On Mon, 25 Jan 2016 06:51:16 -0600, Pete Keillor
wrote:

On Sun, 24 Jan 2016 17:26:24 -0800, Larry Jaques
wrote:

On Sun, 24 Jan 2016 07:28:14 -0500, "Jim Wilkins"
wrote:

"Larry Jaques" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 23 Jan 2016 23:11:01 -0500, Tom Gardner
wrote:

On 1/22/2016 8:23 AM, Larry Jaques wrote:

Soldiers everywhere (and American taxpayer pocketbooks) are
rejoicing
over that wonderful news. Long Live the Warthog!

Designed and built just to haul around that big-ass gun!

That GAU-8 is a kick-ass cannon, wot? YeeeeeeeeeeeHaw!
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped..._VW_Type_1.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/34M4T3n.png Installed. This would be perfect for
HelL.A. traffic gridlock, methinks. giggle


We put a big autocannon in a small fighter at the start of WW2, but
the innovative combination's development was troublesome:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M4_cannon

The P-39 began life as a bomber interceptor. The Air Corps had decreed
that high-altitude engines would use turbochargers instead of
mechanically driven superchargers for very sound technical reasons but
they underestimated the difficulty of packing the necessary bulky duct
work into a sleek single-engine fighter, in which the fuel tank has a
better claim to the space behind the engine so it's changing weight
doesn't upset balance.

The P-39 turbo installation was unsatisfactory for too many reasons
and it was repurposed to ground attack, where the plane also didn't
work so well - neither did the Stuka when confronted by real fighters.

So we swapped in a lighter, cheaper 20mm cannon and unloaded them on
the Russians as Lend-Lease. Neither side on the Eastern Front had
high-altitude bombers to attack or defend, the air fighting was at low
altitude unlike over Europe, and the Russians made very good use of
the P-39 against the Me-109.

It looks like we gave them the 20 mm Hispano-Suiza cannon-equipped
models at first, then the 4 Brownings + M-4 and they loved it. All
except the small, 30rd magazines. Wiki said that we gave the Russians
1-1/4 million cannon rounds, so they must have liked 'em.


Field-expedient flying artillery:
http://www.tailsthroughtime.com/2012...er-bomber.html

Dad flew those for bomb runs over Germany, then was shot down over
occupied France. The Russians rolled their tanks over the barbed wire
fencing of the Stalag 10 months later and Dad came home. In at 210,
out at 140lbs.

Dad flew the P-39 from mid '42 until end of '43. Kanton, Guadalcanal,
New Caledonia, New Guinea, Woodlark... Great ground strafer, the 37mm,
.50's and .30's didn't track the same in a turn, which in addition to
the single stage supercharger also didn't help dogfighting. But he
said it was his favorite for just flying. It could also get into a
kind of uncontrollable tumble which killed a lot of guys. It happened
once to Dad on Kanton, but after losing 10000 ft or so, it ended up
heading straight down, so he was able to recover. Skinned his elbows
and knees flailing around, and accidently knocked the electric pitch
prop to very low pitch, so the landing was approximately deadstick.
Lucky. Was also attacked by a Corsair while on final at Guadalcanal
with gear and flaps down. He did some fancy talking on the radio. He
never did like those Marines after that.

He also flew P-40's in Hawaii for about 6 weeks before heading to
Kanton, then P-47's and P-51's with the 78th out of Duxford from
September '44 to the end.

Dad is still doing o.k. Using a walker now, and short term memory is
shot to hell. He turned 96 in December.
Pete Keillor

My dad was on the ground at Guadalcanal and New Guinea, and remarked
several times about how beautiful those P-39s were. Maybe your dad
made some strafing runs over my dad's head -- he was one of those
Marines your dad didn't like. g

--
Ed Huntress