Bell P-39 Airacobra (Orange Series Book 6129) Kindle Edition

The book is very informative. The latter half has many color plates and phots of real aircraft under restoration , which you can actually see the proper color .

One of the more innovative fighter aircraft designs of its time. Disliked by American pilots and despised by the RAF, this aircraft found its niche with the Soviet air forces on the Eastern Front. This important, but, little known aircraft is adequately described through text, diagrams, line drawings, color and b&w photographs, and color plates depicting the aircraft in various paint schemes. For a modeler or or flight-sim skin artist, or those looking for technical details of the aircraft this is a respectable work. Unfortunately, it is a bit short on details of it’s use in combat, but nonetheless, this is an important resource for an aircraft for which there is little in print in the English language.

The P-39 was designed in response to a specification issued by the US Army Air Corp. At the time there was a great deal of interest in having an interceptor/destroyer aircraft armed with large caliber weapons and for these weapons to be in the front of the plane, not out on the wings. Bell Aircraft responded with the XFM-1 - which was a failure because it attempted to do too many things for one aircraft to perform. Following a revised specification, Bell then came out with what became the P-39.The P-39 used the then-new 37 mm Oldsmobile cannon that was designed by John Browning and built by Colt. Why it is the Oldsmobile cannon is beyond me. 37 mm was a quite common cannon size at that time, I am told that this is because the Hague Convention does not allow exploding ammunition to be used in with shells that weigh less than one pound, and that 37 mm (1.46 inch) is the bore size you get when you design a one pound exploding shell - although I have read that the exploding shell for the P-39 weighed just 0.88 pounds. Some versions of the P-39 used a 20 mm gun rather than the 37 mm, you can identify them because they have a much longer barrel.The book, typical from MMP publishing has a wealth of information. Complete details of the various models of the P-39 (and there were lots of variants), drawings, specifications, and maybe a hundred (I did not count them) photographs covering all parts of planes currently in museums.

This book is an update revision of the original Yellow Series (No 6106) book on the P-39.Like the other MMP Yellow Series books (this is No 6129) this is a square bound, 5-1/2" x 9-1/4" (European B5 size) card cover. There are 160 pages, up from the 128 pages of the previous MMP edition. It is divided into three sections, a text section up to page 64, a close up photographs/technical manual illustrations section to page 134, and a color profile section to the end.The first two sections, while mostly retaining the contents of the original book have some nice additions. There is an unbound foldout sheet with drawings of the P-30F and P-39Q in 1/48th scale and the latter in 1/32nd scale. As aways, make sure the foldout is part of the package when buying second hand. There are some nice additional perspective drawings of the nose detailing differences between the models. There is a very detailed Technical Description added running 11 pages. In the subtraction category the list of Soviet P-39 aces is truncated to one page. The second section has some more technical manual illustrations.The third section is the real letdown. There has been a printing glitch somewhere along the line. The profiles largely, but not entirely, duplicate those in the first edition but some of the colors are badly off. The Olive drab has become almost black. The sand or tan colors of the desert camouflage has become greenish and the azure blue undersides a light gray. This has the look of the wrong information being provided the printer or the printer being given the wrong information rather than a "low toner" type of problem that has affected only some copies because other colors like the blue, red, white, and yellows are completely unaffected. I would appreciate hearing from others if their copies show the same effects.Because of the above, I can't recommend the book unless the color profiles are of no real interest to you. If you have the previous edition this might not matter a great deal and you'll have to judge for yourself if the additions in the other sections are worthwhile.

Un buon libro, storicamente attento e tecnicamente preciso. Ricco di materiale iconografico, descrive bene uno degli aerei americani meno amati e più prodotti, in infinite versioni e in forza a quasi tutte le Nazioni Alleate, russi e australiani fino alla rinata aeronautica italiana cobelligerante e francese. Molto utile per gli appassionati di modellismo.

It is not difficult to review Mushroom books (I owe most of the ones dealing with aviation) as they correspond exactly to what they advertise : complete descriptions of the aircraft studied with very fine drawings, detailed drawings of structure and systems, colour profiles,colour and b&w photos, detailed description of variants, etc. I owned the first edition of this book that was already very good, but this one is even more complete.I would recomend not only this but all Mushroom books. A last remark: the format (smaller than A4) is also very useful.

Probably good for the modeller, and with some useful info about Soviet modifications.Still looking for the definitive book on the Airacobra and particularly on itsRussian service

Very comprehensive and clear details of the different marks.Great interior photographs and text,being an avid 1/48 scale moddler this book ticks all the boxes.