P-39 Airacobra | How To Fly | The Fighter Aircraft Used By Both The USA And The Soviets | Upscaled

Bell P-39 Airacobra. How to fly one. An original upscaled documentary / training video.
The Bell P-39 Airacobra is a fighter produced by Bell Aircraft for the United States Army Air Forces during World War II. It was one of the principal American fighters in service when the United States entered combat. The P-39 was used by the Soviet Air Force, and enabled individual Soviet pilots to collect the highest number of kills attributed to any U.S. fighter type flown by any air force in any conflict. Other major users of the type included the Free French, the Royal Air Force, and the Italian Co-Belligerent Air Force.
It had an unusual layout, with the engine installed in the center fuselage, behind the pilot, and driving a tractor propeller in the nose with a long shaft. It was also the first fighter fitted with a tricycle undercarriage. Although its mid-engine placement was innovative, the P-39 design was handicapped by the absence of an efficient turbo-supercharger, preventing it from performing high-altitude work. For this reason it was rejected by the RAF for use over western Europe but adopted by the USSR, where most air combat took place at medium and lower altitudes.
Together with the derivative P-63 Kingcobra, the P-39 was one of the most successful fixed-wing aircraft manufactured by Bell.
In February 1937, Lieutenant Benjamin S. Kelsey, Project Officer for Fighters at the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC), and Captain Gordon P. Saville, fighter tactics instructor at the Air Corps Tactical School, issued a specification for a new fighter via Circular Proposal X-609.It was a request for a single-engine high-altitude "interceptor" having "the tactical mission of interception and attack of hostile aircraft at high altitude". Despite being called an interceptor, the proposed aircraft's role was simply an extension of the traditional pursuit (fighter) role, using a heavier and more powerful aircraft at higher altitude. Specifications called for at least 1,000 lb (450 kg) of heavy armament including a cannon, a liquid-cooled Allison engine with a General Electric turbo-supercharger, tricycle landing gear, a level airspeed of at least 360 mph (580 km/h) at altitude, and a climb to 20,000 ft (6,100 m) within 6 minutes. This was the most demanding set of fighter specifications USAAC had presented to that date. Although Bell's limited fighter design work had previously resulted in the unusual Bell YFM-1 Airacuda, the Model 12 proposal adopted an equally original configuration with an Allison V-12 engine mounted in the middle of the fuselage, just behind the cockpit, and a propeller driven by a shaft passing beneath the pilot's feet under the cockpit floor.
Bell XP-39 showing the position of the supercharger air intake
The main purpose of this configuration was to free up space for a 37 mm Browning Arms Company T9 cannon, later produced by Oldsmobile, firing through the center of the propeller hub for optimum accuracy and stability. This happened because H.M. Poyer, designer for project leader Robert Woods, was impressed by the power of this weapon and pressed for its incorporation. This was unusual, because fighter design had previously been driven by the intended engine, not the weapon system. Although devastating when it worked, the T9 had very limited ammunition, a low rate of fire, and was prone to jamming.
General characteristics
Crew: One
Length: 30 ft 2 in (9.19 m)
Wingspan: 34 ft 0 in (10.36 m)
Height: 12 ft 5 in (3.78 m)
Wing area: 213 sq ft (19.8 m2)
Empty weight: 6,516 lb (2,956 kg)
Gross weight: 7,570 lb (3,434 kg)
Max takeoff weight: 8,400 lb (3,810 kg)
Powerplant: 1 × Allison V-1710-85 V-12 liquid-cooled piston engine, 1,200 hp (890 kW) at 9,000 ft (2,743 m) (emergency power)
Propellers: 3-bladed constant-speed propeller
Performance
Maximum speed: 389 mph (626 km/h, 338 kn)
Stall speed: 95 mph (153 km/h, 83 kn) power off, flaps and undercarriage down
Never exceed speed: 525 mph (845 km/h, 456 kn)
Range: 525 mi (845 km, 456 nmi) on internal fuel
Service ceiling: 35,000 ft (11,000 m)
Rate of climb: 3,805 ft/min (19.33 m/s) at 7,400 ft (2,300 m) (using emergency power)
Time to altitude: 15,000 ft (4,600 m) in 4 minutes 30 seconds, at 160 mph (260 km/h)
Wing loading: 34.6 lb/sq ft (169 kg/m2)
Power/mass: 0.16 hp/lb (0.26 kW/kg)
Armament
Guns:
1 × 37 mm M4 cannon firing through the propeller hub
2 × .50 caliber synchronized Browning M2 machine guns, nose-mounted
2 × .50 caliber Browning M2 machine guns one each wing
Bombs: Up to 500 lb (230 kg) of bombs under wings and belly
#p39 #airacobra #aircraft

[@Dronescapes]

Click the link to watch more aircraft, heroes and their stories, missions: www.youtube.com/@Dronescapes

[@americansupervillain4595]

The designers of the P-39 really did go their own way with this one. A door instead of a sliding canopy, tricycle landing gear when most fighters at that time were tail draggers and the engine behind the pilot.

