P-39 Airacobra
THE FIRST TIME that I saw a P-39 in flight must have been in 1941, near Wright Field. The sound of the engine, the speed, and clean lines were so different from the radial-engined "P-shooters" and biplanes that were so common in those days that I was awestruck. I have been fascinated by its unique design ever since. The P-39 was one of America's first-line pursuit planes at the time of Pearl Harbor in December 1941. It had made its initial flight in April 1938 at Wright Field, and by the time of the Pearl Harbor attack nearly 600 had been built. Its unique engine location (behind the cockpit) caused some concern at first, but experience showed that this was no more of a hazard in a crash landing than with an engine located forward of the cockpit. However, the P-39's spin characteristics could be quite a problem if proper recovery techniques were ignored.
P-38 Lightning
"A STUDY on Fowler Flaps" would have made an equally appropriate title for this article. Fowler flaps and the P-38 originated at about the same time, and the two go hand-in-hand in aviation history. Moreover, the use of Fowler Flaps in the P-38 was what first attracted me to the airplane, and led me to investigate how I could duplicate the system in a model. Several years ago, while doing some research at the Air Force Museum at Wright-Patterson AFB, I came across a picture of a P-38 in landing configuration with Fowler landing flaps in full down and out position. Fowler flaps, I thought incredulously, on an airplane designed in 1937? That was a period in which the Air Corps was still flying fabric-covered planes, and the most advanced "fighter" of the day was the P-26 Peashooter.
