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Good work showtime. I really enjoy these videos. Maybe you can clarify the actual “kills“ along side the claims. I think the claims are highly exaggerated. I’m pleased to hear that your voice is louder now on the videos, and I can hear Your narration clearly
I am volunteer Docent at the Anchorage Museum. There is P-39 wingtip on display from a crashed Lend Lease Airacobra on display in the Alaska Gallery. Last month I did short talk on the P-39 and mentioned Lt Fielder being the only American Ace in the P-39. Wish I had this video a month ago for some detailed description of his victories. Excellent work!
William Fiedler deserves more credit for sure. Glad Eduard models did a great box art of him taking out the Emily flying boat on their P-39D 1:48 kit box.
Ah, at last! A Showtime 112 video on one of my all-time favourite aircraft. Thank-you. One of the first examples of an integrated weapon system, literally designed around that M-4 37mm gun, much as the A10 is built around the GAU-8. Often maligned, pilots such as Chuck Yeager called it a ‘sweet’ plane to fly and the famous Eric ‘Winkle’ Brown used one as his personal hack until a visitor from Bell, who’d come to view some highly advanced captured German aircraft saw his P-39, had a closer look and immediately condemned it as totally unfit to fly, although frankly if any pilot could tell if an aircraft was airworthy or not, it was Eric Brown. And of course, Soviet pilots loved their ‘Iron Dog’ so much that several of their aces refused the offered ‘upgrade’ to La-7 so I’m definitely looking forward to your take on the P-39 and P-63 in Soviet service.
I also like the airplanes which were 'imperfect'. Yes, Yeager is quoted to have been a P-39 lover. Videos on Soviet Airacobras are definitely coming in the future.
After conducting a tour of a major Southern California air museum for members of the Society of Experimental Test Pilots, l discovered that Eric Brown had been in my group. I nearly fainted!
@@gordonbergslien30 Wow. I’d imagine that having to give a presentation to members of that illustrious group could be nerve racking enough already. It’s also a bit of a stretch squaring the mental image of the greatest test pilot who flew 487 aircraft types in his career with the reality of the dapper little 5’7” Brit in front of you. It was the matter-of-fact way he’d tell his stories that also impressed me ~ such as his musing almost in passing that the reason he hadn’t died like Geoffrey de Havilland Jr. had in the ill-fated DH108 was because he was so short. Mind you, he did get more exercised when talking about his 100% unofficial ‘hot-start’ flight in a Me163 Komet ~ perfectly understandable!
@@davidpope3943 In addition to "Winkle" Brown, Bob Cardenas, who flew the B-29 that carried Chuck Yeager and the X-1 on the first mach buster flight was in my group. He explained he'd gotten into a jam in the YB-49 but managed to fly out of it a few days before Glen Edwards augered in. There were giants in the earth!
Thanks! When they talk about Guadalcanal they almost always just talk about the Cactus AF (Marine Wildcats). I've never heard about the participation of the USAAF in the Airacobras. With that big gun in the nose I would think the would have been fairly effective against shipping too.
Thank you for another donation. It's true that Wildcats did most of the fighting with Zeros early in the campaign. The first Airacobras to deploy there were mostly P-400s and they were used primarily in air-to-ground. I'm not sure if they used them in anti-shipping role near Guadalcanal. The Japanese mostly sailed at night.
AT LEAST a couple more videos, id say! The P-39 has been very roughly mauled by history and commonplaces, but it was not that bad an aircraft at all! Thank you Showtime, another well realized and entertaining vid!
The P-39 was an awesome fighter - at 12,000 feet. At 24,000 feet, however, it was awful. That’s because its engine had no turbo supercharger, making it badly underpowered at high altitude.
@@justinharvey1355 : That's because the Russian air force was focused on supporting the ground troops, so most of the fighting took place below 15,000 feet.
P-39s played important a quite a successful role attacking ground targets - troops mostly - at the PTO. Some P-39 were redesignated as P-400 and had 20mm Hispano cannons (with 60rounds). There was a joke that a P-400 is actually a P-40 with a Zero on its tail. The P-39s had a critical issue: the windscreen was fogging between the armor glass inside and plexy glass outside making the visibility almost non existence. This phenomena happened during a quick descent from higher altitude. There was no canopy to open, maybe the pilots could let in some fresh air lowering the side windows on door(?). But this was a big problem. Also the 37mm cannon was slow firing and had a very curvy trajectory. Clearly designed to attack slow moving bombers not nimble fighters. Poor guy, Fiedler died in very much wasted way. :( The Airacobra could do better, but the theater’s aerial combats dictated different rules where the type could not shine. Down low it could hit harder even the Zeros and Oscars. Actually down low the Airacobra had quite a decent climb rate and speed. Better than the P-40 had. For me the Airacobra silhouette is one of the best looking, it has beautiful nice clean lines. Not many know, but after the Second World War Hungary almost got P-39s and P-63s for the reborn communist airforce from the USSR inventory. The operating manuals were translated allegedly - although I never could find any - but we got that shitty Yak-9P fighters with that very ill/sick VK-107 engine. Oil always leaked away, engines seized, that aircraft was a bad apple. We called it “Vércse”, which means Kestrel. Poor bird (I mean the real one) didn’t deserve to shame its name on such a trash aircraft.
The P-400s were 200 'Airacobra Mk. Ia' aircraft purchased by Britain and transferred to the USAAF in reverse Lend-Lease. The British didn't want them because of their poor performance at high altitude. The P-400 had a 20 mm Hispano cannon in place of the big 37 mm M4 cannon in the P-39.
@@timonsolus Australia ordered P-400s before the United States was involved in WW2. When the USA was suddenly involved in WW2 after the attack on Pearl Harbor the USA kept some of the P-400 to build up the USAAF.
At least one USAAF pilot (I forget which pilot) in the Pacific Theater preferred P-39s over P-40s. He flew both. Early P-40s did not have turbochargers. He was disappointed with the P-40 climb rate when he transitioned.
The P-39 was sent to Tonopah, Nevada once the airfield there was mostly finished. 12 squadrons of them were training pilots in gunnery and ground support in 1943. At 5,430 feet above sea level, it posed a problem with pilots on very hot and dry days. Departure and approach stalls were common with many fatalities. Target fixation was another problem as the desert looks similar from any altitude much like water. The P-39s were sent away to other bases and B-24 groups came to train. There are many accidents recorded of aircraft flying into mountain peaks during night training. A notable one occurred on Arch Dome Mountain were the aircraft almost missed the ridge top. My father remembered it as a good aircraft to work on. Most areas were accessible on the engine and nose sections with the panels removed.
