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Bell P-39 Airacobra aka Белл П-39 Аэрокобра


Gregory
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Bell P-39 Airacobra aka Белл П-39 Аэрокобра

How the Soviet P-39s were repaired

 

Like I could see here some of you know Russian so I hope you will find this thread interesting, the more so that it is a kind of WWII era picture story related to Soviet-operated Bell P-39 fighter, and, in fact, all of you will understand it. I hope that for those of you who know military-technical-aviation Russian it will be also good opportunity to compare your knowledge with WWII terminology.

 

What I will post step-by-step in the days to come are selected pages from the Soviet-published P-39 Repair Manual. In my opinion it is always interesting to observe WWII technical culture in various countries and the publications connected with it. Every country then had its own style of graphics, photographs, charts, drawings etc. Here you will have an opportunity to see how your P-39 was shown for the Soviet repair and maintenance units. The Manual I mentioned was published at Moscow in 1944.

 

At the beginning front cover of the Manual from my collection.

post-75-1346802944.jpg

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Cobrahistorian

Great to see, and thanks for posting this Gregory, but let's keep it focused on US Airacobras.

 

I've actually got some maintenance training handouts on the P-39 I'll have to dig up and post on this thread. Anyone else out there have anything on Bell's unsung fighter?

 

Jon

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Great to see, and thanks for posting this Gregory, but let's keep it focused on US Airacobras.

Of course, the thread is, and will be, purely American because focused on production and technical aspects without Soviet operational history of the P-39s. I will add also US WWII era clippings connected with P-39.

 

:)

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Thats pretty intresting and Im sure not many survived.

Yes, not many survived -- both the P-39s and Manuals I posted. Such WWII Soviet publications dedicated to the US military equipment of Lend-Lease are Holy Grails today -- that is why I posted it for you. It is a kind of miracle, and complete coincidence, that I have it at all. Let's remember that during Stalinism era all possible "material witnesses" of the US L-L help for the USSR were destroyed and deleted from Soviet vision of WWII history. I have this Manual thanks to my father. I have never seen such a thing for sale in an auction.

 

My father knew P-39 construction and maintenance very well because he is 1950s era aviation engineer. Late 1945 at Radom, Poland, the Soviets abandoned a crate with mystery P-39 in the US camouflage scheme, with complete USAAF markings (see below). Typically, all L-L P-39s were delivered with Red Stars painted according to the scheme agreed with the Soviets. That Radom specimen had complete US scheme. That P-39 was taken by the Poles to aviation engineer schools and finally landed at Warsaw Technical University, Aviation Faculty, my father graduated. The aircraft served as a teaching aid for the students.

 

More than 40 years long dad worked as a glider inspector for maintenance and flight safety. His department had a library where various WWII era manuals were stored among others. Some day (approx. 30 years ago) dad told me something like: "Boy, you are unable to imagine what I have for you, what treasures for your hobby". They had to refresh a content of their library and threw away old books. My beloved dad rescued for me nice set of WWII manuals, for the US P-39 and L-4 among others, but also for the Soviet WWII planes.

 

Below: Above mentioned disassembled P-39 in mid-1950s at the Polish academy for aviation engineers.

post-75-1346834342.jpg

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This is worth a look!

 

Yes, today we are forced to observe such "P-39 has been found" spots as a sensational material because Stalin ordered to destroy all US WWII relics that served well for the USSR.

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Gregory, thank you for posting these and please post more! It would be interesting to see a side-by-side comparison between the US manual and Soviet version. Was this manual printed in Moscow? Or was it provided by Bell? The layout looks to be a Soviet printed manual.

 

Hopefully this isn't going too far afield, but were Soviet technicians brought to the US to be trained (kind of doubt it) or did the Army/Bell send technicians over there to train up mechanics. With the eradication of so many engineers in the 1930s, I would think that it would have been tough to find many experienced aviation engineers to develop these manuals.

 

edited note: I just want back and read the title page of the manual and saw that it was indeed printed in Moscow. I really need to drink my coffee before I post!

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Was this manual printed in Moscow? Or was it provided by Bell? The layout looks to be a Soviet printed manual.

Yes, the Manual was printed in Moscow and it is dated June 19th, 1944. The manual was approved by General Engineer of the Soviet Air Forces Lt. Gen. Алексей A. Лапин / Aleksei A. Lapin. Here is an internal cover with this information.

post-75-1346842005.jpg

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Hopefully this isn't going too far afield, but were Soviet technicians brought to the US to be trained (kind of doubt it) or did the Army/Bell send technicians over there to train up mechanics. With the eradication of so many engineers in the 1930s, I would think that it would have been tough to find many experienced aviation engineers to develop these manuals.

I would love to see a discussion here on the subjects you mentioned. I count very much on USMFers-fans of WWII aviation.

