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 P-39 couldn't go above 10,000 feet. This was crippling. It was easily outperformed and shot down by enemy aircraft if it even got close to this altitude. You'd think that would make it a good ground attack aircraft, but in a ground attack aircraft you actually want the engine in front of you, as it functions as additional armor in the exact direction they're going to be shooting at you from. It was so heavily armed because it wasn't supposed to be a fighter, it was supposed to be a bomber interceptor. But bombers fly as high as they can. One can understand why it quickly fell out of favor and was pushed off on someone else.