My grandpa was guarded from the Japanese on Guadalcanal by P39s and Wildcats from Henderson Field. I remember him telling me about the IJN Tokyo Express and Betty bombers, AKA Washing Machine Charlie that would make it hard, if not impossible for him to sleep at night in late 42 into 1943.
The most important thing about any fighter in the South Pacific was the simple fact that it WAS THERE ! Just being available and ready to fly is so overlooked. And the P-39 and P-40 was what the first US Army Airforce pilots had to work with so a thumbs up to the P-39 for just being available in the theatre.
This was actually common. It is how Chrysler got into the tank business. I owned a Korean war era M1 carbine with General Motors stamped on the barrel. One of the most sought after 1911 pistols was made my Singer. The sewing machine company. During the war many companies were tasked with making arms and ammo for the war effort. They were provided tooling and technical data packages for whatever they were required to build.
The 37mm cannon on the P39 is completely different than the 37mm cannon used on the M3 Lee and M5 Stuart. The 37mm cannon on the P39 fired a smaller 37x145mm cartridge that had a muzzle velocity of only 2,000 feet per second. The 37mm cannon on the M3 and M5 tank fired a bigger 37x223mm cartridge with a muzzle velocity of 2,600 feet per second.
I love the small details in 112’s storytelling. “The downed japanese pilot was afraid of sharks” and so on. These little informations give life to the story.
There is more. The Zero pilot flying the close escort apparently strafed the water to clear the sharks but it was a bit difficult to show in WT so I simplified the story 😁
Good to see the good old P-39 on your channel. Looking forward to see those soviet pilots videos in the future, hope you can do some for other fighters in soviet service like the I-16, the Lagg-3 or the Yaks. Thanks!
@@showtime112 The air war in the pacific is mostly thought to be dominated by the US Navy and Army Air Forces to a lesser extent, with the Marines flying mostly CAS missions. But the USMC actually had a few aces in that theatre, the most famous pilot was of course Major Gregory Pappy Boyington. Marine pilots really kicked butts with their F4F Wildcat and F4U Corsair
Hello mate, end of work and immédiately in front of TV . I never know this pilot, but it was fine pilot with an unloved plane, while the URSS with Alexandre Pokhryskin and others pilots found another use of this plane even at low level altitude, even attacking light armored vehicles when escorting IL2
One interesting thing about the "Hamp". There was two Zeros designated as A6M3, the Type 22 and the Type 32. Interestingly the Type 32 was the earlier model, called the Hamp. As the numbering was made up from airframe version (1st version, 2nd version, etc) and the engine version. The 32 had shorter wings and less fuel (bigger engine than the Type 21 - A6M2 also took some place from the fuselage tank's space) and it had the worst combat range among all Zero subtypes. The wing was cut down to eliminate the folding wingtips, but it also ruined somewhat the flight characteristics, if I'm not mistaken. So pilots hated that and soon went back to the original airframe of the A6M2, and the most popular Zero variant born, the A6M3 Type 22 which again called as Zeke.
Yes, the A6M3 Model 22 had extra fuel tanks in the outer wings, which made up for the reduced size of the tank behind the engine. The clipped wings of the A6M3 Model 32 improved the roll rate (from the A6M2), and also increased the maximum diving speed, but reduced the turn rate. The Model 32 was redeployed away from the Guadalcanal theatre because of its limited range.
In the Duel series book, P-39/P-400 Aircobra vs A6M2/3 Zero-Sen, author Michael Claringbould, looked into the actual claims and losses of the two aircraft during the 1942 New Guinea campaign. The actual number of Zero's shot down by P-39's in 1942 was only 15, out of 95 claims for Zero's. In return, the A6M Zero shot down exactly 15 P-39's, for a one to one kill ratio. The book does not go into P-39 claims in 1943.
@@showtime112 Interesting total: I think John Lundstrom (The First Team) tallied up what Zeros and Wildcats achieved going from Coral Sea to the End of the Campaign in Guadalcanal, and they also figured out to almost a one to one ratio with perhaps the experienced Zero pilots being slightly ahead---but of course, that didn't matter in the long run, when their carriers were lost and the attrition against IJN pilots sapped their strength.
Dear friend, i forgot sometimes. The french ace Pierre Le Gloan with 18 kills plus 3 probable was killed when flying with P39N s/n29241. Just after takeoff, a oil leak started, he decided to make a belly landing in a field, but nobody knew if he forgot to jettison external tank or jettison device issue ???? When plane slided on ground, tank exploded and plane bounced up before crashed and explode. But he could use parachute to egress easily, he have much altitude but he always prefer "save" the plane 😮
Thanks for sharing. There are quite a few stories where pilots tried to save the airplane and risked their own lives but everything eventually ended in tragedy.
The early warning system of coastwatchers allowed the Marine Wildcats to takeoff and gain an altitude advantage when the Japanese raids arrived. The P-39 had similar performance to the Wildcat and could have been used the same way. The American air forces were under Navy/Marine command and the Army P-39s were mainly relegated to ground support.
The 20mm equipped Airacobra was numbered the P-400 for awhile. The joke became it was a P-40 with a Zero on its tail. The two .50 machine guns in the nose were quite sufficient for most Japanese aircraft.
Correct. The British did not like the American 37mm canon as it often jammed and had a low ammo capacity. The Brits ordered the P-39 but wanted to fit them with the much more reliable and faster firing 20mm Hispano Suiza cannons. After Pearl Harbor the USAAF took over these planes which were meant for the Brits and just redesignated it the P-400.
Looks like a P-39D to me. 2 nose-mounted .50s, 4 wing-mounted .30 cals, and a 37mm cannon. The Allison V-1710 engine would've been supercharged, unlike the P-400s the British wisely dumped in Australia.
The 39 was a through and through sound design that screamed for the Rolls Royce engine. As an interceptor and ground strafing role it would be second to none. The P 38 would be on par but it had it's own disadvantage.
I saw in a comment you use CDK Mission Editor to set up these scenarios. My follow up question is: How many pilots fly them with you? Or, does the game AI fly the other aircraft? Or, do you just run the whole thing several times flying different aircraft yourself? Okay, that's three questions. Still, very curious about how you get the various screen shots that wind up in a finished video. (Liked & Subscribed)
I sometimes ask for other human pilots to assist when there are some very specific maneuvers or such. Mostly, I program AI to fly in a certain way. One scene often needs to be done in several small parts. For example, in the scene with the Mavis and escorting Zeros I first had to fly the Mavis. Then, I flew Fiedler's Airacobra attacking it. Then I flew McKulla's Cobra attacking the Mavis. After that, I flew the Zero which shot down McKulla and finally, Fiedler's P-39 escaping the Zeros. Then I captured all these individual tracks from multiple angles and I used some 10-20% of the footage in the final edit.
