 22 sub-contractors built various Lightning components and shipped them to Burbank, California, for final assembly. Consolidated-Vultee (Convair) subcontracted to build the wing center section and the firm later became prime manufacturer for 2,000 P-38Ls but that company’s Nashville plant completed only 113 examples of this Lightning model before war’s end. Lockheed and Convair finished 10,038 P-38 aircraft including 500 photo-reconnaissance models. They built more L models, 3,923, than any other version.

To ease control and improve stability, particularly at low speeds, Lockheed equipped all Lightnings, except a batch ordered by Britain, with propellers that counter-rotated. The propeller to the pilot’s left turned counter-clockwise and the propeller to his right turned clockwise, so that one propeller countered the torque and airflow effects generated by the other. The airplane also performed well at high speeds and the definitive P-38L model could make better than 676 kph (420 mph) between 7,600 and 9,120 m (25,000 and 30,000 ft). The design was versatile enough to carry various combinations of bombs, air-to-ground rockets, and external fuel tanks. The multi-engine configuration reduced the Lightning loss-rate to anti-aircraft gunfire during ground attack missions. Single-engine airplanes equipped with power plants cooled by pressurized liquid, such as the North American P-51 Mustang (see NASM collection), were particularly vulnerable. Even a small nick in one coolant line could cause the engine to seize in a matter of minutes.

The first P-38s to reach the Pacific combat theater arrived on April 4, 1942, when a version of the Lightning that carried reconnaissance cameras (designated the F-4), joined the 8th Photographic Squadron based in Australia. This unit launched the first P-38 combat missions over New Guinea and New Britain during April. By May 29, the first 25 P-38s had arrived in Anchorage, Alaska. On August 9, pilots of the 343rd Fighter Group, Eleventh Air Force, flying the P-38E, shot down a pair of Japanese flying boats.

Back in the United States, Army Air Forces leaders tried to control a rumor that Lightnings killed their own pilots. On August 10, 1942, Col. Arthur I. Ennis, Chief of U. S. Army Air Forces Public Relations in Washington, told a fellow officer "… Here’s what the 4th Fighter [training] Command is up against… common rumor out there that the whole West Coast was filled with headless bodies of men who jumped out of P-38s and had their heads cut off by the propellers." Novice Lightning pilots unfamiliar with the correct bailout procedures actually had more to fear from the twin-boom tail, if an emergency dictated taking to the parachute but properly executed, Lightning bailouts were as safe as parachuting from any other high-performance fighter of the day. Misinformation and wild speculation about many new aircraft was rampant during the early War period.

Along with U. S. Navy Grumman F4F Wildcats (see NASM collection) and Curtiss P-40 Warhawks (see NASM collection), Lightnings were the first American fighter airplanes capable of consistently defeating Japanese fighter aircraft. On November 18, men of the 339th Fighter Squadron became the first Lightning pilots to attack Japanese fighters. Flying from Henderson Field on Guadalcanal, they claimed three during a mission to escort Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress bombers (see NASM collection).

On April 18, 1943, fourteen P-38 pilots from the 70th and the 339th Fighter Squadrons, 347th Fighter Group, accomplished one of the most important Lightning missions of the war. American ULTRA cryptanalysts had decoded Japanese messages that revealed the timetable for a visit to the front by the commander of the Imperial Japanese Navy, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto. This charismatic leader had crafted the plan to attack Pearl Harbor and Allied strategists believed his loss would severely cripple Japanese morale. The P-38 pilots flew 700 km (435 miles) at heights from 3-15 m (10-50 feet) above the ocean to avoid detection. Over the coast of Bougainville, they intercepted a formation of two Mitsubishi G4M BETTY bombers (see NASM collection) carrying the Admiral and his staff, and six Mitsubishi A6M Zero fighters (see NASM collection) providing escort. The Lightning pilots downed both bombers but lost Lt. Ray Hine to a Zero.

