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

  • SnAgCu [he/him, any]
    ·
    3 years ago

    I flew this thing a lot in war thunder because of the comically large 37mm gun in the nose

    low rate of fire, low muzzle velocity and low capacity basically made it objectively inferior to the other cannons - MG151, Hispanos, etc. it's really fun to disintegrate Bf109s with the massive 37mm shell though