I'm an aviation dork, and this airplane deserves so much more love than it gets. Some quick facts about this plane:
- It had a big fucking cannon in it's nose as well as a few machine guns.
- The engine was behind the cockpit, which scared the shit out of American pilots. They thought if the plane was to crash, the engine would plow through the cockpit.
- First fighter with a tricycle landing gear (others were tail draggers)
- It doesn't have a canopy, it has 'car doors' that can be jettisoned if needed. These doors also have rolls down windows.
- Wasn't really suited for the Americans so they gave them to the USSR.
- Soviet pilots FUCKING LOVED THEM.
- Five of the 10 highest scoring Soviet aces logged the majority of their kills in P-39s.
- The Soviet success makes the P-39 collect the highest number of kills attributed to any U.S. fighter type flown by any air force in any conflict. THAT'S LOTS OF DEAD NAZIS!
The P-39 Airacobra!
AMERICAN LABOR :left-unity-2: SOVIET AIR FORCES
The roll-down windows also suggest that they wouldn't be going very high. What're you gonna do, depressurize the cabin above 15,000 feet?
Piston engine planes don't go high enough to need pressurization. They use oxygen up high. If you go high enough 100% oxygen won't be enough because the pressure is so low, but that's only at altitudes so high modern fighter jets can't even go up there.
To clarify, pressurized cabins aren't generally used in military aircraft, or aircraft in general at the time. It's more of a luxury comfort thing at those altitudes, as oxygen masks are annoying and uncomfortable. The B-29 is the only WW II aircraft off the top of my head with a pressurized cockpit.