Cobras, Mustangs, Thunderbolts, Eastern vs Western front, Franek vs ...

[Franek Grabowski]

Originally Posted by kalender1973

Franek, could you provide a link?

No, it is a paper copy of correspondence, and I am not sure where it is.

And may you can explain, how the plane that was delivered in relative few number(in compare with other types) could changed the situation? P-39 did not play any role in most important battles over Stalingrad and Kursk.

I understand those were land battles, were not they?

Only over Kuban brige use VVS this type intensive but e.g. Grislawsky mean Cobra was no more dangerous as other soviet type

And on the 1.7.1943 the VVS has only 183 Cobras on the from 3690 figthers total

In March 1944 USAAF had only few Fighter Groups equipped with Mustangs, most of the remaining flying Thunderbolts. Nonetheless those were those few dosens of Mustangs flying over Berlin changing the course of the airwar in the west.
This was a very similar case with Cobras and Spitifres, and Valerij Romanenko underlined this in his books about Cobra.

Really? Some NIIVVS test pilots crash to death with P-39 due motor failure and tailspin. I would say enthusiasm was really limited.

That is the sad fate of test pilots - they die sometimes. They have died on Spitfires, Mustangs, Focke Wulfs, Messerschmitts and other aircraft considered state of the engineering art. So what? The 1942 NIIVVS report considered Airacobra is at some aspects superior to Me 109F. This is the key info.

Engineers standards, any technical solution, techology culture, that was really point of interest of soviet engineers and constructors.

Soviet engineers and constructors did not fly them into combat, did they?