Placing the Bell P39 Aircobra.

[mayfair35]

Mr Franek,
I am not sure what you mean by "disregard the above??" In our case, the 325th landed at Piryatin and observed the P-39s at close hand. Clearly these did not have radios as the pilots all ran to their aircraft when an alert came in and simultaneously took off in all directions. They were dispersed completely around the airfield. Try to visualize the situation of our 60+ aircraft landidng while the 39s were all taking off!! If you disagree with this, that is your right. I thought that what was observed in this instance might be of some value to the members of this board. I also think you may be making a mistake thinking that everyone obeyed the tech orders put out for their airplane.

The operating instructions for the Thunderbolt stated that when dropping the external wing tanks, the aircraft should be flown at no more than 160 mph and in straight and level flight. Now visualize yourself being bounced. Do you think you would slow up, go straight and level, and then drop the tanks. Of course not and no one did. This resulted in some bent ailerons and flaps but was eventually resolved.

Also it is my impression that many of the folks writing on this thread seem to think that there was no variation in the aircraft assigned to a Group. I cannot speak for the Russians or the Germans but the Americans modified their aircraft in many instances. In our P-40s, some of the pilots removed 2 of the machine guns for better performance. The same was true in the P-47 and although I have my doubts, one pilot was said to have his 8 guns loaded with 800 rounds per gun. I believe that all the other P-47s carried a load of 400 rounds per gun. Many of the pilots changed the convergence point of their guns. Wayne Lowry, an 11 victory ace had his guns converge at 200 yards, I had mine at 250 yards, but others decided that 300 yards was more to their liking. Then just prior to when we were supposed to get the K-14, all the gun patterns were changed.

Our Mustangs could not be set up to draw more than the 66 inches of MP because of the fuel octane. In the 8th as I am sure you know, they could draw 70 inches with the higher octane of their fuel. In the Thunderbolt, WEP was supposed to be 56 inches of MP as I recall; however in our group, we modified the engine so it could pull 70 inches. This was certainly not condoned by anyone from higher headquarters, and it drove the tech rep nuts. Our philosophy was that if you could not get away from an opponent, and you were in real trouble, you might as well use the 70 inches. But everyone knew this was a last ditch effort and so was seldom used.

Cordially, Art Fiedler

[Franek Grabowski]

Originally Posted by mayfair35

Mr Franek,
I am not sure what you mean by "disregard the above??"

I mean just only to disregard the post of user 'Empiricist' as it makes no sense and I cannot support it with Soviet documents.

Concerning field modifications, I am well awared of them, and quite recently I have read about field modifications to move P-39's CoG forward. This included partial removal of armour and moving of radio sets to another position behind the pilot. Perhaps this was observed by your friends at Piryatin?
That said I am not awared of any attempts to remove radio or full armour from Soviet Airacobras, but I cannot exclude some aircraft did.
Such modifications were made to British Spitfire Vs defending Alexandria from German high-altitude Ju 86 recce aircraft. In this case the intercepting aircraft was led to target by a radio equipped one flying below.

Concerning modifications, it always bothered me, that as there were always more pilots than aircraft, so if a one pilot modified his mount to personal taste, what would be a reaction of another pilot flying his plane.

[mayfair35]

Juha: You are absolutely right. Just because all the '39s scrambled at once did not confirm they were without radios. I forgot for the moment that we were talking about a RUSSIAN operation. As I think back , if they did have radios, the airfield controller was probably shouting for them to take off immediately as they were supposed to provide top cover while we landed. I wish I had been there to have given a first hand account but the stories when the Group returned were eye-openers to say the least. With our birds down to 10 to 15 gals of fuel remaining, it was imperative that they land ASAP. Their stories of '39s coming at them from all angles was hilarious...but could have been disastrous. I was told that the Russians were the ones who showed us what they had done to their birds to make them competitive with '109s up to 12,000 feet. Those in the know could not believe a P-39 could compete with a Me-109.

Franek: I had never thought about what you said concerning the individual modifications made to a bird when someone, not the primary pilot was assigned to fly it. In reality the mods made to the '51 were not really that important, I guess. When I think of the convergence point, I am not sure it made a great deal of difference as with the vibrations of the bird, and firing from positions with varying degrees of banks and different G forces, the actual aiming point would be difficult to pinpoint. When we used to view gun camera film and somebody, with the upper left tit indicating he was firing, was missing completely, it was hard to determine exactly what he was doing wrong. Now if we had the ball part of the ball and turn indicator somehow in the picture, I am sure it would have shown a lack of proper trim. I can say that with some authority, as it happened to me. Coming in on a '109, I did not realize his engine was not turning over until too late, and I was closing too fast. I pulled the throttle off and my bird went completely out of trim. However, I did not notice this as I was firing and taking a lead. I NEVER SAW ONE SHOT HIT HIS BIRD EVEN THOUGH I ALMOST RAN INTO HIM TRYING TO GET SOME HITS. But my apologies, that had nothing to do with mods.

I suspect that our '51 mods had little to do with any observable differences in flying qualities. After flying the P-51D, I would have objected to being required to fly a mission in the P-51C again. That wasn't a mod but of course a different model of airplane. In the '47, our possible mods probably made more of a difference as different ammo loads certainly contributed to different flying characteristics due to having 8 guns or perhaps 6 guns if modified.

Keep up the good work, you gentlemen are doing a great job.

Cordially, Art Fiedler