[bearoutwest]

Hello Michael,
I read through my references on the RAF operations quickly, so you are most likely correct that it was only over 3 days.

As for the name Air-a-cobra....I've never given it much thought. There is never any necessity to apply too much logic to names which are meant to rhyme or are a fun twist on another name. I had a quick look at the Air Vectors website - they seem to say that the previous Bell designed aircraft was named Airacuda which was itself a play on words of Barracuda. In the 1920s and 1930s, there was a great deal of popularity with word alliterations and other plays on words. Hence the popularity of British aircraft names Gloster Grebe/Gamecock/Gauntlet/Gladiator, the Hawker Harts/Hinds/Henley/Hurricane, Bristol Blenheim/Beaufort/Beaufighter, etc. On the other side of the Atlantic, it seemed less popular in aircraft names, but Bell was supposed to have named the Airacobra to rhyme with the sing-song style of the Airacuda name. Didn't seem as popular in the 1940s with the P-63 being known as the Kingcobra not the King-a-cobra.

Food for thought anyway.
...geoff