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| In 1938 Bell Aircraft produced the Airacobra single-seat fighter featuring a tricycle landing gear, a single Allison engine located behind and below the pilot and driving the propeller by means of an extension shaft, and a cannon firing through the hollow propeller shaft (in addition to fuselage-mounted machine-guns). Advantages of this layout were said to include superior vision and concentration of firepower in the nose. The first production aircraft (originally ordered by the French government) were delivered to the RAF and became operational in October 1941. In British service the Airacobra I/IA was used for a short time for ground attack duties. It was not well received and production aircraft completed for Britain, but undelivered, were taken on by the USAAF as trainers. New production began with 20 P-39G for the USAAF. P-39D (V-1710-35), F (-35), J(-35), K(V-1710-63; E6), L(-63), M(V-1710-83), N(V-1710-85; E19) and Q versions were eventually built, bringing the total number of Airacobras completed to 9,558. More than half the total production went to Russia to act as interim fighters with the air force pending delivery of large numbers of MiGs and Yaks.
| CREW | 1 |
| ENGINE | 1 x Allison V-1710-85, 880kW |
| WEIGHTS |
| Take-off weight | 3765 kg | 8300 lb |
| Empty weight | 2560 kg | 5644 lb |
| DIMENSIONS |
| Wingspan | 10.4 m | 34 ft 1 in |
| Length | 9.2 m | 30 ft 2 in |
| Height | 3.8 m | 12 ft 6 in |
| Wing area | 19.8 m2 | 213.13 sq ft |
| PERFORMANCE |
| Max. speed | 620 km/h | 385 mph |
| Ceiling | 10670 m | 35000 ft |
| Range | 1200 km | 746 miles |
| ARMAMENT | 1 x 37mm machine-guns, 4 x 12.7mm machine-guns, 1 x 226kg bomb |
 | A three-view drawing (1650 x 1183) |
| Ron, e-mail, 24.01.2010 07:29 Just been reading online how Allison engines in the P-39 suffered from poor intake design aside from the turbocharger cut to save the expense, making it less capable at any altitude than it could have been. This, and the fear of having any high-tech well-developed fighters exported (P-400) or otherwise captured. I couldn't believe it. The Russians didn't care. Their aces made it the #1 U.S. fighter for top Allied aces in history anyway. Pokryshkin refused to trade in his 'little Cobra' for a new La-7 !! Imagine if Allison had switched to building Merlin engines (evidently Packard couldn't spare any of their Merlins due to the P-51 demand). Then the Cobra would have fulfilled it's designed intention as an interceptor with a big stick (3+kg /s) at all altitudes.
Speaking of firepower, it has been critisized for having disharmonious mix of guns. This too was remedied by the Russians. This may help account for it's success in their hands. Too bad the USA couldn't do it first. reply | | Ron, e-mail, 06.09.2010 07:53 I believe the Russians were getting only 60% of the engine life as advertised because of constantly running at full power. reply | | DW75, 22.12.2009 13:45 eliko116, all Pokryshkin´s kills not being counted had nothing at all to do with it being a LL plane, it had everything to do with the Soviet airforce at the time only counting kills that were 100% proven, which usually mean only kills over friendly territory. reply | | Obama, e-mail, 06.11.2009 22:16 cocksucking nonces reply | |
| | eliko116, e-mail, 14.10.2009 22:27 VVS also used it as an escort plane for il-2s .Pokryshkin ( soviet ace , 59 victories , p39n # 100 ) prefered this plane even when the VVS comand tried to force him change to La-7 . He wrote at his memuars that he loved the armament of P-39 . His P-39 was firing all guns at once whith one trigger . I heard from my grandfather that he was best scoring VVS pilot , but he was flying american plane thats why some of his victories wans't get into account . Best soviet ace had to fly soviet plane . Sorry 4 my eglish . Thanks . reply | | Ronald, e-mail, 19.09.2009 04:12 There was a plan to try a Merlin in the P-63 but it didn't materialize. I guess the idea of focusing this bird on ground support meant the Allison was good enough and let all available Packard Merlins go to P-51s. Still, to see if it could have at least proven itself, just for the record.
Check out the P-63 page. reply | | paul scott, e-mail, 17.09.2009 22:41 What a world-beater this could have been, had the supercharger been installed - it's not the thing I would've thought the USA would've overlooked. (I'd compare this oversight to Britain's stupidity with the non-forward armament of the Boulton Paul Defiant). A nose-mounted 37mm Cannon, and a nosewheel would've made it a formidable opponent. I liken this to Britain not having had a 'floatplane' fighter on its ships (U-boat War). A real shame. reply | | Ronald, e-mail, 30.08.2009 02:54 525 mph red-line dive speed. This is to alter my earlier post. 380 turn time was 19 Seconds (D&Q). The D climbed to 5km in 6.5 minutes and the Q reached 6km in 8.5 minutes.
