XP-82 to fly again

[Barton]

https://www.avgeekery.com/ultra-rare-xp-82-twin-mustang-prototype-near-a-return-to-flight/amp/

[Ludwig]

What a hoot.... I had been thinking about this plane for some years now.... with the advent of CNC and other fabrication techniques...  I knew it was only a matter of time before the F-82 would get repaired. We had one in Harlingen that had been force landed gear up (never really knew WHY that happened) but the problem was that because it was counter-rotating props, one of them was left-handed. That killed the deal. Props,engines, even those things could be had back in the 70's and 80's when the CAF was really starting to make money.... but a left-hand P-51 prop???  What tree do THEY grow on? SO... it sat... and sat and sat.  Talk about crew coordination...   the left cockpit was the primary and the right cockpit was extra... they could use it for a weapons or radar dude but he had one really important function. The landing gear lever was in the right cockpit... so if you were flying from the left (and you would) you had to get the guy in the right seat to put the gear down for you. You had flaps on the left... but the rollers came down from the right side.  The other thing was after talking with one of the guys that flew it he said that because the roll center was between  the pilots... every time you banked the airplane it became a positive/negative g event.  He said the first flight the guy flying him from the left side warned him... and that he banked the plane 45° and he went down about 25' and that was ok because there was a guy over to his left that did the same thing only he went UP 25'. You could have a 20' altimeter error between cockpits in a turn. Crazy....