In Europe, the first Americans to down a Luftwaffe aircraft were Lt. Elza E. Shahan flying a 27th Fighter Squadron P-38E, and Lt. J. K. Shaffer flying a Curtiss P-40 (see NASM collection) in the 33rd Fighter Squadron. The two flyers shared the destruction of a Focke-Wulf Fw 200C-3 Condor maritime strike aircraft over Iceland on August 14, 1942. Later that month, the 1st fighter group accepted Lightnings and began combat operations from bases in England but this unit soon moved to fight in North Africa. More than a year passed before the P-38 reappeared over Western Europe. While the Lightning was absent, U. S. Army Air Forces strategists had relearned a painful lesson: unescorted bombers cannot operate successfully in the face of determined opposition from enemy fighters. When P-38s returned to England, the primary mission had become long-range bomber escort at ranges of about 805 kms (500 miles) and at altitudes above 6,080 m (20,000 ft).

On October 15, 1943, P-38H pilots in the 55th Fighter Group flew their first combat mission over Europe at a time when the need for long-range escorts was acute. Just the day before, German fighter pilots had destroyed 60 of 291 Eighth Air Force B-17 Flying Fortresses (see NASM collection) during a mission to bomb five ball-bearing plants at Schweinfurt, Germany. No air force could sustain a loss-rate of nearly 20 percent for more than a few missions but these targets lay well beyond the range of available escort fighters (Republic P-47 Thunderbolt, see NASM collection). American war planners hoped the long-range capabilities of the P-38 Lightning could halt this deadly trend, but the very high and very cold environment peculiar to the European air war caused severe power plant and cockpit heating difficulties for the Lightning pilots. The long-range escort problem was not completely solved until the North American P-51 Mustang (see NASM collection) began to arrive in large numbers early in 1944.

Poor cockpit heating in the H and J model Lightnings made flying and fighting at altitudes that frequently approached 12,320 m (40,000 ft) nearly impossible. This was a fundamental design flaw that Kelly Johnson and his team never anticipated when they designed the airplane six years earlier. In his seminal work on the Allison V-1710 engine, Daniel Whitney analyzed in detail other factors that made the P-38 a disappointing airplane in combat over Western Europe.

• Many new and inexperienced pilots arrived in England during December 1943, along with the new J model P-38 Lightning.

• J model rated at 1,600 horsepower vs. 1,425 for earlier H model Lightnings. This power setting required better maintenance between flights. It appears this work was not done in many cases.

• During stateside training, Lightning pilots were taught to fly at high rpm settings and low engine manifold pressure during cruise flight. This was very hard on the engines, and not in keeping with technical directives issued by Allison and Lockheed.

• The quality of fuel in England may have been poor, TEL (tetraethyl lead) fuel additive appeared to condense inside engine induction manifolds, causing detonation (destructive explosion of fuel mixture rather than controlled burning).

• Improved turbo supercharger intercoolers appeared on the J model P-38. These devices greatly reduced manifold temperatures but this encouraged TEL condensation in manifolds during cruise flight and increased spark plug fouling.

Using water injection to minimize detonation might have reduced these engine problems. Both the Republic P-47 Thunderbolt and the North American P-51 Mustang (see NASM collection) were fitted with water injection systems but not the P-38. Lightning pilots continued to fly, despite these handicaps.

During November 1942, two all-Lightning fighter groups, the 1st and the 14th, began operating in North Africa. In the Mediterranean Theater, P-38 pilots flew more sorties than Allied pilots flying any other type of fighter. They claimed 608 enemy a/c destroyed in the air, 123 probably destroyed and 343 damaged, against the loss of 131 Lightnings.

