Bell Airacobra Mk.I /P -400

The Bell P-39 Airacobra was an American fighter aircraft used in World War II.
Its assessment is very contradictory - in the US and British Air Forces it had a very bad reputation, while Soviet pilots rated it as excellent.
It was a machine with a very unusual and interesting concept.
The engine was located directly behind the cockpit, near the center of gravity of the machine, at the same time the propeller in the nose of the aircraft was driven by a long connecting shaft that passed under the pilot.
The tube armament could thus be concentrated in the "empty" bow.
An unusual element was the use of a nose gear.
The maximum speed for production aircraft was supposed to be about 400 miles per hour. The first machines went to Great Britain, but after the attack on Pearl Harbor the Americans confiscated the machines and included them in the armament of the USAAF.
The machines were also delivered to the USSR

Plastic model kit

• Airacobra I, AH 601, No. 601 Sqn. RAF, S/L E.J. Gracie, August 1941
• P-400, 2.GSAP, winter 1942/43
• P-400 s/n 311, OK-L of Forsa Aerea Portugesa, June 1943
• P-39 F, A53-6, 83. Squadron RAAF
• Airacobra I, AH 574, used for deck landing tests by the Royal Navy

Scale 1:72

unbuilt / unpainted

Paint and glue not included