Warbird Information Exchange

40th PS Red Devil's

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Are the white crosses for some sort of war game identification??

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Trae

There red actually. Wargames in LA 1941.

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As well centar spot of the national insignia is red and the greyscale of this part of markings are not the same as the color of the cross... hard to beleive that cross is red too. But for sure that images are excellent! Thank you jack, this is one of my favorite US aircraft.

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jack the top two pics are a p400(20mm cannon in the spinner) intresting as i thought that the usaaf took the over after 7/12/1941 so an intresting couple of pics

Many thanks Jack, for the great little 'Cobra pictures. I love 'em! Keep them coming.

I like the last one, showing a couple of PT-19's in the background. That's cool.

Steve

That first pic sure looks like Lowry AFB (AAF) in the background
H

Great photos as always. I always wondered how they were able to keep the engine temps in the green on the Cobras when the inlet area for the radiators appeared to be so much less than on other water cooled aircraft. It may not actually be the case but it sure looks like it.

OK, so what does the pilot in the first pic. have for headgear? If I didn't know better I'd almost think he was wearing a hard hat...

And yes Elwyn, the '39 doesn't cool very well on the ground. In warmer climates the SOP was to fire up and do all your mag checks, etc., while taxing out; then hope you could take the active immediately so it wouldn't overheat on you. Of course the guys ferrying them to Alaska usually didn't have this problem

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I was under the impression that the Hispano 20mm of the P-400/Airacobra I mounted a longer barrel, as shown below (first pic is a Cactus P-400, other two are of Russian Airacobra I's). Does anyone have an explanation for a short-barrelled P-400, or are Jack's first two pics not actually of a P-400?

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The first two photots show a P-39C.(all guns in the nose, no fillet @ the vertical stabilizer, 6 exaust stacks). The ones in the third photo are P-39Ds
that do not have the 37mm gun installed. The first pic in your post(Cactus) is a P-39D-1(20mm Hispano in place of the 37mm, 6 exhaust stacks). The other two are P-400s/Airacobra Is(20mm gun, 12 exhaust stacks). All short barrel cannons are 37mm and and were mounted in in P-39s only.
Heres on that gets confusing. The P-39F had the 12 exhaust stacks like the P-400 and a 37mm.

Thanks for that, Gemmer.

Concerning the Cactus D-1: Is the 20mm mounted a field mod, or did the Cobra get that installed at the factory?

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It was a good idea, it just didn't work.

Factory installed.

The P-39D was originally equiped with the 37mm cannon. But in the field it tended to jam up so it was often replaced with a 20mm. All P-400 as far as I know had the 20mm.


The planes in the pics are P-39's...not P-400's. Also another differeance is that the P-39D had 6 stack exhust ports while the P-400 had 12.


HTH,
Nathan

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Although I've seen one reference in print to swapping the 37mm for a 20mm in P-39s in the field, I've yet to see a pic of a P-39 with a 20mm that wasn't a D-1 model, which can be ID'd by the serial number, and
the flash hiders on the .50cal nose gun ports, as shown in the Cactus P-39 pic.

Gemmer