This comared favorably with the Fw 190A-4. reply | | ozona, e-mail, 09.08.2009 09:14 Along with losing th P-38 prototype for a photo-op & continuing to produce the B-17 instead of replacing it with the Mosquito one of the biggest mistakes made by the Army Aircorps was messing up the P-39.
In April 39 it did 400mph in trials & could reach 20k ft. in 5 min a minute faster than the P-38. Then the idiots @ NACA fixed it they took away the B5 GE turbocharger & moved the air intakes among other things. They took a 400MPH early 1939 plane & turned it into a 355MPH plane worthless above 15k ft. To add insult to injury they took the marvelous R.R. Merlin & put it in the P-40. Who knows how fast the P-39 would have been with the Merlin, no 37mm gun, laminar flow wings like the P-51 & Hamilton Standard paddle type 4 blade props (P-47). reply | | Leo Rudnicki, e-mail, 15.05.2009 02:18 British Airacobras (P-400) mounted 2 .50 in upper cowl, syncronized, w / 200 rpg and 2 .30 in wing w /1000 rpg. plus the 20mm Hispano. reply | | Sgt.KAR98, 11.05.2009 02:14 Why U.S rejected this beauty? reply | | D Nitz, e-mail, 10.05.2009 07:18 I have a nose gear fork that may be for an early Airacobra. I can send photos to anyone who can ID this gear. The overall length of the piece is about 40". Inside of the fork is about 15". Thanks for any help. reply | | Ian, e-mail, 22.04.2009 13:28 Can anyone verify the armament of the P39's in RAF use.
The 20mm Hispano with 60 rounds is a constant but the machine guns vary.
2x0.5 & 4x0.3 OR 6x 0.303 OR 2x0.5 & 4x0.3.
It's a small point I know but I'm a real anorak about these things!! reply | | leo rudnicki, e-mail, 08.04.2009 18:13 I finally read a spec sheet which gave the range of the Cobra as 300 miles. This would correlate better with the fact that the P39 did not complete it's performance evaluation against the Aleutian Zero A6m2 because it ran out of gas. The 746 mile figure is higher than the usual 675 that is common. Since the prime reason for the layout was to carry a big gun, I wonder why the RAF never thought to fit one of the Vickers 40mm guns used on the Hurricane IID in the nose.And a merlin. I like to fix things 70 years too late. And the nickname of the P39 is Kobry, tovarich. reply | |
| | Ronald, e-mail, 28.09.2008 09:01 Climb rate ranged from 2,600 to 4,000 ft /min.
Terminal dive was 475 mph. Pullout was shallow. Controls were still light at high speed. It out-turned Bf 109 and Fw 190s.
Roll-rate was good: 75 degrees /sec. @ 235 mph.
If ammo in the nose got too low it could be spun out of control. reply | | Ronald Boren, e-mail, 22.08.2008 09:31 Since the top allied aces were mostly Russian P-39 pilots, and it had the slowest US guns in the nose (37mm = 2 rps; 12.7mm = 5 rps each) and the Soviet NS was the fastest 37mm (4 rps) and the UBS was the fastest synchronized 12.7mm (13 rps) cowl gun, I wonder if they swapped guns over time. We Know that they most often stripped off the wing guns for better handling in a dogfight. Some preferred the Bell P-400 for it's faster 20mm Hispano (10 rps) in place of the M4 37mm (both US cannon were prone to jam unless you fired only a couple of rounds at a time). To bag a Fw 190 or Bf 109 in 1943-44 you needed a pattern of fire denser than 12 rps total!
The Yak-9T averaged 18 rps with just 2 guns: an NS-37 and a UBS 12.7mm in the nose, and it was a hit in air-to-air kills! A ShVAK 20mm in the hub and twin UBS 12.7mm in the cowl would have given a P-39 40 rps - decent for only 3 guns. Then there is the Soviet VYa-23! 9 rps but double the punch of the 20mm. Now the prowess of the Russian P-39 begins to seem more plausible as an ace-maker. reply | | hines, e-mail, 11.02.2007 23:11 what was the nickname of this aircraft? reply | | Faldman, e-mail, 15.02.2007 09:44 can i have some drawings from aircobra if i can because i am going to r /c plane racings.The aircobra is faster and smaler than mustang ,spitful,MEE e.c.t. plz! reply | | J Cobb, e-mail, 16.02.2007 01:26 I would like to get tech data /specs for all modifications of the P-39.
I am also looking for any info on the original "Whistlin
Britches" flown by the 69th fighter squadron. reply |
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