Russia, WWII planes, and something for you Western NY guys

[OldManC]

http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid34757272001?bclid=0&bctid=87804472001

You'll have to click through but this is a great video.

This is a fantastic video to watch. After 60 years, a Bell P-39 Aircobra was found intact in Russia with a Harrison Radiator in it. Did you know that the girls, like Rosie the Riveter, who built these planes wrote their names and addresses on the plane's bulkheads? They're still there!

[Chris P.]

I'm going to watch it now, but Rosie the Riveter... great name for a song!

[godofthunder]

  I read about this in Smithsonian Air & Space, pretty amazing story! Right down the road from Rochester NY! We have family friends still with us that worked at Bell during the war.

[Denis]

What a great story!

[Barklessdog]

Always one of my favorite WWII plane concepts a prelude to the A10 Warthog

[godofthunder]

 The P-39 was not designed for ground attack , it however did excel in this roll. During it's development Bell dropped the supercharger due to  teething problems. This rendered the planes performance sub par above 15,000 feet and left it unable to perform as fighter, the roll it was designed for. Regardless you didn't want to find yourself with one of these behind you.

Always one of my favorite WWII plane concepts a prelude to the A10 Warthog

[uwe]

Lovely.

The Air Cobras were popular with the comrades because they could still get their engines running and have them take off at the most extreme freezing temperatures - a huge advantage in Russian winter. No, not a match for a BF 109 or a FW 190, but look what it could do to a supply line of German trucks and armour!

[godofthunder]

 They also loved them for the fact they had good radios.

[Denis]

When I was in high school a mountain climbing outfit found 2 or 3 Air Cobras which had crash landed on a plateau in China early in the war. Not sure what ever became of them.