An Unlikely Success Story What was America's most successful fighter aircraft during World War II? Many might say the Mu ...

Though the P-39 was not generally disliked by its pilots, it would also never have its own pilot’s association, unlike the four other major fighter types of the Army Air Corps.

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 ...

Though the P-39 was not generally disliked by its pilots, it would also never have its own pilot’s association, unlike the four other major fighter types of the Army Air Corps.

But if you were a Soviet pilot duking it out with German Bf-109s, you probably had a more favorable opinion. The failure of the Bell Airocuda didn't help matters.

"It was a godsend from a pilot's standpoint," he said. His old P-39 had one 1,200-horsepower motor; the P-38 came with two 1,600-horsepower engines. It climbed like a rocket.

There are said to be only four known P-61s in existence in the world (see “A Black Widow’s Second Act,” p. 39). The one at the Mid Atlantic Air Museum sits about an hour and 15 minutes ...

The P-39 is thought to be the same one piloted by Soviet Air Force pilot Fyodor Varavik that crashed into Shukozero in March 1945. Varavik was on a training mission at the time when he lost ...

He was piloting a P-39 Airacobra fighter on a combat mission over Wewak, New Guinea, on July 6, 1944, when a released bomb exploded and destroyed his aircraft. According to Pacific Wrecks, Eggud ...