@@showtime112 WOW! That works out to about 2 hours of "Sim time" for 12 minutes of video. Add to that, editing, script wrriting, programming, research, etc. So, just guessing here but - 3 to 5 days of work (if you didn't have a life and that was all you had to do btw)? I am amazed you can get one episode out a week. Salute. :)
Awesome video, very nicely made! And of which TH-cam, in all their AI greatness and wisdom, never gave me a notification!... 😓😓😓 I loved playing with this plane in original Il-2, I remember it being first flyable airplane in demo-version that came on BUG CD and being really weird to fly. But once you get to know its quirks, its kinda awesome! 😁 But, yeah... 20 years ago... 😊 Stay safe, everyone! 👍🏻🙋🏼♂️🍻🍻
@@showtime112 Yeah, you could try play a game and see if your system could even run it and if you liked it before buying (or "buying" 😁). I was living in Zagreb back then with my girlfriend (now wife) and working as an aviation tech at the airport... Golden times, may they never come back! 😉🙋🏼♂️
Best looking ww2 fighter. The low fuel capacity and bad low speed handleing realy let it down, especialy in the pacific, but it looked realy good and ofcourse it was one of the fastest planes at low altitute at the time.
EXCELLENT video. The P-39 Airacobra is practically the underdog of the U.S. Army Air Force. Your contribution to aviation history brings facts and pays tribute to this airplane. Thanks
Seeing that the first plane he claimed wasn't actually shot down. Claims were always grossly exaggerated. He was not an actual ace but deserves recognition anyways.
That is true but on the other hand, it's probably true for most aces. At least some of their 'confirmed' victories were not real victories. So, we are still comparing apples to apples I think.
The first Airacobras which came to Guadalcanal were mostly P-400s. I think by 1943, they were all P-39s. According to 'P-39 Aces of WW2', Fiedler was flying P-39N.
Correct. The British did not like the American 37mm canon as it often jammed and had a low ammo capacity. The Brits ordered the P-39 but wanted to fit them with the much more reliable and faster firing 20mm Hispano Suiza cannons. After Pearl Harbor the USAAF took over these planes which were meant for the Brits and just redesignated it the P-400.
Thanks for covering this fabulous war bird. Lend/Lease helped the Soviets contribute to the war effort. Every plane has its uses, and tgen uts adapted uses to make it successful. Thanks for all you do Showtime112! ♠️🎩🎯🎱🇺🇸🏁🇮🇱🇺🇦🔱🌻🏵️💮🌸🌼🏴☠️🏹
I have always wanted to ask a knowledgeable pilot or engineer, "What would have the P-39 have been like if a Rolls-Royce Merlin had been installed much like the P-51?"
I'm not sure how much the performance would have been increased. But Merlin wouldn't have solved the short range problem which was crucial for US fighters, both in Europe and Pacific.
With a few modifications on the aircraft and a LOT of changes in how it was employed it COULD HAVE BEEN a fantastic ground attack aircraft. So sad nobody had the vision to extend the range/ammo and us it as such.
My father, Lt. Richard D. Kent of the 68th Fighter Squadron, was on the scene when his friend Bill Fiedler was killed on Guadalcanal in 1943. After WWII, my father re-enlisted in the USAF during the Korean War. In 1963 he was transferred to Honolulu. The first thing my father did upon arrival in Hawaii was to take our family to the Punchbowl Cemetery to visit Fiedler's grave. As to the qualities of the P-39, many Airacobra pilots disliked the plane and some even called it a "flying coffin." But my father thought it was an excellent fighter when flown at medium to low altitudes. He said the P-39s best combat opportunities occurred when they joined an air battle already in progress, after Zeros had been forced to dive to lower altitudes to evade pursuit. As a result of his combat experience in the Solomons, my father was awarded the DFC after shooting down 3 Japanese planes and sharing in the downing of a fourth.
While my father was in the Air Force during WWII he met a P-39 pilot who came back from the Pacific Theater who recounted his one experience fighting the Japanese. He got on the tail of the enemy plane and was excited to see what his 37m cannon could do. He pulled the trigger and nothing happened. Looking around the controls he discovered he still had the safety switch engaged. He flipped it off and looking outside he couldn't see where the enemy's plane had gone.
The Zero "Hamp" had squared off wing tips for a faster roll rate. The P-39 was crippled intentionally by the USAAC in its initial design by denying it the access to a supercharger. The idiot Army instead of increasing the production of superchargers for new aircraft severely limited its use to the P-38. The P-39 according to its pilots was a sweet handling gun platform. Given a supercharger with the cannon and machine guns and able to exploit high altitudes it would have been one of the few exceptional airframes of that conflict. The Soviets fighting a low altitude tactical air war maximized its potential to match the Germans' best aircraft of that era. Many Soviet pilots became aces in this aircraft. The supercharger what ifs are staggering with the venerable P-39.
One of the following commentators described in detail why the P-39 had no supercharger. Bell design decided to remove it to reduce drag to increase speed. Even though a graceful design it suffered from excess drag issues which were never, apparently, resolved.
The 37mm autocannon was notorious and maligned by P-39 pilots for jamming, a parabolic trajectory, and lack of ammo. It would often be deleted by ground crews to improve performance or replaced by Oerliken 20mm autocannons from P400s that worked better in air combat. Ironically, Nudelman and Seranov might have used it as a base for the far-more successful NS-37 autocannon seen on Yak-9Ts, MiG-15s, and MiG-17s.
Correct. The British did not like the American 37mm canon as it often jammed and had a low ammo capacity. The Brits ordered the P-39 but wanted to fit them with the much more reliable and faster firing 20mm Hispano Suiza cannons. After Pearl Harbor the USAAF took over these planes which were meant for the Brits and just redesignated it the P-400.
P-39 air cobras we're based on my home island of Curaçao during WW 2. Many of them had mechanical issues and crashed or ditched in the ocean. Some Pilots we're never found.
If I remember well, in this case only the wing mounted machine guns worked while the cannons and the nose mounted machine guns jammed. In WT I believe you can shoot cannons and machine guns separately but not only some machine guns and that's why it was not possible to accurately represent that.
Merci pour cette vidéo qui met à l'honneur mon chasseur préféré. J'espère que d'autres pages de son histoire pourront être réalisées, comme sa carrière en Union Soviétique qui lui a permis de forger quelques as et "Héros de l' Union", ainsi que son passage dans les armées de l'air françaises et italiennes. Je montait des maquettes étant jeune, à l'échelle 1/72 par manque de place... et de moyens financiers. Mais j'ai cassé ma tire-lire pour en monter un au 1/48 : l'Airacobra.
