One of three ex USAAF P-39Cs shipped to the UK for trials of its 37mm cannon. The RAF had specified the 20mm Hispano-Suiza cannon for the P-39s it had received earlier but had quickly rejected. Those aircraft were shipped to the Soviet Union and there were no Airacobras in RAF service when the trials aircraft arrived. The 37mm cannon was being assessed as a ground attack weapon. The test trio were apparently scrapped at the end of the trial. Photo from: Imperial War Museums

The P-39 was an unusual design when it appeared in 1937. Among its many unorthodox design features are the mounting of the engine behind the pilot, the use of automobile type doors on the sides of the cockpit, and tricycle landing gear. Although performance was good at low altitudes, it was poor higher up but a large nose-mounted cannon made it effective for ground attack. Pima's example is in the marks of 110th TRS, New Guinea, 1944

This was the aircraft flown by the famous test pilot, Eric 'Winkle' Brown. It was the first tricycle undercarriage aircraft to land on an aircraft carrier. Seen in an advanced state of decay at Farnborough

Owned by David C Tallichet - Military Aircraft Restoration Corp and painted in Soviet Air Force markings. W/o on 05 May 1944 at Alaska Highway 141 miles, AK. Recovered from its crash site to Fort Nelson, BC, Canada in Nov 1971. Displayed at the Air Museum Chino later marked as USAAF 42-19027.

Raced by Charles Bing in 1946. Sold to Betty Hass who raced it as Galloping Gertie. Now part of the Smithsonian Collection. Photo by: Herbert J Nash / Smithsonian Institution

Not a part of the MOTAT collection but a WW2 relic rescued during the 70s. It was displayed at MOTAT for a few years and then disappeared............perhaps over the ditch to Australia where there were several restoration projects.

Built for the USAAF as P-39F 41-7215, some 9,588 of the unconventional Airacobra series were manufactured and entered service from 1941. The unique car-style cockpit entry doors are visible here. Just arrived from the US for the weekend's air show.

P-39 42-19597 was converted to a TP-39Q two-seat trainer during World War II. The aircraft was abandoned after emergency landing July 20, 1945 at Hobbs, New Mexico . Eventually used by Capitan High School, Lincoln, New Mexico, it was acquired by Joe Brown of Hobbs, New Mexico and donated to Confederate Air Force in the 60s. Registered N6968, it was restored to airworthy in single-seat configuration 1968-1974. Flown regularly in USSR markings at airshows, the fighter is still with the renamed Commemorative Air Force at the time of uploading.

Wideawake was built by the US as a staging post. The remote island airstrip was out of range of German air attack. The presence of P-39s discouraged any attempt to capture Ascension Island. Photo from: National Archives at College Park, Maryland

The 5th Air Force assigned this Airacobra to New Guinea in June 1943. The aircraft was abandoned at Tadji Airfield and remained there for thirty years until recovered in 1974. Pictured on static display at the Planes of Fame Museum, it was sold to Fred Johnson of the Museum Aeronautica in Tacoma WA in 1987 with the intention of making it airworthy. With wartime names "Small Fry" on the right and "Little Sir Echo" on the left, it returned to the Planes of Fame Museum in 2002 where it remains on display.

In the autumn of 1945, this P-39 was found complete (and presumably still crated) on a stray railway wagon near Radom. It was still it its USAAF markings so, presumably, a lend lease airframe that had been transported to the front, but as the war had progressed the plane had become surplus to requirements. The Airacobra was puchased by the Wawelberg & Rotwand Technical School in Warsaw and used for instructional teaching. It then passed to the Mechanical Faculty of the Warsaw University of Technology, however, in all the intervening years the fuselage, the serial and other parts have become lost.

ex USAAF 42-19597

The Civil Aeronautics Authority at war. 42-71464 and 41-19502, on the right, are two of the three XP-39E aircraft, which had supercharged Allison V-1710 engines. Allison is reported to have tested these two airframes at its Indianapolis plant. Information that 41-19502 was written off on 8 February 1943 is apparently wrong. 43-6012 is a P-51A Mustang. Photo from: Federal Aviation Administration

The caption says this photo was taken at Touconnerie but I cannot find that place? I have assumed the model and the photo date (it was taken in WW2) by my father Algernon Spurr. Also the serial may have one digit obscured, any info appreciated.

ex USAAF 42-19597

Showing the "car door" cockpit access.