The first American fighter fitted with a tricyle undercarriage and mid-mounted engine, the P-39 proved less than successful in the hands of its launch customer, the US Army Air Force (AAF). Hampered by unreliabilty and poor engine performance at high altitude, the P-39 nevertheless served alongside the P-40 and P-38 in the bitter struggle to capture Guadalcanal in 1942/43, as well as seeing much action over the jungles of New Guinea. Around a dozen AAF aces scored five kills with the P-39, although this total was far outstripped by the Soviet Red Air Force, whose pilots rated the Airacobra as one of the best lend-lease fighters of the war.
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"Loved by some, hated by others, the Bell P-39 Airacobra is a fascinating, but largely forgotten aircraft of WWII history that played a significant role in the early air combat in the Pacific. This book is another excellent work of research by author John Stanaway and full of interesting history, photographs and appendixes of pilots who scored kills in the Airacobra." -www.pacificwrecks.com
From the Publisher
Osprey's Aircraft of the Aces series combines full colour artwork, the best archival contemporary photography, and first hand accounts from aces to bring history's greatest airborne conflicts to life.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Best Osprey Aircraft of the Aces book about Soviet pilots,
By Alexey Sergeev (MOSCOW Russian Federation) - See all my reviews
This review is from: P-39 Airacobra Aces of World War 2 (Osprey Aircraft of the Aces No 36) (Paperback)
Very good book: contains iformative text, rare photos and perfect profiles. Part about Soviet pilots and regiments is excellent. George Mellinger studied most Russian publications about P-39 in VVS. Book has only one serious disadvantage - extreme thinness.
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Airacobra aces - the pilots of the flying cannon,
By
This review is from: P-39 Airacobra Aces of World War 2 (Osprey Aircraft of the Aces No 36) (Paperback)
Though not stricktly an Airacobra book about the plane itself, lots of Airacobra photographs and sideviews can be found in this book. It is indeed a welcome addition to "Attack of the Airacobra, Soviet aces, American P-39s & the War Against Germany", because the latter book may not suffer from extreme thinness, but has an meager photographic section. 'P-39 Airacobra Aces' bridges that gap, because most Airacobra aces were Russian, hence a lot of Russian planes in the sideview section, and quite a lot of photographic material about Russian aces as well. A welcome addition for both modeller and historian and a good book about an underrated plane and its faithfull pilots. If I'm not mistaken this book is also translated into the Russian and part of the 'War in the Air' series of Tornado Publishers (no. 45 of that series), a fitting tribute to the quality of this book.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Outstanding book on an obscure subject,
This review is from: P-39 Airacobra Aces of World War 2 (Osprey Aircraft of the Aces No 36) (Paperback)
The P-39 was one of the more obscure USAAF fighters of World War II. It was used in secondary theaters and as a trainer by the USAAF, rejected by the RAF and greatly loved by the Soviet air force, who received thousands via Lend Lease.This compact volume has a tremendous amount of detail. It profiles the aces who flew the P-39, gives information about their wartime activities, aircraft and units, and includes several pages of beautiful color plates of the P-39 aircraft flown by aces. It will be a worthy addition to the library of aviation and military history buffs and builders of scale model aircraft.
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Inside This Book
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First Sentence:
unit (No 601 Sqn) flew any operational sorties with the type, and the judgement of the British pilots was largely negative. Most of the aircraft in the batch that was scheduled for the RAF were sent to Australia, where they were used in combat under the designation P-400. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
bort numbers, serial unknown, shared victories, victory stars, group victories, aerial victories, individual victories, fin tip, regiment commander, two kills, senior lieutenant Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
New Guinea, Port Moresby, Milne Bay, Fighter Command, Southwest Pacific, Thirteenth Air Force, Air Army, Dmitrii Glinka, Grigorii Rechkalov, Hugh Dow, Russian Aviation Research Trust, South Pacific, Boris Glinka, Paul Bechtel, Soviet Air Forces, Soviet Union, Vadim Fadeev, Aleksandr Pokryshkin, Battle of Kursk, Bell Textron, Bill Fiedler, Christmas Island, Grigorii Dol'nikov, Ivan Babak, Jerry Johnson New!
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Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
unit (No 601 Sqn) flew any operational sorties with the type, and the judgement of the British pilots was largely negative. Most of the aircraft in the batch that was scheduled for the RAF were sent to Australia, where they were used in combat under the designation P-400. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
bort numbers, serial unknown, shared victories, victory stars, group victories, aerial victories, individual victories, fin tip, regiment commander, two kills, senior lieutenant Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
New Guinea, Port Moresby, Milne Bay, Fighter Command, Southwest Pacific, Thirteenth Air Force, Air Army, Dmitrii Glinka, Grigorii Rechkalov, Hugh Dow, Russian Aviation Research Trust, South Pacific, Boris Glinka, Paul Bechtel, Soviet Air Forces, Soviet Union, Vadim Fadeev, Aleksandr Pokryshkin, Battle of Kursk, Bell Textron, Bill Fiedler, Christmas Island, Grigorii Dol'nikov, Ivan Babak, Jerry Johnson New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
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book:
- The Queen of Spades and Other Stories : A New Translation by Alexander Pushkin in Back Matter
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