Thanks for posting this. I always wondered if US airmen had any success with the P-39. All you really hear is about the failures of the plane in US service. Not sure why the P-39 is my favorite WW2 plane. I'd love to hear if the 37mm nowe cannon was ever successfully used and how.
Just upgrade the super-turbo charger and the cannon (to be more reliable) and that would have been one vicious aircraft. I always wondered why the soviets weren't sent armor piercing rounds so that they could attack tanks with the 37mm from above. I found out they had the il-2 for that. Still what a thought.
An engine failure in a P-38 on take off while heavily loaded was very dangerous. 15,000 US pilots and crew died in non-combat accidents during the war.
Hello. I. Find. Interest. In. Any. Bell. 39. Info. And. This is. A. Bonus.... this. Man. BrIngs. Standing. Alone. To. It's. True. Meaning and. Alittle. Credit. To. An. Overlooked. Piece. OF. Our. History... maybe. He. Was. Of. Russian. Decent... but. He. Done. Americans. In. A. Good. Way. By. Performing. Well. With. Equipment. No one. Seemed to. Want. Thankyou. For. Letting. This. Hero. Be. Known. And. Seen... have. A. Nice. Day..
When the Emily flying boat was shot down, I'm assuming there were survivors? Otherwise how else would we know that the Japanese zero pilot who was rescued was afraid to swim out to the Emily because of sharks?
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Good work showtime. I really enjoy these videos. Maybe you can clarify the actual “kills“ along side the claims. I think the claims are highly exaggerated. I’m pleased to hear that your voice is louder now on the videos, and I can hear Your narration clearly
I am volunteer Docent at the Anchorage Museum. There is P-39 wingtip on display from a crashed Lend Lease Airacobra on display in the Alaska Gallery. Last month I did short talk on the P-39 and mentioned Lt Fielder being the only American Ace in the P-39. Wish I had this video a month ago for some detailed description of his victories. Excellent work!
Thank you for sharing that! I hope there will be more such opportunities in the future.
I just want to say i appreciate that you take the time to look into the Japanese sources to get accurate numbers on losses vs claims. Great stuff!
Thank you for the positive comment!
William Fiedler deserves more credit for sure. Glad Eduard models did a great box art of him taking out the Emily flying boat on their P-39D 1:48 kit box.
Ah, at last! A Showtime 112 video on one of my all-time favourite aircraft. Thank-you. One of the first examples of an integrated weapon system, literally designed around that M-4 37mm gun, much as the A10 is built around the GAU-8.
Often maligned, pilots such as Chuck Yeager called it a ‘sweet’ plane to fly and the famous Eric ‘Winkle’ Brown used one as his personal hack until a visitor from Bell, who’d come to view some highly advanced captured German aircraft saw his P-39, had a closer look and immediately condemned it as totally unfit to fly, although frankly if any pilot could tell if an aircraft was airworthy or not, it was Eric Brown. And of course, Soviet pilots loved their ‘Iron Dog’ so much that several of their aces refused the offered ‘upgrade’ to La-7 so I’m definitely looking forward to your take on the P-39 and P-63 in Soviet service.
I also like the airplanes which were 'imperfect'. Yes, Yeager is quoted to have been a P-39 lover. Videos on Soviet Airacobras are definitely coming in the future.
@@showtime112 yes please! 🤩
After conducting a tour of a major Southern California air museum for members of the Society of Experimental Test Pilots, l discovered that Eric Brown had been in my group. I nearly fainted!
@@gordonbergslien30 Wow. I’d imagine that having to give a presentation to members of that illustrious group could be nerve racking enough already. It’s also a bit of a stretch squaring the mental image of the greatest test pilot who flew 487 aircraft types in his career with the reality of the dapper little 5’7” Brit in front of you. It was the matter-of-fact way he’d tell his stories that also impressed me ~ such as his musing almost in passing that the reason he hadn’t died like Geoffrey de Havilland Jr. had in the ill-fated DH108 was because he was so short.
Mind you, he did get more exercised when talking about his 100% unofficial ‘hot-start’ flight in a Me163 Komet ~ perfectly understandable!
@@davidpope3943 In addition to "Winkle" Brown, Bob Cardenas, who flew the B-29 that carried Chuck Yeager and the X-1 on the first mach buster flight was in my group. He explained he'd gotten into a jam in the YB-49 but managed to fly out of it a few days before Glen Edwards augered in. There were giants in the earth!
Thanks! When they talk about Guadalcanal they almost always just talk about the Cactus AF (Marine Wildcats). I've never heard about the participation of the USAAF in the Airacobras. With that big gun in the nose I would think the would have been fairly effective against shipping too.
The marines used the p39 as bait.
Thank you for another donation. It's true that Wildcats did most of the fighting with Zeros early in the campaign. The first Airacobras to deploy there were mostly P-400s and they were used primarily in air-to-ground. I'm not sure if they used them in anti-shipping role near Guadalcanal. The Japanese mostly sailed at night.
@@chadrowe8452 worked
The P-39 in Guadalcanal was indeed used to attack shipping, and also Japanese bombers.
It was a Marine operation and they flew top cover while the air corp concentrated on ground support.
AT LEAST a couple more videos, id say! The P-39 has been very roughly mauled by history and commonplaces, but it was not that bad an aircraft at all! Thank you Showtime, another well realized and entertaining vid!
Well, there could be dozens of videos about the P-39 but I'll see how the viewers respond :) Thank you for the feedback!
The P-39 was an awesome fighter - at 12,000 feet. At 24,000 feet, however, it was awful. That’s because its engine had no turbo supercharger, making it badly underpowered at high altitude.
@@timonsolus
The Russians sure loved it.
@@justinharvey1355 : That's because the Russian air force was focused on supporting the ground troops, so most of the fighting took place below 15,000 feet.
@@robertwoodroffe123 quit making things up. False.
P-39s played important a quite a successful role attacking ground targets - troops mostly - at the PTO. Some P-39 were redesignated as P-400 and had 20mm Hispano cannons (with 60rounds). There was a joke that a P-400 is actually a P-40 with a Zero on its tail. The P-39s had a critical issue: the windscreen was fogging between the armor glass inside and plexy glass outside making the visibility almost non existence. This phenomena happened during a quick descent from higher altitude. There was no canopy to open, maybe the pilots could let in some fresh air lowering the side windows on door(?). But this was a big problem. Also the 37mm cannon was slow firing and had a very curvy trajectory. Clearly designed to attack slow moving bombers not nimble fighters.
