I was looking for pics of p-39 racer from 1946 Cleavland air races.Cobra 1 or 2 . Looking for color schemes sponsors etc. Thanks John

John,

Cobra I was red w/ black trim. Cobra II was yellow w/ black trim. The "Bell" logo on the door was standard Bell red with a black shadow. Color pictures from the era do exist but are rare. A color print of each plane is shown in the color gallery section of Birch Matthews' excellent book COBRA!. It's available from Schiffer books, http://www.schifferbooks.com/newschiffer/book_template.php?isbn=0887409113. Not exactly cheap but well worth the price. There is a chapter devoted to the Cobra racers. Also, Accurate Miniatures has a 1/48 plastic kit with decals for both planes, http://www.squadron.com/ItemDetails.asp?item=AJ480408.

Cobra II won the 1946 Thompson Trophy flown by Tex Johnston. Unfortunately, Cobra I crashed into Lake Ontario killing pilot Jack Woolams. Woolams had returned to the Bell factory at Buffalo for an engine swap and was wringing out the new engine when he crashed.

Bob Heywood
Dayton, OH

Cobra II was later sold and flown by Chuck Brown to top qualifying speed of 418 at the 1948 Thompson.
It had the engine quit on the last lap due to vapor lock.
It was belly landed on the flight home to Indianapolis and sat in a hangar until bought by Ed Maloney in 1960. It was sold to Mike Carroll in 1967 and crashed on it's maiden flight after being further modified into a clipped wing pylon racer/World Speed Record contender.

Here are some pics from 1946, the one with the missing paint is after the 45 minute Thompson race where the lacquer was chipped off inflight. They are available from Warbird Aero Press on CD.

Keith Davidson is the proprietor of Red Pegasus Decals. he makes decals for Cobra I and II in the 1946 scheme. He has scaled up some of his offerings for me in the past. Check him out at redpegasusdecals.com.

Chris...