Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!att!cbnews!military
From: ntaib@silver.ucs.indiana.edu (Nur Iskandar Taib)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: US Fighter Designations
Message-ID: <1990Aug15.032222.26272@cbnews.att.com>
Date: 15 Aug 90 03:22:22 GMT
References: <1990Jul31.223607.6367@cbnews.att.com> <1990Aug5.042553.28554@cbnews.att.com> <1990Aug8.030305.25347@cbnews.att.com>
Sender: military@cbnews.att.com (William B. Thacker)
Organization: Indiana University, Bloomington IN.
Lines: 32
Approved: military@att.att.com



From: ntaib@silver.ucs.indiana.edu (Nur Iskandar Taib)
<>: 
<>: >P39: Airacobra, Bell Aircraft.  Sold lots to the Soviet Union during
<>: >
>: >***  Heh, heh. This was an interesting one. Had it's engine in the middle if
<>: >***  the plane and a long propellor shaft through the cockpit. Was turbo-?
<>: >***  at first until the government got a hold of it, i think. The gov't was
<>: >***  also responsible for moving the engine back behind the pilot. not good
<>: >***  if something blows. 
<>: 
<>: Why not?  I'd think that would be an advantage, since no oil, smoke, etc.
<>: would be blown over the windshield and canopy.
<>
<>It apparently had quite nasty flat-spin characteristics.  A fully-developed
<>spin went flat after a few turns, too.  (May have depended on remaining fuel
<>weight.)


It also couldn't turn with the ME-109s and FW-190s. The first
US squadron based in England after the US entered the war was
equipped with these and suffered terrible losses until they 
were given something better. Pilots had to resort to the same 
hit-and-run tactics that Messerschmidt pilots had to use against
Spitfires.

Some pilots reported another nasty characteristic: the airplane
could be made to do a forward somersault (the engine being so 
close to the C/G, the moments of inertia were very small). 

Was the p-63 Kingcobra an improvement of any sort?