Bell Aircraft Corporation film produced during WWII about defending the home front and construction on the famous Bell P-39 Airacobra. Video provided by the Niagara Aerospace Museum.
With the engine mounted right over the wing root. This made a strong Aircraft. The trycicle landing gear worked well thease could take off in the Pacific in mud. They would wallow through the mud when other aircraft would not.
They finally put the Super-Charger in it and designated it the P-63 King Cobra. That plane had the firepower AND abilities at all altitudes to win but came out too late in the war. Too bad, these were beautiful fighter planes.
The Brits sent mostly Matilda II's, Valentine's, and some Churchill's. All three were Infantry tanks designed to support infantry and thus were heavily armored and were hard for the Germans to penetrate unless using 50mm and HVAP ammo or a larger gun. The P-39 never used cannons on wings. The wings had 2 x .30cal each and some models had a underwing pod which carried a .50cal. The Russians removed all this to lighten the fighter so that Russian P-39's carried cannon and 2 x .50cal in the nose.
Do a little research. The Airacobra in our hands shot down 100 Japanese aircraft for a loss of 100 P-39s. In the hands of the Russians they shot down over 5000 German aircraft, the highest kill total of any allied aircraft. or a loss of a bit over 1000.How ??? tactics and the circumstances of a low altitude war. Read "Attack of the Airacrobras" Amazing.
joker2008 The P-51 wasn't exactly a world-beater until they installed a Merlin engine in it. US built version but essentially the same engine that powered Spitfire, Hurricane, Lancaster and Mosquito. The Brits weren't complete idiots until the smart ones fled across the pond after the war.
The production versions had an engine-mounted supercharger with a critical altitude of about 15,000 feet. However, the prototype was equipped with a turbo-supercharger. It was a very good performer, however it flew without armor, radios, sealed fuel tanks, and other field equipment. Once all that was installed, the CoG fell too far back and worsened the balance of the aircraft. The turbo-supercharger arrangement went away, while the engine mounted supercharger itself stayed.
how do they make the fuel and air mixture in these aircraft...i cant find a video in which this is explained or showed somehow...i know they injected it somehow but how they corect it in different altitudes???
The USAAF broke it. They changed the engine, changed the wingspan, What where they thinking? Sure it wasn't perfect but it could have been amazing. The most individual kills of the second WWII! By soviet pilots too!
Yep the Russian pilots loved them. Out of ammunition they could belly bump the Russian aircraft take them out . Land the cobra refuel and reload fly again.
The engine was behind the pilot cannon through the prop hub, drive shaft under the seat of the pilot. The pilot was in a steel bathtub. Well protected. The government would not allow a supercharger on them at first. Not Bell Aricrafts fault. It was used by the Russian government they loved them.
They also how Browning .50 cal MGs in the wings as well. They had a unique fireing system that would allow the pilot to select the cannon to fire by itself or the regular MGs by themself or both cannon and MGs togather. The Aircobra had the 20mm Cannon through the nose as you mentioned and the Kingcobra had a 37mm Cannon. Both versions were slow, even though they call them fast, with a top speed not much greater than the B17 Flying Fortress. I have no idea why it was given the P designation, or Pursuit which is what Fighters were designated as before they called them fighters with the F designation. It was never fast enough to be a successful fighter although as a ground attack aircraft and with the 37mm Cannon an anti tank aircraft it did find quite a bit of success, especially in the USSR.
@@jamesm.taylor6928 this information is quite a bullshit. P-39 did great at low to mid altitudes, outperforming or being equal to german Bf.109G models. The cannon could not effectively penetrate tank armor even from above, mostly because of rather bad shell ballystics and speed (600 m/s is not enough). Speaking of cannons, Aircobra (except for first modification, sent to Britain and having 20mm Hispano cannon) had 37mm cannon. Bigger caliber didn't appear *only* on P-63
@@jamesm.taylor6928 For the most part, all P-39s had the 37mm cannon. The British ordered aircraft had 20mm cannons in the nose position.. Those are the planes rejected and returned to the US. They were usually designated P-400 in USAAF service.
The Aircobra could land in mud wheels up. They Jack them up drag them out of the mud . Take them off again. The Russian pilots out of ammunition would belly bump the German aircraft in the air. Land the Cobra refuel and more ammo and fly again.
Awesome plane and the mid engine configuration was very unique with a cannon shooting thru the center of the engine crankshaft and the pilot sitting on top of that . Imagine shooting that cannon while you are sitting on it !? A mid engine is good in a car but on a plane ?!
The Bf109 shot thru the hollow shaft of the reduction gear, the cannon sat in valley between the cylinder banks. Peter is right, you obvious don't know anything about mechanics.
Ron Lawson sezzz...,"a cannon shooting thru the center of the engine crankshaft". LMMFAOSHIH! Did he do this before or after he set the auto pilot and went to take a leak? Funny how people Re-Write History and fuck it up so bad. Discraceful.
And to think that to this day never ever has a single bomb landed on American continental soil. So here they go and hail an aircraft that was hated to the limit by American pilots. Sold to the Soviet Union in the end, just to get rid of them.
I think the Russian loved them cause they were Free! Just like what the current Presidential Dems, socialism for the USA NOT!!! I like the old films also, and love the clean lines of the P-39. I fly a gas model with 80” wing span and reach 135 mph, it’s fast! But just like the real one’s it can be a bit twitchy!!
- "free" !!! hahaha no kidding !! US America giving "free" weapons ! turbo LOL ! ... lend lease is not free for the receiver : check out the facts ! Russia made rather kinda trade with a lot of different goods to get war material
Speaking of russians and P-39, most veteran pilots said they liked P-39 first of all for its good radio. When P-39's appeared in 1942-1943, radio equipment in soviet planes was rather poor, so a good-working radio in a P-39 gave its pilot way bigger chances to survive another fight.