In the war against Japan, the P-38 truly excelled. Combat rarely occurred above 6,080 m (20,000 ft) and the engine and cockpit comfort problems common in Europe never plagued pilots in the Pacific Theater. The Lightning’s excellent range was used to full advantage above the vast expanses of water. In early 1945, Lightning pilots of the 12th Fighter Squadron, 18th Fighter Group, flew a mission that lasted 10 ½ hours and covered more than 3,220 km (2,000 miles). In August, P-38 pilots established the world’s long-distance record for a World War II combat fighter when they flew from the Philippines to the Netherlands East Indies, a distance of 3,703 km (2,300 miles). During early 1944, Lightning pilots in the 475th Fighter Group began the ‘race of aces.’ By March, Lieutenant Colonel Thomas J. Lynch had scored 21 victories before he fell to antiaircraft gunfire while strafing enemy ships. Major Thomas B. McGuire downed 38 Japanese aircraft before he was killed when his P-38 crashed at low altitude in early January 1945. Major Richard I. Bong became America’s highest scoring fighter ace (40 victories) but died in the crash of a Lockheed P-80 (see NASM collection) on August 6, 1945.

Museum records show that Lockheed assigned the construction number 422-2273 to the National Air and Space Museum’s P-38. The Army Air Forces accepted this Lightning as a P-38J-l0-LO on November 6, 1943, and the service identified the airplane with the serial number 42-67762. Recent investigations conducted by a team of specialists at the Paul E. Garber Facility, and Herb Brownstein, a volunteer in the Aeronautics Division at the National Air and Space Museum, have revealed many hitherto unknown aspects to the history of this aircraft.

Brownstein examined NASM files and documents at the National Archives. He discovered that a few days after the Army Air Forces (AAF) accepted this airplane, the Engineering Division at Wright Field in Dayton, Ohio, granted Lockheed permission to convert this P-38 into a two-seat trainer. The firm added a seat behind the pilot to accommodate an instructor who would train civilian pilots in instrument flying techniques. Once trained, these test pilots evaluated new Lightnings fresh off the assembly line.

In a teletype sent by the Engineering Division on March 2, 1944, Brownstein also discovered that this P-38 was released to Colonel Benjamin S. Kelsey from March 3 to April 10, 1944, to conduct special tests. This action was confirmed the following day in a cable from the War Department. This same pilot, then a Lieutenant, flew the XP-38 across the United States in 1939 and survived the crash that destroyed this Lightning at Mitchel Field, New York. In early 1944, Kelsey was assigned to the Eighth Air Force in England and he apparently traveled to the Lockheed factory at Burbank to pick up the P-38. Further information about these tests and Kelsey’s involvement remain an intriguing question.

One of Brownstein’s most important discoveries was a small file rich with information about the NASM Lightning. This file contained a cryptic reference to a "Major Bong" who flew the NASM P-38 on April 16, 1945, at Wright Field. Bong had planned to fly for an hour to evaluate an experimental method of interconnecting the movement of the throttle and propeller control levers. His flight ended after twenty-minutes when "the right engine blew up before I had a chance [to conduct the test]." The curator at the Richard I. Bong Heritage Center confirmed that America’s highest scoring ace made this flight in the NASM P-38 Lightning.

Working in Building 10 at the Paul E. Garber Facility, Rob Mawhinney, Dave Wilson, Wil Lee, Bob Weihrauch, Jim Purton, and Heather Hutton spent several months during the spring and summer of 2001 carefully disassembling, inspecting, and cleaning the NASM Lightning. They found every hardware modification consistent with a model J-25 airplane, not the model J-10 painted in the data block beneath the artifact’s left nose. This fact dovetails perfectly with knowledge uncovered by Brownstein. On April 10, the Engineering Division again cabled Lockheed asking the company to prepare 42-67762 for transfer to Wright Field "in standard configuration." The standard P-38 configuration at that time was the P-38J-25. The work took several weeks and the fighter does not appear on Wright Field records until May 15, 1944. On June 9, the Flight Test Section at Wright Field released the fighter for flight trials aimed at collecting pilot comments on how the airplane handled.

