Bell P-39 Airacobra
1938 fighter aircraft family
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. Many thousands were shipped to the Soviet Union for battle against Germany, and they 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 users of the type included the Free French, the Royal Air Force, and the Italian Co-Belligerent Air Force.
The P-39 had an unusual layout, with the engine installed in the center fuselage behind the pilot, and driving a propeller in the nose via a long shaft. It was also the first fighter fitted with a tricycle undercarriage. Although the mid-engine placement was innovative, the P-39 design was handicapped by the absence of an efficient turbo-supercharger, preventing it from performing well at high altitude. 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.
Design and development
Circular Proposal X-609
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".
The public source identifies “Bell P-39 Airacobra” as 1938 fighter aircraft family. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Bell, P-39 and Airacobra.
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