[@snappedbydan]

Isn't it brilliant? And the engine was put there to make space for the 37mm nose cannon! Literally designed around the gun 🤣

[@thedoors2001]

Engine is like addiontal armor behind a pilot, brilliant

[@gmansard641]

My grandmother worked in the factory that built these, she may have had her hands on this very plane.

[@Dronescapes]

Bless her!

[@jdmmike7225]

I love the pilot mouthing "Son of a bitch" at 1:43 LMAO 🤦🏻😂

[@RevMikeBlack]

I really enjoyed this one. It's a well made instructional film without too much silliness. Also, I find irony in watching a "restricted" training film for a plane that was retired seven decades ago. However, there WAS a time when the Allies' enemies would have gone to great effort to obtain this film.

[@ianbell5611]

Thank you another great video. Happy New Year.

[@Dronescapes]

To you as well Ian

[@tholmes2169]

Well done training film.

[@AnthonyEvelyn]

US pilots had a hard time getting this aircraft to work for them how they wanted. It seems it was a low altitude brawler, since it lacked a turbosupercharger for higher altitude air combat. The Soviets made the most of it at lower levels where most Eastern Front air combat took place.

[@givenfirstnamefamilyfirstn3935]

Waiting for the ‘it stalls easily with all the weight in the back’ experts.

[@donlawrence1428]

Thanks, an interesting educational flick.

[@Dronescapes]

Glad you enjoyed it

[@bombay999WT]

been looking for this

[@lknanml]

Love this plane. Spent many an hour shooting and getting showdown in IL-2

[@josecedillos8507]

Exelente cana me encanta la aviación y la historia de la segunda guerra mundial y este canal tiene ambas cosas muy buenos documentales, saludos desde Costa Rica ❤

[@oceanhome2023]

I love mid engine Porsches so I absolutely wanted to see how it works on Aircraft ! They are alike if you are speeding on the edge it is hard to get it back and it will stall quickly and it is hard to get it back get your stability and then come back in and try it again ! Like in the Porsche once you have lost stability you are off the track in the weeds , in the plane several bad things can happen the worst is getting into a Flat Spin you might not be able to get out of it !

[@SteveAubrey1762]

It really was an attractive airplane.

[@roberttalarsky4238]

Russian had GREAT Success with this Aircraft!

[@J316djt45]

Absolutely!...Battles fought at much lower altitudes... Finns had amazing success with the Brewster Buffalo for same reason...tactics too...

[@1Dave0Mustaine1]

Plus, Russians were flying the "hot-rod" p-63 version, that plane is a beast!

[@Bramon83]

a dude in dallas really needed to watch this a few months ago

[@arcanondrum6543]

Wow, you must have so many more flight hours in P-63's than he had. I mean, you can't tell the difference between this and a KingCobra but when have you ever learned anything?

[@mattich.1778]

P-39 Aircobra, best fighter plane in Soviet air force in WW2.

[@georgejennings3599]

Happy New Year everyone

[@oldfatbastad6053]

they dont show stuff like this on the bbc.

[@odinsson204]

Hell of a ground attack plane.

[@dukecraig2402]

It wasn't used for ground attack, that myth got started because of a poorly translated Russian saying about it.

[@I_am_not_a_dog]

What Duke said, above me. Less than 1% of lend-lease shipments of 37mm rounds for the P-39 were AP. 99%+ of the rounds were self-destroying HE-T shells. While I have no doubt that one of these shells would give the occupants of an un-armored/lightly-armored vehicle one hell of a headache, in reality this did not happen. Ammunition was short, and they were saved for their intended purpose: aircraft. Soviet pilots have explicitly stated that the P-39 was rarely-used in the ground-attack role. Occasionally strafing targets of opportunity on the way back (with the machine guns) from a patrol/mission was the most she ever got up to on a regular basis.

[@dukecraig2402]

@@I_am_not_a_dog Right, the Russian name for the P39 that caused the confusion translated to something like "Aircraft for defense of men on the ground", but it wasn't meant to imply that it was used for ground attack, instead the meaning was that it was used to shoot down aircraft that were attacking men on the ground, ie Stuka's and FW190's that were attacking Russian troops.

[@gohapasta1875]

P-39 Аэрокобра Герой войны в воздухе в СССР.Ь