Poor guy, Fiedler died in very much wasted way. :( The Airacobra could do better, but the theater’s aerial combats dictated different rules where the type could not shine. Down low it could hit harder even the Zeros and Oscars. Actually down low the Airacobra had quite a decent climb rate and speed. Better than the P-40 had.
For me the Airacobra silhouette is one of the best looking, it has beautiful nice clean lines.
Not many know, but after the Second World War Hungary almost got P-39s and P-63s for the reborn communist airforce from the USSR inventory. The operating manuals were translated allegedly - although I never could find any - but we got that shitty Yak-9P fighters with that very ill/sick VK-107 engine. Oil always leaked away, engines seized, that aircraft was a bad apple. We called it “Vércse”, which means Kestrel. Poor bird (I mean the real one) didn’t deserve to shame its name on such a trash aircraft.
The P-400s were 200 'Airacobra Mk. Ia' aircraft purchased by Britain and transferred to the USAAF in reverse Lend-Lease. The British didn't want them because of their poor performance at high altitude.
The P-400 had a 20 mm Hispano cannon in place of the big 37 mm M4 cannon in the P-39.
@@timonsolus Australia ordered P-400s before the United States was involved in WW2. When the USA was suddenly involved in WW2 after the attack on Pearl Harbor the USA kept some of the P-400 to build up the USAAF.
At least one USAAF pilot (I forget which pilot) in the Pacific Theater preferred P-39s over P-40s. He flew both. Early P-40s did not have turbochargers. He was disappointed with the P-40 climb rate when he transitioned.
One of France's highest scoring aces, Pierre Le Gloan, was killed bellylanding an Airacobra with the belly tank still on, another wasted loss
Thanks for the additional info. I didn't know Hungary was to receive P-39s.
The P-39 was sent to Tonopah, Nevada once the airfield there was mostly finished. 12 squadrons of them were training pilots in gunnery and ground support in 1943. At 5,430 feet above sea level, it posed a problem with pilots on very hot and dry days. Departure and approach stalls were common with many fatalities. Target fixation was another problem as the desert looks similar from any altitude much like water. The P-39s were sent away to other bases and B-24 groups came to train. There are many accidents recorded of aircraft flying into mountain peaks during night training. A notable one occurred on Arch Dome Mountain were the aircraft almost missed the ridge top. My father remembered it as a good aircraft to work on. Most areas were accessible on the engine and nose sections with the panels removed.
Thank you for sharing information!
My grandpa was guarded from the Japanese on Guadalcanal by P39s and Wildcats from Henderson Field. I remember him telling me about the IJN Tokyo Express and Betty bombers, AKA Washing Machine Charlie that would make it hard, if not impossible for him to sleep at night in late 42 into 1943.
Thanks for sharing that! Yes, night harasement was a common tactics in WW2.
The most important thing about any fighter in the South Pacific was the simple fact that it WAS THERE ! Just being available and ready to fly is so overlooked. And the P-39 and P-40 was what the first US Army Airforce pilots had to work with so a thumbs up to the P-39 for just being available in the theatre.
Exactly, P-39s and P-40s were holding back the Japanese until it was time to push them back.
I love these videos featuring little known aircraft and pilots. Much appreciated.
Thank you very much! Yes, 'forgotten' history can be quite interesting.
Me too.
It blew my mind to learn from my newly-acquired hobby reference book that Oldsmobile made the 37mm autocannons for P39s and M3/5 tanks during WW2.
GM also made license built 20mm Oerlikons, Pontiac produced license built, 40mm Bofors, and Ford produced over 12500 of the M4A3 Sherman.
This was actually common. It is how Chrysler got into the tank business. I owned a Korean war era M1 carbine with General Motors stamped on the barrel. One of the most sought after 1911 pistols was made my Singer. The sewing machine company. During the war many companies were tasked with making arms and ammo for the war effort. They were provided tooling and technical data packages for whatever they were required to build.
The 37mm cannon on the P39 is completely different than the 37mm cannon used on the M3 Lee and M5 Stuart. The 37mm cannon on the P39 fired a smaller 37x145mm cartridge that had a muzzle velocity of only 2,000 feet per second. The 37mm cannon on the M3 and M5 tank fired a bigger 37x223mm cartridge with a muzzle velocity of 2,600 feet per second.
Outstanding lesson. A good pilot always can exploit his bird strenghts
Thank you for the comment! Quite right.
To a certain degree
I love the small details in 112’s storytelling.
“The downed japanese pilot was afraid of sharks” and so on.
These little informations give life to the story.
There is more. The Zero pilot flying the close escort apparently strafed the water to clear the sharks but it was a bit difficult to show in WT so I simplified the story 😁
@@showtime112: Thats amazing!
Thank you Sir🫡
Good to see the good old P-39 on your channel. Looking forward to see those soviet pilots videos in the future, hope you can do some for other fighters in soviet service like the I-16, the Lagg-3 or the Yaks. Thanks!
Thank you once again. I want to cover some of those stories for sure.
Nobody talks about the P-39 in USAAF service. Nice to learn something new.
A good video.
Yes, it is heavily overshadowed by all those P-51s, P-47s and P-38s. Even by P-40s and their Flying Tigers fame. Thanks for another comment!
Great video of the P-39 in combat over the Pacific. I look forward to seeing more videos of the air war in the Pacific.
Thank you! I've recently become quite interested in that theater as well.
@@showtime112 The air war in the pacific is mostly thought to be dominated by the US Navy and Army Air Forces to a lesser extent, with the Marines flying mostly CAS missions. But the USMC actually had a few aces in that theatre, the most famous pilot was of course Major Gregory Pappy Boyington. Marine pilots really kicked butts with their F4F Wildcat and F4U Corsair
I bought a hobby book called "Pacific Profiles: P-39 Airacobra Markings" that covers this ace. I highly recommend it.
Thanks for the recomandation!
RIP, Hero. Thanks for the animated war history!
Thank you for watching and appreciating the comment!
Thanks Showtime112 never here of Aircobra aces the information is great .
Thank you for being around again!
A beautiful story of a rare pilot, thank you always gor making these.
Its really nice learning about all these new awesome stories.
I appreciate your support! More Pacific stories are coming up, I know that's your thing.
@@showtime112 awhhh thanks! Glad to know and hey, again if I can help with anything, let me know.
Hello mate, end of work and immédiately in front of TV .
I never know this pilot, but it was fine pilot with an unloved plane, while the URSS with Alexandre Pokhryskin and others pilots found another use of this plane even at low level altitude, even attacking light armored vehicles when escorting IL2
Hope you liked it! I definitely have to read Pokryshkin's biography when I find the time.
