Machines | Engineering Faster Planes in WWII: Kelly Johnson, the P-38 and the P-80
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Clarence "Kelly" Johnson (BSE AeroE ’32, MSE ’33) was a bold an innovative aircraft designer. One of his earlier planes, the Lockheed P-38 Lightning, echoes that description well. It's unique twin-boom and central nacelle (for the cockpit) design gave it great stability and maneuverability at higher speeds than other planes offered... Until it entered a steep dive. Then things went south, fast. Johnson worked through the P-38's difficulties in collaboration with the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA, the predecessor to NASA), which led to a greater understanding of the aerodynamic challenges of high-speed flight. Johnson used this new knowledge in the design of his next plane, the Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star - America's first operational jet fighter. After watching, continue by reading the incredible story of how Johnson and his team developed the P-80 in only 143 days during the height of WWII, and created Skunk Works in the process: https://medium.com/@UMengineering/skunk-works-2403ed8bf74c#.h67fn4se2
Comments
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Headphones, people. I heard the narrator just fine.
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most agile of its time? That story is all over the Internet but it's as fluke as my mother's story about killing a bear with bare hands:
http://www.wwiiaircraftperformance.org/p-38/p-38.html -
Wow, great story and fascinating! The narrator is hard to hear though! Thanks
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Very unprofessional voice narrator. The narrator "hushes" his voice to a "don't wake up the baby" style, to the extent that in some moment we can not hear his voice without increasing the computer volume. This is amateurish narration at best, which diminish the quality and impact to a very nice video. Yes, this is clearly a good short documentary, but fire that narrator and find one speaking like a pro!