Скачать или смотреть How One Engineer’s 'Stupid' Trick Turned P-38s Into 600 MPH Dive Monsters

December 1942 – 28,000 feet above Tunisia
Captain Jack Ilfrey shoved the yoke of his P-38 Lightning forward and felt the twin-boom fighter surge into a steep dive. A German Bf 109F flashed beneath him, rolling away toward cloud cover. Ilfrey pushed harder. The fighter responded—then shuddered violently.
A low moan vibrated through the cockpit. Control surfaces stiffened. Speed climbed: 380 mph… 420… 450…
Then it hit.
The yoke froze solid.
The Lightning bucked like a live animal, its tail seemingly flexing out of rhythm with the nose. Ilfrey tried to pull out but the yoke refused to budge. His airspeed indicator jumped toward the red line.
Here we go… I’m done.
The P-38 entered compressibility—an aerodynamic phenomenon no one fully understood yet. Airflow around the wing reached transonic speeds, generating shockwaves that locked the controls and forced the aircraft downward, nose-heavy, uncontrollable.
Many Lightning pilots had already died this way.