A video on the Flying Tigers squadron would be neat to see.
Thanks for the suggestion! I might cover that topic someday.
One interesting thing about the "Hamp". There was two Zeros designated as A6M3, the Type 22 and the Type 32. Interestingly the Type 32 was the earlier model, called the Hamp. As the numbering was made up from airframe version (1st version, 2nd version, etc) and the engine version. The 32 had shorter wings and less fuel (bigger engine than the Type 21 - A6M2 also took some place from the fuselage tank's space) and it had the worst combat range among all Zero subtypes. The wing was cut down to eliminate the folding wingtips, but it also ruined somewhat the flight characteristics, if I'm not mistaken. So pilots hated that and soon went back to the original airframe of the A6M2, and the most popular Zero variant born, the A6M3 Type 22 which again called as Zeke.
Thanks for contributing details!
Yes, the A6M3 Model 22 had extra fuel tanks in the outer wings, which made up for the reduced size of the tank behind the engine. The clipped wings of the A6M3 Model 32 improved the roll rate (from the A6M2), and also increased the maximum diving speed, but reduced the turn rate.
The Model 32 was redeployed away from the Guadalcanal theatre because of its limited range.
Everything you stated is absolutely correct!!! Thank you for posting that!!
In the Duel series book, P-39/P-400 Aircobra vs A6M2/3 Zero-Sen, author Michael Claringbould, looked into the actual claims and losses of the two aircraft during the 1942 New Guinea campaign. The actual number of Zero's shot down by P-39's in 1942 was only 15, out of 95 claims for Zero's. In return, the A6M Zero shot down exactly 15 P-39's, for a one to one kill ratio. The book does not go into P-39 claims in 1943.
1:1 kill to loss ratio against the Zero, especially in 1942 is pretty successful I'd say.
@@showtime112 Agreed!
For now..I'm sure Claringbould will be finishing up his series on the air battle over New Guinea eventually.
@@showtime112 Interesting total: I think John Lundstrom (The First Team) tallied up what Zeros and Wildcats achieved going from Coral Sea to the End of the Campaign in Guadalcanal, and they also figured out to almost a one to one ratio with perhaps the experienced Zero pilots being slightly ahead---but of course, that didn't matter in the long run, when their carriers were lost and the attrition against IJN pilots sapped their strength.
Thanks again, Mr Time112
Thank you for watching and commenting!
Dear friend, i forgot sometimes. The french ace Pierre Le Gloan with 18 kills plus 3 probable was killed when flying with P39N s/n29241.
Just after takeoff, a oil leak started, he decided to make a belly landing in a field, but nobody knew if he forgot to jettison external tank or jettison device issue ???? When plane slided on ground, tank exploded and plane bounced up before crashed and explode.
But he could use parachute to egress easily, he have much altitude but he always prefer "save" the plane 😮
Thanks for sharing. There are quite a few stories where pilots tried to save the airplane and risked their own lives but everything eventually ended in tragedy.
Excellent video. P-39 is a beutiful plane, but at that time, Zeros still ruled the air over Pacific. No chance. Great video as always! Thanks a lot.
Thank you for appreciating the comment!
Even though it was horribly misused by the US and has a terrible reputation, I've always loved the P-39. That side door is just so cool
It's certainly a unique aircraft. I personally like the types which were not overwhelmingly successful but a bit flawed.
The early warning system of coastwatchers allowed the Marine Wildcats to takeoff and gain an altitude advantage when the Japanese raids arrived. The P-39 had similar performance to the Wildcat and could have been used the same way. The American air forces were under Navy/Marine command and the Army P-39s were mainly relegated to ground support.
Wildcats were superior above 15,000'
The 20mm equipped Airacobra was numbered the P-400 for awhile. The joke became it was a P-40 with a Zero on its tail. The two .50 machine guns in the nose were quite sufficient for most Japanese aircraft.
Yes, those were Airacobras ordered by the British. The joke is pretty funny, if you are into dark humor :)
Correct. The British did not like the American 37mm canon as it often jammed and had a low ammo capacity. The Brits ordered the P-39 but wanted to fit them with the much more reliable and faster firing 20mm Hispano Suiza cannons. After Pearl Harbor the USAAF took over these planes which were meant for the Brits and just redesignated it the P-400.
Looks like a P-39D to me. 2 nose-mounted .50s, 4 wing-mounted .30 cals, and a 37mm cannon. The Allison V-1710 engine would've been supercharged, unlike the P-400s the British wisely dumped in Australia.
Another great video 👍
Thanks Chups!
The 39 was a through and through sound design that screamed for the Rolls Royce engine. As an interceptor and ground strafing role it would be second to none. The P 38 would be on par but it had it's own disadvantage.
Thank you for the feedback!
Lol, what it needed was a 2speed, 2nd stage for the supercharger in lieu of the turbo supercharger it was designed for and didn't get.
@@kenneth9874 Yes, it needed just the better engine.
@@briansteffmagnussen9078 dense huh, the merlin wasn't it. Without American technology it sucked hind tit.
According to Frank Olynyk's "Stas & Bars," Fiedler's third kill was a Zero brought down 10 miles west of Cape Esperance on 6/12/1943.
Me encanta la campaña del Pacífico.
Excelente trabajo de documentación.
Es verdad que el cobra funcionó mejor en la URSS.
Gracias
Thank you very much! I've recently been quite fascinated by the Pacific Campaign and I hope to explore it more deeply with videos.
I saw in a comment you use CDK Mission Editor to set up these scenarios. My follow up question is: How many pilots fly them with you? Or, does the game AI fly the other aircraft? Or, do you just run the whole thing several times flying different aircraft yourself? Okay, that's three questions. Still, very curious about how you get the various screen shots that wind up in a finished video. (Liked & Subscribed)
I sometimes ask for other human pilots to assist when there are some very specific maneuvers or such. Mostly, I program AI to fly in a certain way. One scene often needs to be done in several small parts. For example, in the scene with the Mavis and escorting Zeros I first had to fly the Mavis. Then, I flew Fiedler's Airacobra attacking it. Then I flew McKulla's Cobra attacking the Mavis. After that, I flew the Zero which shot down McKulla and finally, Fiedler's P-39 escaping the Zeros. Then I captured all these individual tracks from multiple angles and I used some 10-20% of the footage in the final edit.
@@showtime112 WOW! That works out to about 2 hours of "Sim time" for 12 minutes of video. Add to that, editing, script wrriting, programming, research, etc. So, just guessing here but - 3 to 5 days of work (if you didn't have a life and that was all you had to do btw)? I am amazed you can get one episode out a week. Salute. :)
Awesome video, very nicely made!
