P-39 Aircobra

Some info on the M10 37mm cannon as requested:

Muzzle velocity: 610meters/sec
Rate of fire: 140rpm
Barrel weight: 109kg
Weight of projectile: 608grams.


The only notable difference between the M10 and the M4 is that the M10 was fed by belt, allowing an increase of rounds carried for the gun. That is really the main difference between the two guns.

 

Thanks.

 

The M10 ammo capacity went up from 30 to 58 rounds. The RoF was also increased a bit from 140 to 170 rpm.

The really impressive gun fitted to one member of the Bell family was the 37mm M9 installed in the single P-63D prototype. That was a modified belt-fed version of the M1 AA gun firing far more powerful 37x223SR ammo, with muzzle velocities of up to 3,000 fps depending on the loading.

Tony Williams: Military gun and ammunition website and Discussion forum

 

Re: Airacobra

I've heard similar complaits from a former USAAC P-39 pilot-the Allison engine simply did not perform well at high alitude.But a low altiudes, it was an entirely different matter! According to an article published in a French magazine (AVIONS) by a former Russian P39 pilot, the Russian P-39s were a special export version, built expressely for the USSR..He describes them as "pleasant to fly" Their armament cinsisted of 6 Brrowning .30 caliber, and a Hispano. M1 20 mm cannon instead of the Oldsmobile T9 37 mm-and later on some of these aircraft were fitted with Russian-built 23 mm cannon..Here's a pic of a Ruski P-39, which shows clearly the gun compartment...

 

Re: Airacobra

I've heard similar complaits from a former USAAC P-39 pilot-the Allison engine simply did not perform well at high alitude.But a low altitudes, it was an entirely different matter! According to an article published in a French magazine (AVIONS) by a former Russian P-39 pilot, the Russian P-39s were a special export version, built expressely for the USSR..He describes them as "pleasant to fly" Their armament consisted 6 Browning .30 caliber and a Hispano. M1 20 mm cannon instead of the Oldsmobile T9 37 mm-and later on some of these aircraft were fitted with Russian-built 23 mm cannon..Here's a pic of a Ruski P-39, which shows clearly the gun compartment...

 

Re: Airacobra

Both the P-39 and P-40 were designed to perform best at low altitudes, due to a doctrine that saw them defending the coasts of the USA against an amphibious invasion. Needless to say, this never happened.

 

incidentally Chuck Yeager stated in his biography that he actually like to fly the P-39 and thought it was a good palne.

 

Yup, he did. I too read his biography

 

That's interesting, most fighters in WWII do add tracer rounds in their MG ammo (etc. 1 per 10 - 20 rounds??), but to have phosphorus and conventional rounds mixed in 1:1 ratio (even in the slower firing cannon) is kind of unusual. Perhaps you guys are right, it's not phosphorus, but mixture of HE and AP.

 

Yup, my info says that usually only HE was used(especially in Russia) however AP was encountered as well.

 

Did he actually fly it in combat, though?

 

Chuck Yaeger not only flew in combat, he was a famed ace.
He even was shot down and escaped via spain to allied lines.
He flew the P51 alot over Europe. He said he loved the plane.

 

No, he only flew the P-39 while he was training in the States. As DesertWolf said, he flew the P-51 in WWII combat. He also flew the F-86 Sabre in Korea and was one of the test pilots who evaluated the Mig-15.

 

yeah, sorry i forgot to mention that he didnt fly the P39 in combat .

Thanks for inserting that canambridge

 

As has been noted, the only users of the P-39 who actually liked the plane were the Russians, and they never used iot as a fighter AFAIK. They used it in the ground attack role, where its good low altitude performance made it very useful.

 

This was generally believed for quite a while, but since information began to flow more freely from Russia a few years ago, it has become clear that this wasn't the case. The Russians used the P-39 as a fighter, and it was the preferred type of some of their most successful aces.

Of course, the nature of the air and land war on the Eastern Front was such that most air fighting took place at low level, and ground strafing was a common task for all fighters, but the P-39 wasn't dedicated to ground attack (they had tens of thousands of the armoured Il-2 for that).

Tony Williams: Military gun and ammunition website and discussion
forum

 

This painting speaks for itself

 

I stand corrected, then. Thanks, Tony.

 

Actually there were quite a number of Russian "air "aces" which scored most, if not all their victories aboard P-39s. Perhaps the most sucesfull l unit was the 16 "Istriebitel 'nyi Aviatsionisnnyi Pol" ( 16. IAP or 16th Regiment of Fighter aviation). One of its pilots"Polvonik" A. Pokryshin was creditted with 59 victories (including 6 partials) and was decorated with the 'Hero of USSR" ion" medal on three different ocassions. Captain A. Klubov was creditted with 50 victories(including 16 partials) and Major G. Rechkalov with 61 victories (5 partials)- These "partials" were kills that were shared with other pilots. Aside from these aces, 15 other pilots of the 16th IAP became "Heroes of the USSR"

 

That's very interesting. It would appear that the difficulties American pilots faced in flying the Airacobra in combat were due to its being used at higher altitudes, where its performance suffered.