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A poor but rare photograph of Betty piloting Galloping Gertie shortly after she acquired the plane in October 1946 for $1000. It is still in its 1946 Cleveland racing markings but A cold ramp at Bell Aircraft with a very early production P-39 in camouflage and a she removed the name JUBA and applied Galloping Gertie. YP-39 in bare metal. Bell test pilot Robert Stanley is on the right.

THE HISTORY OF ONE OF THE FEW BELL P-39Q the critical altitude of the Allison V-1710 fitted with a sin- AIRACOBRAS THAT SURVIVED THE MASS gle-stage, single-speed supercharger. Production orders fol- SCRAPPINGS FOLLOWING WWII lowed but, as with many combat designs of the time period, the early variants were not really ready for combat. Some 80 BY JAMES THOMPSON P-39Cs had been ordered and 20 were already completed when a reassessment of the design was undertaken. oday, the few surviv- The P-39C did not have adequate armor protection for ing Bell P-39 Aira- pilot nor vital systems and the design lacked self-sealing fuel cobras are admired tanks. The remaining 60 were completed as P-39Ds with and studied as examples of a T armor, self-sealing tanks, and revised armament. From the desperate time in American history. beginning, the Airacobra — as the type had been named — After the Japanese sneak attack on was designed around the 37mm T9 cannon created by Pearl Harbor, America’s “first-line” performance advantage over American Armament Corporation, a division of Oldsmobile. fighter force comprised the Grumman the Zero but once tactics had F4F Wildcat, Curtiss P-40 Warhawk, been developed, then each Betty Haas shortly after her first flight in and Bell P-39 Airacobra. Previous to 7 type could effectively be uti- the P-39Q. December 1941, these fighters were lized to blunt Japan’s forward Staged pre-war photo of Airacobras derided as not being capable of momentum in the Pacific. during war games gives an idea of the “European-style” combat — basically Messerschmitt Bf 109. However, this When it came to the Airacobra at war aircraft’s impressive armament. meaning they could not hold their own comparison was a bit fallacious for, in the Pacific, we should add a few against the Supermarine Spitfire or what would have happened if these details. When the Air Corps and Bell three fighters were not available developed the type, the XP-39’s Allison to handle the swarms of Zeros V-1710 was fitted with a turbosuper- and other Japanese warplanes? charger that, of course, aided in higher In short, those early and dark altitude flight. Even by the standards of days following America’s entry the day, the XP-39 was a relatively small into the Second World War design and there was a minimum of would have been much, much internal room. First flying on 6 April worse without that trio of 1939, a number of realities began to American fighters. Compared to make themselves apparent regarding the the Zero, each type had its own overall design. The talented folks at shortcomings but, overall, they NACA put the prototype through its had distinct capabilities — they paces in the full-size wind tunnel and were reliable, rugged, available came up with suggestions to help elimi- in numbers, and relatively nate parasitic drag (as top speeds of war- heavily-armed. True, they may planes increased, the subject of parasitic have not had an air combat drag was only just being understood). For various reasons, a decision was Even though it was not a made to forge ahead with the aircraft “cutting edge” fighter, Bell but to eliminate the turbosupercharger heavily promoted the P-39 through dozens of distinctive and this would, of course, hinder per- magazine advertisements. formance above about 12,000-feet —

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