 

It would be interesting to see a side-by-side comparison between the US manual and Soviet version.

Here is good opportunity. Is this graphics American or Soviet? As can be seen it is a page with P-39 main landing gear.

post-75-1346842485.jpg

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When my Dad was in High School before going into the Army during WWII, he and some friends picked up some stuff at an aircraft junkyard north of town. He brought home a door off a P-39. He left it at his parents and went off to the Army, in the 1960's we saw a P-39 at the Ontario Air Museum, Ontario, CA and he told me about it. His brother was then living in the house and they were feuding. His brother was a hoarder and trashed the house and the Health Department kicked him out of the house. I went over to find it but couldn't and he said he gave it to someone to use on a car. I wonder if there are any other doors floating around since they were easy to get off.

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Groovy stuff, Gregory... keep it comin!

 

The Cobra in that video Sabrejet linked to is about 30-45 minutes away from me. (depending who drives!)

 

Here's a few photos from the archives... some from my collection and some from a couple'a good friends, one of whom is an Airacobra nut.

 

 

I'm not a P-39 guru myself, so I dunno which variant this is... either the XP-39B or a YP-39A. I think it's the former, but am just not sure.

Regardless, this is my favorite P-39 photo and I was jazzed to add an original print to the archives recently...

 

Scan-120810-0001a.jpg

Project 914 Archives (S.Donacik collection)

 

 

I think this is a YP-39A.

 

P-39001a.jpg

Project 914 Archives (M.Butry collection)

 

 

P-39Q in the MTO...

 

ItalyP-39a.jpg

Project 914 Archives

 

 

February 27th, 1944... a P-39Q bound for the Soviet Union... Bruce B. Mackenzie of the 19th Ferrying Squadron, 3rd Ferrying Group has a bit of trouble on takeoff from Bismarck, North Dakota.

 

P-39Q44-3747BismarckNDBrianMcFee001a.jpg

Project 914 Archives (B.McFee collection)

 

 

Another 'oopsie'... June 26th, 1943, Maj. Donald M. Gordon of the 82nd RS, 71st RG seems to have experienced a bit of trouble with the gear of this P-39N at DeRidder AAB, Louisiana.

 

P-39N42-18927001a.jpg

Project 914 Archives (S.Donacik collection)

 

 

Haven't done much research for the rest of these yet...

 

Scan-120714-0002a.jpg

Project 914 Archives (M.Butry collection)

 

 

scan0011a.jpg

Project 914 Archives (B.McFee collection)

 

 

scan0010a.jpg

Project 914 Archives (B.McFee collection)

 

 

scan0013a.jpg

Project 914 Archives (B.McFee collection)

 

 

scan0009a.jpg

Project 914 Archives (B.McFee collection)

 

 

Fade to Black...

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Ack... last one got cut out...

 

 

P-39Ds from the 40th PS, 31st PG wearing markings for the Carolina Maneuvers...

P-3940PS31PG001a.jpg

Project 914 Archives (S.Donacik collection)

 

 

Will see if I can post some more later...

 

 

Fade to Black...

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Cobrahistorian

Man, I had a whole post typed up this morning and it got deleted.

 

The Airacobra's really an interesting study in procurement. The prototype was a stunning performer. It could pretty much outfly everything we had in the inventory at the time. However, in the interest of "saving weight", the supercharger was deleted on production models, effectively neutering what could have been a rather impressive airplane.

 

I've actually got two uniforms that are ID'd to Airacobra pilots. One flew them operationally with the 36th PG in the Caribbean prior to the Group being sent to the ETO with P-47s and the other flew P-400s from New Guinea after being evacuated from Java in early 1942.

 

Of course, I always liked the old saying:

 

"Don't give me a P-39

With an engine that's mounted behind

It will tumble and roll

And dig a big hole

Don't give me a P-39".

 

That being said, Chuck Yeager has been quoted as saying that the Airacobra was one of his favorite airplanes to fly.

 

Apparently there's some issue with my photobucket account, so I'll get those pics of the electrical system handouts and 25 hour inspection checklists up a little later.

 

Jon

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I've always considered this plane a "looker". In its day it must've been as sleek as an F-22! I've had the pleasure of being right up close and personal with the one at Duxford and have seen it fly on several occasions. The cannon is awesome!

 

 

Please view:

 

 

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Various US companies of the 1940s era were pretty proud of their participation in the process of P-39s manufacturing. They used Airacobra image for their ad campaigns in the US WWII professional press dedicated to aviation technology and designing. Two such ads of November 1943 can be seen below.

post-75-1346882222.jpg

post-75-1346882231.jpg

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Cobrahistorian

Here's another 31st PG airplane in 1941 from my collection. Not sure which squadron. I think I've got a few 36th PG airplanes too, but will have to dig them out.

post-5470-1346886267.jpg

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