And of which TH-cam, in all their AI greatness and wisdom, never gave me a notification!... 😓😓😓
I loved playing with this plane in original Il-2, I remember it being first flyable airplane in demo-version that came on BUG CD and being really weird to fly. But once you get to know its quirks, its kinda awesome! 😁
But, yeah... 20 years ago... 😊
Stay safe, everyone! 👍🏻🙋🏼♂️🍻🍻
I was just wondering when I last saw your comment and there it was 😁 Ah, the old days with demo CDs......
@@showtime112 Yeah, you could try play a game and see if your system could even run it and if you liked it before buying (or "buying" 😁).
I was living in Zagreb back then with my girlfriend (now wife) and working as an aviation tech at the airport...
Golden times, may they never come back! 😉🙋🏼♂️
Thank you for this video. The P-39 is my favorite aircraft of all time🎉🎉
Thank you for watching and appreciating it! Glad to hear from Airacobra fans.
Best looking ww2 fighter.
The low fuel capacity and bad low speed handleing realy let it down, especialy in the pacific, but it looked realy good and ofcourse it was one of the fastest planes at low altitute at the time.
EXCELLENT video. The P-39 Airacobra is practically the underdog of the U.S. Army Air Force. Your contribution to aviation history brings facts and pays tribute to this airplane. Thanks
Your comments are always a great motivation to keep working! Thanks!
Brilliant. Thank you for the video 😊
Glad you enjoyed it!
P-39's also fought in the Mediterranean Sea (N. Africa and Italy) in 1943, Alaska and in Iceland.
Exactly, thank you for adding information!
Seeing that the first plane he claimed wasn't actually shot down. Claims were always grossly exaggerated. He was not an actual ace but deserves recognition anyways.
That is true but on the other hand, it's probably true for most aces. At least some of their 'confirmed' victories were not real victories. So, we are still comparing apples to apples I think.
I admit that the only stick time I will ever have with the P39 is in IL 2....but it is a vicious little bird at lower altitude.
P 39 Airacobra
Americans: "Blech."
Soviets: "Da. Is good plane!"
P-39s were mechanically more reliable than Soviet WW2 airplanes.
Were they flying P-400s or P-39s? Or a combination.. The P-400s were equipped with a 20mm in place of the 37mm
The first Airacobras which came to Guadalcanal were mostly P-400s. I think by 1943, they were all P-39s. According to 'P-39 Aces of WW2', Fiedler was flying P-39N.
Correct. The British did not like the American 37mm canon as it often jammed and had a low ammo capacity. The Brits ordered the P-39 but wanted to fit them with the much more reliable and faster firing 20mm Hispano Suiza cannons. After Pearl Harbor the USAAF took over these planes which were meant for the Brits and just redesignated it the P-400.
P-39s shined in striking Japanese troops, airfields, and ships in the Pacific.
In Chuck Yeager’s biography he mentions flying the P-39 as a lead in fighter trainer. He wasn’t impressed.
Nice work, thanks 👍
Hvala!
Good Story, Bad Ending. War is Hell.
Great presentation 😊
Thank you very much!
Thanks for covering this fabulous war bird. Lend/Lease helped the Soviets contribute to the war effort. Every plane has its uses, and tgen uts adapted uses to make it successful. Thanks for all you do Showtime112! ♠️🎩🎯🎱🇺🇸🏁🇮🇱🇺🇦🔱🌻🏵️💮🌸🌼🏴☠️🏹
Thank you for enjoying the content! Seeing people like you stick around for so long suggests I'm doing something right :)
I have always wanted to ask a knowledgeable pilot or engineer, "What would have the P-39 have been like if a Rolls-Royce Merlin had been installed much like the P-51?"
I'm not sure how much the performance would have been increased. But Merlin wouldn't have solved the short range problem which was crucial for US fighters, both in Europe and Pacific.
Interesting. So I guess under certain conditions the P-39 could perform in the Pacific when combat was at lower altitudes
With a few modifications on the aircraft and a LOT of changes in how it was employed it COULD HAVE BEEN a fantastic ground attack aircraft. So sad nobody had the vision to extend the range/ammo and us it as such.
Circumstances, I guess. Perhaps it gained too bad a reputation for anyone to believe it would be worth modifying too much.
What became of the rescue Mavis? Did it go down?
No, it returned to base but it suffered some damage. I think that the fuselage buoyancy was compromised.
The Mavis was a hard plane to shoot down. It was very strong and had a lot of defensive machine guns.
Desesperatly....at work👎😭😫 watch it this evening😊
You might be working too much :)
@@showtime112 to earn and save money for retirement 🤑 thank mr président...Macron💩
Questo canale mostra sempre video distruttivi! 👍🍀💫✨⭐🌟😎🤩😊
Thank you for the feedback!
P-39, my #1 favorite. Thanks for posting. A dream to fly one.
I'm glad to hear that Airacobra has some fans! Thank you for watching!
My father, Lt. Richard D. Kent of the 68th Fighter Squadron, was on the scene when his friend Bill Fiedler was killed on Guadalcanal in 1943. After WWII, my father re-enlisted in the USAF during the Korean War. In 1963 he was transferred to Honolulu. The first thing my father did upon arrival in Hawaii was to take our family to the Punchbowl Cemetery to visit Fiedler's grave.
As to the qualities of the P-39, many Airacobra pilots disliked the plane and some even called it a "flying coffin." But my father thought it was an excellent fighter when flown at medium to low altitudes. He said the P-39s best combat opportunities occurred when they joined an air battle already in progress, after Zeros had been forced to dive to lower altitudes to evade pursuit.
As a result of his combat experience in the Solomons, my father was awarded the DFC after shooting down 3 Japanese planes and sharing in the downing of a fourth.
While my father was in the Air Force during WWII he met a P-39 pilot who came back from the Pacific Theater who recounted his one experience fighting the Japanese. He got on the tail of the enemy plane and was excited to see what his 37m cannon could do. He pulled the trigger and nothing happened. Looking around the controls he discovered he still had the safety switch engaged. He flipped it off and looking outside he couldn't see where the enemy's plane had gone.
I’m be interested to see what happened to a A6 after taking a 37mm hit. Might be ‘too much gun’ ie goes clean through.