Wright Field’s Aeromedical Laboratory was the next organization involved with this P-38. That unit installed a kit on July 26 that probably measured the force required to move the control wheel left and right to actuate the power-boosted ailerons installed in all Lightnings beginning with version J-25. From August 12-16, the Power Plant Laboratory carried out tests to measure the hydraulic pump temperatures on this Lightning. Then beginning September 16 and lasting about ten days, the Bombing Branch, Armament Laboratory, tested type R-3 fragmentation bomb racks. The work appears to have ended early in December. On June 20, 1945, the AAF Aircraft Distribution Office asked that the Air Technical Service Command transfer the Lightning from Wright Field to Altus Air Force Base, Oklahoma, a temporary holding area for Air Force museum aircraft. The P-38 arrived at the Oklahoma City Air Depot on June 27, 1945, and mechanics prepared the fighter for flyable storage.

Airplane Flight Reports for this Lightning also describe the following activities and movements:

6-21-45 Wright Field, Ohio, 5.15 hours of flying.
6-22-45Wright Field, Ohio, .35 minutes of flying by Lt. Col. Wendel [?] J. Kelley and P. Shannon.
6-25-45Altus, Oklahoma, .55 hours flown, pilot P. Shannon.
6-27-45Altus, Oklahoma, #2 engine changed, 1.05 hours flown by Air Corps F/O Ralph F. Coady.
10-5-45 OCATSC-GCAAF (Garden City Army Air Field, Garden City, Kansas), guns removed and ballast added.
10-8-45Adams Field, Little Rock, Arkansas.
10-9-45Nashville, Tennessee,
5-28-46Freeman Field, Indiana, maintenance check by Air Corps Capt. H. M. Chadhowere [sp]?
7-24-46Freeman Field, Indiana, 1 hour local flight by 1st Lt. Charles C. Heckel.
7-31-46 Freeman Field, Indiana, 4120th AAF Base Unit, ferry flight to Orchard Place [Illinois] by 1st Lt. Charles C. Heckel.

On August 5, 1946, the AAF moved the aircraft to another storage site at the former Consolidated B-24 bomber assembly plant at Park Ridge, Illinois. A short time later, the AAF transferred custody of the Lightning and more than sixty other World War II-era airplanes to the Smithsonian National Air Museum. During the early 1950s, the Air Force moved these airplanes from Park Ridge to the Smithsonian storage site at Suitland, Maryland.

• • •

Quoting from Wikipedia | Lockheed P-38 Lightning:

The Lockheed P-38 Lightning was a World War II American fighter aircraft built by Lockheed. Developed to a United States Army Air Corps requirement, the P-38 had distinctive twin booms and a single, central nacelle containing the cockpit and armament. Named "fork-tailed devil" by the Luftwaffe and "two planes, one pilot" by the Japanese, the P-38 was used in a number of roles, including dive bombing, level bombing, ground-attack, photo reconnaissance missions, and extensively as a long-range escort fighter when equipped with drop tanks under its wings.

The P-38 was used most successfully in the Pacific Theater of Operations and the China-Burma-India Theater of Operations as the mount of America’s top aces, Richard Bong (40 victories) and Thomas McGuire (38 victories). In the South West Pacific theater, the P-38 was the primary long-range fighter of United States Army Air Forces until the appearance of large numbers of P-51D Mustangs toward the end of the war. The P-38 was unusually quiet for a fighter, the exhaust muffled by the turbo-superchargers. It was extremely forgiving, and could be mishandled in many ways, but the rate of roll was too slow for it to excel as a dogfighter. The P-38 was the only American fighter aircraft in production throughout American involvement in the war, from Pearl Harbor to Victory over Japan Day.

Variants: Lightning in maturity: P-38J

The P-38J was introduced in August 1943. The turbo-supercharger intercooler system on previous variants had been housed in the leading edges of the wings and had proven vulnerable to combat damage and could burst if the wrong series of controls were mistakenly activated. In the P-38J model, the streamlined engine nacelles of previous Lightnings were changed to fit the intercooler radiator between the oil coolers, forming a "chin" that visually distinguished the J model from its predecessors. While the P-38J used the same V-1710-89/91 engines as the H model, the new core-type intercooler more efficiently lowered intake manifold temperatures and permitted a substantial increase in rated power. The leading edge of the outer wing was fitted with 55 gal (208 l) fuel tanks, filling the space formerly occupied by intercooler tunnels, but these were omitted on early P-38J blocks due to limited availability.

