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P-39 Airacobra World War 2 Military Fighter Airplane Models, Plastic and Wood Aircraft Model Kits.
Plastic & Wooden Model AirplanesP-39 Airacobra section.
of the World War 2 Fighter Model Department.
in the Yellow Airplane store.
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P-39 Airacobra World War 2 Military Fighter Airplane Models, Plastic and Wood Aircraft Model Kits.Plastic & Wooden Model Airplanes |
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You are in the
P-39 Airacobra section. of the World War 2 Fighter Model Department. in the Yellow Airplane store. |
Plastic and Wooden P-39 Airacobra and P-400 Airacobra WW2 Military Fighter Aircraft Models, Wood and Plastic Kits Here Now P-39 Airacobra Specifications.The Bell Aircraft P-39 Airacobra has a wingspan of 34 Feet a wing area of 213 Sq. Feet, it is 30 Feet 2 Inches long,12 Feet 5 Inches high, has an empty weight of 5,645 Pounds, a gross weight of 8,300 Pounds. The P-39 uses a Allison V-1710-85 engine which is Liquid Cooled V-12 with 1,325 HP The airplanes top speed is 360 MPH At 15,000 Feet MSL and has a service ceiling of 35,000 Feet MSL. There was one huge problem with the P-39 Airacobra, and that was that there was a door to get into the canopy. When the plane was in flight, the air pressure on the door was so great that a pilot could not open the door to jump out if he need to. A huge design error. Also, the Airacobra had a mid engine and it didn't handle properly, as reported by many pilots. Read more at the bottom of the page, this is a great story which follows. Information thanks to Roy Seher,
Hello Jeff,
Just want to correct a misconception. You have a
description of the P-39 and state that the slip stream pressure on the doors
of the P-39 made it impossible for the pilot to open them and bail out. The
design was called an oversight or design mistake.
Not true!
Just want you to know that there was a red emergency
handle (or lever) on each side of the cockpit fastened above and in line
with the door hinges. When the red lever was pulled down the
door hinge pins were extracted and then the slip stream easily
whipped the door away. With either door gone the pilot need only roll out
onto the wing and be swept away -- under the tail (horizontal elevator).
With a door gone it was probably the easiest of all fighters to bail from.
Certainly far safer than bailing from the highly prized P-51.
There are many versions of this plane, these specs cover only one version.
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Continued from Roy Seher at the top of the page.
Hello Jeff,
If my authority is correct, if it can be called an
authority, is that I was a Crew Chief on P-39s in the 39th
Fighter Squadron. The 39th was the first USAAF squadron to be
equipped with the
P-39 Airacobra (at
Selfridge Field in early 1941) and I speculate this was done since
the number of the squadron and airplane model number coincide. The 39th
took them overseas and into combat at
Port Moresby, New
Guinea in mid-May of 1942. I was made very aware of those emergency door
release levers when one of our pilots, shot up and on fire, pulled the
levers down and the doors would not go.
Long after the war Gene Rehrer gave me a personal
account of his frantic effort to get rid of at least one door and bail out.
Gene said that with both release levers pulled fully down he banged the
doors with knees and elbows. Nothing! It was getting hot so he released
his seat belt/shoulder straps so that he could put more power into his
slamming against the doors. Nothing! Suddenly the plane flipped into an
up-side down flat spin and he was now pinned into the top of the
 canopy.
His frantic flailing caused the plane to flip once more and he was ejected.
For just an instant he thought he was tumbling through space without a
parachute, but reached, found the "D" ring and pulled. Then, somewhat
tangled in the shroud lines,
Gene fell with a trailing 'chute from about 17,000 feet to about 2,000.
Gene attributes the free fall to a factor that saved his life. The Japs
were unfriendly little bastards and delighted in using any American in a
'chute for target practice. Free falling for about 15,000 feet dropped Gene
through a low level cloud layer that hid him from the Japs. The end of the
whole thing is that Gene spent a week without a gun and without shoes,
fighting his way through thick jungle and floating down a stream with
crocodiles sunning themselves on the banks. Gene finally found friendly
natives and was returned to us.
Our tech. manuals should have had a directive that
those door pins be lubed and exercised (pins pulled) periodically, but
nothing! We were made aware of this problem only because this man
survived. When the squadron was first being equipped with the P-39,
Bell Aircraft designed an emblem for the squadron - a hooded cobra in
the clouds ready to strike. This Cobra in the Clouds emblem was accepted by
the U S Army Office of Heraldry and the 39th Squadron officially became
The Cobra Squadron. I
have attached a picture of the emblem.
I've said far more than I intended and I'm out of
breath!
Roy
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| The Bell P-39 Airacobra is shown in profile over a combat strip of
the period. "Short Stroke" operated from Fighter 2, an airstrip west
of Henderson Field on Guadalcanal during 1942 and 1943. It was flown by
the pilots of the 347th Fighter Group, 13th Air Force.
The most successful use of the P-39 in World War II was in the hands of the Soviet Air Force, which nicknamed the Airacobra "Kobrushka" (dear little cobra). flown in the 1946 Thompson Trophy race, and Old Crow, the first of World War II ace "Bud" Anderson's aircraft to bear that name. intended for service in North Africa, the P-39 "Devastating Devil" - wearing a sand-colored camouflage scheme - instead joined the 46th Fighter Squadron, 15th Fighter Group, at its home base on Makin Island in the Pacific Theater in 1943. lend-lease P-39N flown by 9th Guards Fighter Division commanding officer Aleksandr Pokryshkin - three-time Hero of the Soviet Union recipient who recorded 48 of his 59 victories flying an "Iron Dog," as the Soviets called the Airacobra - in 1944 Airacobra Mk.I - the P-39 variant modified for export to Britain - flown by 601 "County of London" Squadron, Royal Air Force, in 1941, "Devastating Devil" - a P-39Q intended for service in North Africa that instead joined the 46th Fighter Squadron, 15th Fighter Group, at its home base on Makin Island in the Pacific Theater in 1943 Saga Boy II, the P-39Q flown by 357th Fighter Group Commander Lt. Col. Edwin S. Chickering while training in California in 1943 P-400 Airacobra that flew with the Cactus Air Force at Guadalcanal in 1942 one of the three P-400s - a modified export version of the P-39 originally intended for British service - flown by the 347th Fighter Group in the defense of Guadalcanal's Henderson Field on September 14, 1942, |
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12-4-2008