Nah, if those 37mm AP hits a spar or engine part, it's kaboom for the Zeros not equipped with self-sealing fuel tank bladders
The 37mm weapon is not really designed to engage fighters. It was a pulkzestorer weapon for bombers
Probably not. As far as I could find, the cannon was quite effective against fighters, including Zeros (when it could hit them)
The Zero "Hamp" had squared off wing tips for a faster roll rate. The P-39 was crippled intentionally by the USAAC in its initial design by denying it the access to a supercharger. The idiot Army instead of increasing the production of superchargers for new aircraft severely limited its use to the P-38. The P-39 according to its pilots was a sweet handling gun platform. Given a supercharger with the cannon and machine guns and able to exploit high altitudes it would have been one of the few exceptional airframes of that conflict. The Soviets fighting a low altitude tactical air war maximized its potential to match the Germans' best aircraft of that era. Many Soviet pilots became aces in this aircraft. The supercharger what ifs are staggering with the venerable P-39.
One of the following commentators described in detail why the P-39 had no supercharger. Bell design decided to remove it to reduce drag to increase speed. Even though a graceful design it suffered from excess drag issues which were never, apparently, resolved.
The 37mm autocannon was notorious and maligned by P-39 pilots for jamming, a parabolic trajectory, and lack of ammo. It would often be deleted by ground crews to improve performance or replaced by Oerliken 20mm autocannons from P400s that worked better in air combat. Ironically, Nudelman and Seranov might have used it as a base for the far-more successful NS-37 autocannon seen on Yak-9Ts, MiG-15s, and MiG-17s.
Correct. The British did not like the American 37mm canon as it often jammed and had a low ammo capacity. The Brits ordered the P-39 but wanted to fit them with the much more reliable and faster firing 20mm Hispano Suiza cannons. After Pearl Harbor the USAAF took over these planes which were meant for the Brits and just redesignated it the P-400.
How do you set up these missions or scenarios in war thunder?
CDK Mission Editor.
I've always wondered how the P-39 would have performed if it had been given the Merlin switcherroo like the Mustang.
A bunch of people seem to wonder, quite a lot of comments on that topic.
Thank you for the video on the American ace.
Thank you for watching and commenting!
Great ground attack aircraft plus a good fighter especially below 10,000 feet. That 37mm was a shredder
The P39 aircobra was actually an awesome airplane but much underrated 😊
Some of its flaws turned out to be what everyone focused on. But it still has a place in history and deserves more attention.
Thanks for the video.
Thank you for watching!
You are a TH-cam ace Showtime 112.
Thank you for the compliment! :)
Good video, enjoyed it very much. What simulator did you use for making the video?
Thank you for the comment! This video was made in War Thunder.
P-39 air cobras we're based on my home island of Curaçao during WW 2. Many of them had mechanical issues and crashed or ditched in the ocean. Some Pilots we're never found.
10:17 you can select which guns to fire from in war thunder, which could be useful here to simulate a jam
If I remember well, in this case only the wing mounted machine guns worked while the cannons and the nose mounted machine guns jammed. In WT I believe you can shoot cannons and machine guns separately but not only some machine guns and that's why it was not possible to accurately represent that.
I wonder what would have happened if the powers that be had done the same to the P39 as they did with the P51? (ie put a Merlin in her)
No need for that, the Airacobra prototype with supercharging had excellent performance on any altitude.
I'm not sure about the exact performance, but it would have still had poor range and wouldn't have been able to escort bombers into Germany.
@@showtime112 True, but it would make a viable front-line fighter in N. Africa an Europe.
Merci pour cette vidéo qui met à l'honneur mon chasseur préféré. J'espère que d'autres pages de son histoire pourront être réalisées, comme sa carrière en Union Soviétique qui lui a permis de forger quelques as et "Héros de l' Union", ainsi que son passage dans les armées de l'air françaises et italiennes. Je montait des maquettes étant jeune, à l'échelle 1/72 par manque de place... et de moyens financiers. Mais j'ai cassé ma tire-lire pour en monter un au 1/48 : l'Airacobra.
Thanks for posting this. I always wondered if US airmen had any success with the P-39. All you really hear is about the failures of the plane in US service. Not sure why the P-39 is my favorite WW2 plane. I'd love to hear if the 37mm nowe cannon was ever successfully used and how.
There's something about those 'flawed' airplanes that makes them quite interesting. I totally get the appeal.
Just upgrade the super-turbo charger and the cannon (to be more reliable) and that would have been one vicious aircraft. I always wondered why the soviets weren't sent armor piercing rounds so that they could attack tanks with the 37mm from above. I found out they had the il-2 for that. Still what a thought.
Great video. Was this made using WarThunder or another flight sim?
Thank you! This one is War Thunder.
An engine failure in a P-38 on take off while heavily loaded was very dangerous. 15,000 US pilots and crew died in non-combat accidents during the war.
Great video of a great aircraft.
I appreciate your comment!
Hello. I. Find. Interest. In. Any. Bell. 39. Info. And. This is. A. Bonus.... this. Man. BrIngs. Standing. Alone. To. It's. True. Meaning and. Alittle. Credit. To. An. Overlooked. Piece. OF. Our. History... maybe. He. Was. Of. Russian. Decent... but. He. Done. Americans. In. A. Good. Way. By. Performing. Well. With. Equipment. No one. Seemed to. Want. Thankyou. For. Letting. This. Hero. Be. Known. And. Seen... have. A. Nice. Day..
The P-39 was not loved by American pilots, but...Russian pilots LOVED them. They turned into quite good tank busters on the Russian front.
Taj avion ne valja niti u simulacijama, kamo li u stvarnsti.
Dang killed by a p38
I object to calling Smoky and the bandit a comedy. 😂
The Soviets loved this airframe….
With a little development it might have been a whole different story the plane just didn't click with the people in charge
5:16 Back to P-39s vs. A6M3s.
👍👍👍
Thank you very much!
Looking forward to the Soviet employment of the P-39!
Me too! :)
Poor tactics , green pilots not uses it to its strengths , No allied plane ever had the agility of the light Japanese planes.
The P39 shot down the most Axis aircraft in the War. The great majority in the Soviet Union.
When the Emily flying boat was shot down, I'm assuming there were survivors? Otherwise how else would we know that the Japanese zero pilot who was rescued was afraid to swim out to the Emily because of sharks?
The flying boat wasn't shot down. It received damage but returned to base.
300 confirmed victories with an over-claim rate of 2,7 in average for the US pilots in the Pacific, that ends up to a meager 111 true victories.
But if you divide everything else by three as well, the ratio is still the same.
❤
They removed the supercharger from it which ruined its high altitude performance. Dummies. The Marine and Navy F-4F’s used the P-39’s as bait.
Looks like the maintenance crew on the P-38 did a terrible job on the plane. Otherwise, both pilots would still be alive; even to this very day.