The final 210 J models, designated P-38J-25-LO, alleviated the compressibility problem through the addition of a set of electrically-actuated dive recovery flaps just outboard of the engines on the bottom centerline of the wings. With these improvements, a USAAF pilot reported a dive speed of almost 600 mph (970 km/h), although the indicated air speed was later corrected for compressibility error, and the actual dive speed was lower. Lockheed manufactured over 200 retrofit modification kits to be installed on P-38J-10-LO and J-20-LO already in Europe, but the USAAF C-54 carrying them was shot down by an RAF pilot who mistook the Douglas transport for a German Focke-Wulf Condor. Unfortunately the loss of the kits came during Lockheed test pilot Tony LeVier‘s four-month morale-boosting tour of P-38 bases. Flying a new Lightning named "Snafuperman" modified to full P-38J-25-LO specs at Lockheed’s modification center near Belfast, LeVier captured the pilots’ full attention by routinely performing maneuvers during March 1944 that common Eighth Air Force wisdom held to be suicidal. It proved too little too late because the decision had already been made to re-equip with Mustangs.

The P-38J-25-LO production block also introduced hydraulically-boosted ailerons, one of the first times such a system was fitted to a fighter. This significantly improved the Lightning’s rate of roll and reduced control forces for the pilot. This production block and the following P-38L model are considered the definitive Lightnings, and Lockheed ramped up production, working with subcontractors across the country to produce hundreds of Lightnings each month.

Noted P-38 pilots

Richard Bong and Thomas McGuire

The American ace of aces and his closest competitor both flew Lightnings as they tallied 40 and 38 victories respectively. Majors Richard I. "Dick" Bong and Thomas J. "Tommy" McGuire of the USAAF competed for the top position. Both men were awarded the Medal of Honor.

McGuire was killed in air combat in January 1945 over the Philippines, after racking up 38 confirmed kills, making him the second-ranking American ace. Bong was rotated back to the United States as America’s ace of aces, after making 40 kills, becoming a test pilot. He was killed on 6 August 1945, the day the atomic bomb was dropped on Japan, when his P-80 Shooting Star jet fighter flamed out on takeoff.

Charles Lindbergh

The famed aviator Charles Lindbergh toured the South Pacific as a civilian contractor for United Aircraft Corporation, comparing and evaluating performance of single- and twin-engined fighters for Vought. He worked to improve range and load limits of the F4U Corsair, flying both routine and combat strafing missions in Corsairs alongside Marine pilots. In Hollandia, he attached himself to the 475th FG flying P-38s so that he could investigate the twin-engine fighter. Though new to the machine, he was instrumental in extending the range of the P-38 through improved throttle settings, or engine-leaning techniques, notably by reducing engine speed to 1,600 rpm, setting the carburetors for auto-lean and flying at 185 mph (298 km/h) indicated airspeed which reduced fuel consumption to 70 gal/h, about 2.6 mpg. This combination of settings had been considered dangerous; it was thought it would upset the fuel mixture and cause an explosion. Everywhere Lindbergh went in the South Pacific, he was accorded the normal preferential treatment of a visiting colonel, though he had resigned his Air Corps Reserve colonel’s commission three years before. While with the 475th, he held training classes and took part in a number of Army Air Corps combat missions. On 28 July 1944, Lindbergh shot down a Mitsubishi Ki-51 "Sonia" flown expertly by the veteran commander of 73rd Independent Flying Chutai, Imperial Japanese Army Captain Saburo Shimada. In an extended, twisting dogfight in which many of the participants ran out of ammunition, Shimada turned his aircraft directly toward Lindbergh who was just approaching the combat area. Lindbergh fired in a defensive reaction brought on by Shimada’s apparent head-on ramming attack. Hit by cannon and machine gun fire, the "Sonia’s" propeller visibly slowed, but Shimada held his course. Lindbergh pulled up at the last moment to avoid collision as the damaged "Sonia" went into a steep dive, hit the ocean and sank. Lindbergh’s wingman, ace Joseph E. "Fishkiller" Miller, Jr., had also scored hits on the "Sonia" after it had begun its fatal dive, but Miller was certain the kill credit was Lindbergh’s. The unofficial kill was not entered in the 475th’s war record. On 12 August 1944 Lindbergh left Hollandia to return to the United States.

