Subject: Number Thirty-Nine in the Series--Bell P-39 Airacobra

From: [email-masked] (Joseph F Baugher)
Date: 11 Dec 92 17:25:37 GMT

>From Joseph F Baugher <[email-masked]>

In June 1942, an order for 494 Model 14As was placed with Bell using 
Lend-Lease funds.  Most of these were shipped to the Soviet Union.  
These were produced in two batches--P-39D-1 and P-39D-2.  

P-39D-1 was the designation applied to the first 336 aircraft of the 
order.  These were similar to the British Airacobras in that they 
retained the 20-mm Hispano cannon, but the 0.303-inch machine guns 
were replaced by 0.30-in guns.  A small dorsal fillet gave the tail a 
new shape, which became standard on all later P-39s and was 
retrofitted to most earlier P-39Ds.  

The remaining 158 machines on the Lend-Lease order were produced as 
P-39D-2s.  The P-39D-2 introduced the uprated 1325 hp V-1710-63 (E6) 
engine and had a 2:1 reduction gear.  It brought back the 37-mm nose 
cannon.  It was otherwise identical to the P-39D-1.  

The P-39D-3 and D-4 were earlier Ds which were modified for ground 
attack duties with oil cooler and radiator armor and two cameras 
mounted in the rear fuselage.  They retained the V-1710-35 engine.  
They all saw action in Italy.  

Serials for the P-39D-1s and D-2s were: 

41-28257-28406 		Bell P-39D-1 Airacobra 

41-38220/38404 		Bell P-39D-1 Airacobra 

41-38405/38562 		Bell P-39D-2 Airacobra 

41-38563 Bell 		P-39D-1 Airacobra 

Sources;

  War Planes of the Second World War, Fighters, Volume Four, William Green,
  Doubleday, 1964.

  The American Fighter, Enzo Anguluci and Peter Bowers, Orion Books, 1987.

  United States Military Aircraft since 1909, Gordon Swanborough and Peter 
  M. Bowers, Smithsonian Institution Press, 1989.

  P-39 Airacobra in Action, Ernie McDowell, Squadron/Signal Publications, 
  1980

  The Calamitous 'Cobra, Air Enthusiast, August 1971.

Joe Baugher       AT&T Bell Laboratories    2000 North Naperville Road 
		  Naperville, Illinois 60566-7033.   (708) 713-4548