Wow...a lot American Pilots died in P-39's because of poor performance as compared to the Japanese fighters. We sure could have used high performance P-39's in WWII, but unfortunately, it is a little too late now to worry about that.
Fantastic short movie. Thank you.
On the P-39 you can thank those penny crunching bean counters back then. The P-39 was a very good fighter if it was set up right. It was never given the chance it deserved to prove it self. A lot of pilots were worried due to the engine location. The pilots feared the engine would crush them on a bad landing. Also the thought of the prop drive shaft running right underneath the pilot
In the history of the P-39 not one engine mount failure to cause hurt the pilot. The plane had a better center of gravity and handled very well.
But as mentioned above, to little to late. Also a Steve mentioned. the prop was one fix. The engineers knew what the plane was capable of. It was the freaking Gov't bean counters that should take the blame for holding back the 39's performance not Bell Aircraft.