XP-82 Twin Mustang First Official Flight

[Leading Observer]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEJwLcj6qEU&utm_source=Vulcan+to+the+Sky+Trust&utm_campaign=a383bd9084-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2019_02_01_02_15&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_2c67459406-a383bd9084-6212869&mc_cid=a383bd9084&mc_eid=bc1af25a37

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQP0IHH3FTs

[JayBee]

Sorry but this is the first flight of the restored example, NOT of the XP-82.
The real giveaway is the propellers. The XP-82, as had the early versions, both props rotated the same direction.

[PR19_Kit]

Sorry but this is the first flight of the restored example, NOT of the XP-82.
The real giveaway is the propellers. The XP-82, as had the early versions, both props rotated the same direction.

Are you sure Jim? IIRC on the first attempted flight of the XP-82 the props rotated opposite to each other, but the other way round to the production versions, and as a result it didn't take-off.

At first the props rotated outwards the top, viewed from the rear, and that resulted in the slipstream over the wing centre section reduced the lift. So they swapped engines and props from port to starboard and then it flew just fine. 

[Later] If you play the YouTube link above it's spoken by the guy who owns it and he says the same about the engines being wrong handed to start with. And it is the real XP-82, albeit with a lot of parts from other Twin Mustangs.

Both vids are super, and seeing it fly in the first one brought a lump to my throat, it looks AWESOME! 

[kitnut617]

The Twin Mustang always had counter rotating props from the get go, but as Kit says, they turned opposite to what you see in the video.  I've been following this restoration for quite a while so a real treat to see they have accomplished the job. I've just got to go see it flying soon ---

There was a number two of XP-82's built so it could be one or the other of them, EDIT: actually the serial shows this was the second one and if you read the history notes in the attached file you can see it is an XP-82

http://www.joebaugher.com/usaf_serials/1944_6.html

[Captain Canada]

They should have picked a quieter chase plane