I've been flying Blue Arrow's P-38 J lately and enjoy it a lot. I noticed at the download for it the discription states it's "a Demo for a to be released aircraft."

My question is, Does Blue Arrow still exist (I can't find then on the net) and did they ever finish their P-38?

It's a very good effort as it is, just needing a few finishing details like a better spin down for the props, an opening canopy, rivit detail and what ever else they had planed for it.

I would also like to find an olive drab skin for it as I'm not real nuts about the limitations of the present state of bare alum finishes. They all just look like they are painted white.  Great metalic finishes won't happen until they start modeling true reflections. This will also be about the time that water starts to look wet and not like blue dirt.

L. J. Over...

Thanks for the reply Brad.
After this long I didn't think anyone was still reading the post.  I'm only recently a Lighting fan. I guess I just didn't give the plane a chance.  It has always struck me as less then an "honest" airplane if you know what I mean.

Recently I read two books by Edward Parks who flew Airacobras in the Pacific and in one book he relates the account of a fight school buddy who protested violently when his outfit got P-47s and lost their P-38s.  So much so that afterwards he dicided to Drink himself into a discharge.  Parks, on the other hand, was thrilled to get into a P-47 when his outfit finally got their's after spending half the war in  P-39s.

It appears that most Lightning pilots where very loyal to thier planes and would rather not have changed when given the choice.

Thanks again, L.J. Out...

Brad,
You're right, Dave Copley's planes are exellent.  He does a terrific outside view with a subtle sheen effect that really sets off the olive drab, There are no space gaps in the segments and he has worked the overall shape to perfection.

I also like his thin line canopy members in the interior view which helps for seeing your opponent.

His Planes handle very nicely if just a bit slower on the Ailerons then my previous experience.  I don't know when the Hydrolic assist Ailerons came in which of couse is the feature that gave the later 38s their surprising roll rate.  Possibly not until the "J" which would account for Dave's F,G and H modeling.

Another factor in why I haven't flown the 38 more in the past is the fact that as flight simmers, it's much more difficult to utilze the full benifit of a Boom & Zoom airplane like the 38 because we don't have the benefit of good distance viewing and the periferal and paralax vision that a real pilot has and needs to precisely close on an opponent with a substantial speed difference and multiple angle and altitude factors involved. 

If you fly a Hellcat or even a Wildcat against the Zero you can turn with him just long enough to kill him if you're good, you don't make the mistake of  following him up unless you know you have a shooting solution somewhere before or at the apex of his arc,  and know when to dive away for speed.  All this works but actually even one turn with a Zeke is playing his game yet I've noticed we all do it.

To truely master the airial fight in the manner the Allies had to adopt, the sim pilot has to perfect the extreme High Side Attack with the added complexity of ensuring a frontal merge.  Both Bong and McGuire got something like 80% of their killls from the above front in 38s.

L.J. Over...