Built around a powerful nose-mounted cannon and an unconventional mid-engine layout, the Bell P-39 Airacobra promised a new kind of fighter but stumbled at altitude. Follow its troubled development, ...

Do you want to know why people don't build mid-engined airplanes anymore? It's because it took until after the Second World War for folks to realize mid-engined vehicles don't make practical sense ...

“Don’t give me a P-39./The engine is mounted behind./They’ll tumble and spin and auger you in,/Don’t give me a P-39.” That is one of the verses from the humorous Air Force traditional drinking song ...

The P-39 Airacobra may be the least loved American fighter plane of World War II, deemed inadequate by military planners at the outset of hostilities and written off as nearly useless by many ...

The Bell P-39 Airacobra was a fighter primarily produced by US-based aerospace manufacturer Bell Aircraft for the United States Army Air Forces during the Second World War. However, the aircraft ...

★ Bell P-39 Aerocobra ★ P-39s did their best work on the Eastern front, where Soviet pilots did battle with the Luftwaffe at medium altitude. A decision not to equip the Allison engine in the P-39 ...

In 2004, salvagers pulled a Bell P-39 from a Siberian lake, where 60 years earlier pilot Ivan Baranovsky had crash-landed it. Courtesy Boris Osetinskiy Via Mark Sheppard And Ilya Grinberg Most of the ...