Charles MacDonald

The seventh-ranking American ace, Charles H. MacDonald, flew a Lightning against the Japanese, scoring 27 kills in his famous aircraft, the Putt Putt Maru.

Robin Olds

Main article: Robin Olds

Robin Olds was the last P-38 ace in the Eighth Air Force and the last in the ETO. Flying a P-38J, he downed five German fighters on two separate missions over France and Germany. He subsequently transitioned to P-51s to make seven more kills. After World War II, he flew F-4 Phantom IIs in Vietnam, ending his career as brigadier general with 16 kills.

Clay Tice

A P-38 piloted by Clay Tice was the first American aircraft to land in Japan after VJ-Day, when he and his wingman set down on Nitagahara because his wingman was low on fuel.

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Noted aviation pioneer and writer Antoine de Saint-Exupéry vanished in a F-5B-1-LO, 42-68223, c/n 2734, of Groupe de Chasse II/33, out of Borgo-Porreta, Bastia, Corsica, a reconnaissance variant of the P-38, while on a flight over the Mediterranean, from Corsica to mainland France, on 31 July 1944. His health, both physical and mental (he was said to be intermittently subject to depression), had been deteriorating and there had been talk of taking him off flight status. There have been suggestions (although no proof to date) that this was a suicide rather than an aircraft failure or combat loss. In 2000, a French scuba diver found the wreckage of a Lightning in the Mediterranean off the coast of Marseille, and it was confirmed in April 2004 as Saint-Exupéry’s F-5B. No evidence of air combat was found. In March 2008, a former Luftwaffe pilot, Horst Rippert from Jagdgruppe 200, claimed to have shot down Saint-Exupéry.

Adrian Warburton

The RAF’s legendary photo-recon "ace", Wing Commander Adrian Warburton DSO DFC, was the pilot of a Lockheed P-38 borrowed from the USAAF that took off on 12 April 1944 to photograph targets in Germany. W/C Warburton failed to arrive at the rendezvous point and was never seen again. In 2003, his remains were recovered in Germany from his wrecked USAAF P-38 Lightning.

• • • • •

Quoting Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum | Boeing B-29 Superfortress "Enola Gay":

Boeing’s B-29 Superfortress was the most sophisticated propeller-driven bomber of World War II and the first bomber to house its crew in pressurized compartments. Although designed to fight in the European theater, the B-29 found its niche on the other side of the globe. In the Pacific, B-29s delivered a variety of aerial weapons: conventional bombs, incendiary bombs, mines, and two nuclear weapons.

On August 6, 1945, this Martin-built B-29-45-MO dropped the first atomic weapon used in combat on Hiroshima, Japan. Three days later, Bockscar (on display at the U.S. Air Force Museum near Dayton, Ohio) dropped a second atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan. Enola Gay flew as the advance weather reconnaissance aircraft that day. A third B-29, The Great Artiste, flew as an observation aircraft on both missions.

Transferred from the United States Air Force.

Manufacturer:
Boeing Aircraft Co.
Martin Co., Omaha, Nebr.

Date:
1945

Country of Origin:
United States of America

Dimensions:
Overall: 900 x 3020cm, 32580kg, 4300cm (29ft 6 5/16in. x 99ft 1in., 71825.9lb., 141ft 15/16in.)

Materials:
Polished overall aluminum finish

Physical Description:
Four-engine heavy bomber with semi-monoqoque fuselage and high-aspect ratio wings. Polished aluminum finish overall, standard late-World War II Army Air Forces insignia on wings and aft fuselage and serial number on vertical fin; 509th Composite Group markings painted in black; "Enola Gay" in black, block letters on lower left nose.