Airacobra Advantage: The Flying Cannon : The Complete Story of Bell Aircraft Corporation's P-39 Pursuit Fighter Plane [Paperback]

Rick Mitchell (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0929521625 | ISBN-13: 978-0929521626 | Publication Date: March 1992 | Edition: First Edition

Airacobra Advantage: The Flying Cannon : The Complete Story of Bell Aircraft Corporation's P-39 Pursuit Fighter Plane (Paperback) One of the unsung workhorses of the second world war was Bell's P-39 Airacobra, and the disasterous experiences of this aircraft in British service could be the main reason for this, for very few of this aircraft served in the prestigious European Theatre of Operations (ETO) and most were relegated to the Far-East and the Russian Eastfront instead. The fact that the plane acquited itself very well there remained relatively unknown to most people, and Mr. Mitchell was one of the first to put things right in his book. It is a good book about the Airacobra

Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Pictorial Histories Pub Co; First Edition edition (March 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0929521625
• ISBN-13: 978-0929521626
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 8.4 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,089,129 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Flying Cannon - a tribute to the P-39 and its pilotsl, September 20, 2002

By 

D. P. Broer (LEIDEN, ZH Netherlands) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Airacobra Advantage: The Flying Cannon : The Complete Story of Bell Aircraft Corporation's P-39 Pursuit Fighter Plane (Paperback)

One of the unsung workhorses of the second world war was Bell's P-39 Airacobra, and the disasterous experiences of this aircraft in British service could be the main reason for this, for very few of this aircraft served in the prestigious European Theatre of Operations (ETO) and most were relegated to the Far-East and the Russian Eastfront instead. The fact that the plane acquited itself very well there remained relatively unknown to most people, and Mr. Mitchell was one of the first to put things right in his book.
It is a good book about the Airacobra, with history of the plane and it's Nephew/successor, the Bell P-63 Kingcobra, a nice comparison section to put things in perspective about the various fighter planes, personal accounts, a part about surviving planes and a thorough bibliography.
The only thing missing for me was a color art section, showing about the plane's camouflage and markings, but there are special books for that. The fact that the copy I bought was the second printing of March 1995 -the first being of March 1992- prooves that there is a steady market for books of this quality.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Labor of Love In Need of an Editor, November 21, 2010

By 

David L. Staples "Aero Engr." (Wichita, KS USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Airacobra Advantage: The Flying Cannon : The Complete Story of Bell Aircraft Corporation's P-39 Pursuit Fighter Plane (Paperback)

The chief value of this book is its extensive set of rare photographs, a valuable resource for modelers, illustrators, and historical enthusiasts. As well, there are also some interviews with P-39 pilots, ranging from inspiring and enlightening (e.g. Chuck Yeager, Medal of Honor winner William Shomo) to comically erroneous: One fellow states that the Airacobra's famed but ill-starred 37mm cannon had a muzzle velocity of "less than a thousand feet per minute," at which point any motor vehicle could have outrun its shells. Author Mitchell, who corrects or enlarges upon many trivial misunderstandings, somehow let this honker get by.

The author's deep enthusiasm for the P-39's history, and his fire-in-the-belly desire to give the Cobra the place he feels it deserves, are entirely laudable. I honor his mission. Unfortunately, the publisher did not provide the editorial guidance Mitchell needed, and as a result, the prose is clumsy, awkward, and desperately in need of the editing it clearly didn't have. The author's labor of love has collected a stupendous trove of information about the P-39, but to absorb it the reader has to pick through quite a lot of wince-worthy text. For that matter, the "numbers" concerning the Airacobra - its engineering aspects, per-model production history, and units of assignment - are covered more efficiently in other references, such as Ray Wagner's compendious "American Combat Planes of the 20th Century" or the online "American Military Aircraft" website of Joe Baugher (you can google it up easily), while the experiences of Airacobra combat pilots - especially of the Russian aces who really made the "Kobra" a winner -- are better found in "P-39 Airacobra Aces of World War 2" by Mellinger and Stanaway.

I should mention in passing that my copy of the book began to fall apart almost as soon as I opened the box. It's not really a book now -- more like a folder of loose pages.

Yet any detailed book about the Airacobra is worthwhile, because the aircraft is intrinsically interesting to enthusiasts while never as well covered as the all-conquering war-winners like the Mustang and Spitfire. I'm glad Mr. Mitchell went to all the trouble, and I'm glad I bought his book; I just wish the publisher had afforded him a proofreader!

4.0 out of 5 stars Story of a unique WWII aircraft, July 16, 2011

By 

Ulfilas (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Airacobra Advantage: The Flying Cannon : The Complete Story of Bell Aircraft Corporation's P-39 Pursuit Fighter Plane (Paperback)

This 118 page 8" x 10" paperback book with glossy pages has lots of black and white picture of the P-39 from its assembly on the factory floor to pictures of it in flight. It is interesting to read about a plane built around a 37 mm gun that fires though the propeller shaft. A number of these planes saw service in Soviet Union during WWII. For a view of the Russians flying these planes read "Blood Red Guard" in Russ Schneider's collection of short stories Madness Without End.