Escaping the P-39 Airacobra

[@nickb5091]

Imagine a random door landing on you out of the middle of nowhere 😂

[@Eduardo_Espinoza]

& then a plane 🤭

[@kamoteph273]

in the middle of an empty desert 😁

[@johno9507]

Also makes you wonder how many people got hit on the head from falling bullets during WW2 dogfights. 🤔

[@kamoteph273]

@@johno9507 sometimes they(pilot) hit themselves with bullets they fired

[@DElkan]

In War anything can happen!

[@alucardvigilatedismas2868]

"Bail out safely"
Surely this is %100 OSHA compliant

[@julianbrelsford]

Actually bailing out of an emergency aircraft is never all that safe. In modern times they invented rocket driven election seats that are safer than anything before, but folks still can get seriously hurt or killed using them in a real emergency.

[@risenfallacy3197]

Beat me to it lol

[@christopherrogers303]

So is getting shot at in combat too I think

[@alalalala57]

@@julianbrelsford I believe pilots have a set number of times they can eject out of a plane before they're grounded for life, due to the stress it puts on their spine. Or something like that.

[@GewelReal]

@@julianbrelsford rocket driven election seats?

[@Anlushac11]

Bailing out of the P-39 was never safe. A number of pilots claimed that when bailing out their legs would hit the rear horizontal stabilizers and break one or both legs. The Soviets discovered it was safer to ride the plane down and crash land. The smooth underside made the aircraft easy to land despite well founded fears of getting smashed by the engine, the engine mounts proved to be very sturdy.

[@AudieHolland]

Bailing out of any fighter plane was never safe untill the Martin Baker Mk. 1 ejection seat was introduced in the late 1940s.

[@FinalFront]

Why would their legs hit the horizontal stab if the pilot is still going the same speed as the airplane when he jumps out? By the time drag has slowed him by any meaningful amount he'd already be clear of the aircraft. He'd have to jump directly into the tail for that to happen. You don't get sucked backward immediately upon jumping, else I wouldn't have been able to jump out of the Stearman that I did several years ago without hitting the tail.

[@AVlad-eg3ds]

@@FinalFront that is what practice revealed. Many Soviet pilots mention this particular specific of Aircobra in their memories. Some of them had their legs or back damaged that way. This and hard to recover flat spin were 2 main problems of the otherwise very capable type.

[@HE-162]

@@FinalFront I would think that the issue came from having to move out of the cockpit laterally, sort of climbing out of the cockpit door where you’re directly in line with the rear stab. Probably weren’t able to stand on the wing and give yourself a good jump off it, so there was no good way to propel yourself outside of the “strike zone” of the rear stab.
With a normal canopy, I’d imagine you could propel yourself away from the aircraft much more forcefully by essentially jumping off the seat, giving you more momentum to get out of the strike zone of the rear of the aircraft.

[@c.j.1089]

This was true for nearly all WW2 aircraft. Pilots of P51's and Spitfire both complained about breaking legs and arms on the vertical and horizontal stabilizers.

[@Aditya-wg3lp]

That looks really comfy compared to canopy planes

[@ThePower1037]

Too bad the plane your flying is 10x easier to shoot down.

[@d_cst4190]

@@ThePower1037 how so?

[@robertkalinic335]

@@ThePower1037 It was a good plane, there is quite a lot of early to mid war planes that have bad reputation which was undeserved.

[@ThePower1037]

@@d_cst4190 The plane suffered from the drawbacks of an early NACA airfoil, thus it was very unforgiving in high speed turns, the Spitfire, BF109, A6M2 (unsurprisingly), and just about everything else out maneuvered it past 300mph.
Plus the plane had it's supercharger removed in development, so it's early war v12 couldn't climb past 18,000 ft, so high speed dives to compensate for the lack of maneuverability were out of question.
Plus the P-38, P51, and F6F were just about better in every way.

[@oceanhome2023]

A MID ENGINE plane with a cannon firing through the center of the Propeller like the Messersmitt bf109

[@TheJttv]

Holy crap the hinge mech is so smart

[@MrMayo-og9rj]

ikr? you’d think it’d be much more complicated but the simple design worked great

[@MilkT0ast]

@@MrMayo-og9rj yup, when it comes to mechanics, simple is best

[@Eduardo_Espinoza]

I've seen this used somewhere else before, but I forgot where

[@Ramzi1944]

​@@Eduardo_Espinoza same

[@fridgestealer4000]

Seems like a better solution than the current modern one where you possibly get injured and you also get retired from flying

[@EdgyShooter]

"Hey Steve could you pass me my sandwich it's just by that handle"
"No problem.... Whoops"

[@WM3636-d1c]

How in the world did you manage to fit a second person into that cockpit, and are still able to fly properly

[@jaytgaming3613]

Thanks for the information. You learn something new everyday.

[@someoneidkwho2936]

i*

[@fishmandaman]

I love how you and Scott Manley sound the exact same

[@shawnerz98]

Yes. A younger sounding Scott Manley, but yeah, very similar. :)

[@johnrusac6894]

They probably know each other. I mean, how many people can there be on an island?

[@shadetreemech290]

It didn't deserve the bad reputation that it had. The Russians loved it.

[@PavelAVasilevich]

The Soviets

[@julianbrelsford]

They were never built/modified to work well at extreme altitudes, so rather than assign them to protect heavy bombers flying above 25000 feet, people sent them where almost all the potential missions were far closer to the ground.

[@leprechaunbutreallyjustamidget]

well the soviet's didn't use the same doctrine as the rest of the world

[@Incadazant01]

It was built better when they were testing it. The production power plant was actually worse than the prototype.

[@memethief4113]

It’s design didn’t fit the American doctrine of high altitude flying, but did fit the Soviet’s doctrine for low and mid altitudes

[@mateusz_0]

The cockpit looks really spacious and comfortable

[@legit_potato2451]

I always love the P-39. Such an underrated yet cool airplane.

[@Avionicx]

"oh my god, the plane is on fire"

[@MartinMcAvoy]

Chieftain bailing out...

[@mindblownwatcher8536]

Really a great aircraft , it’s just that they locked in certain parameters of the airframe during pre-war development with NACA and therefore couldn’t upgrade the airframe to meet the needs of WW2. Hence the P-63 program.

[@ceilyurie856]

I love this thing in the lower mid tier of Warthunder.

[@ssneg]

That "pop" sound imitation is sublime

[@tinyprince]

That is a way simpler method of ditching the door than I expected. Cool!

[@beatboxbuggi6884]

For some reason the P-39 was on of my favorite fighters in War Thunder, and I continuously brought it back after brief retirements

[@PhD777]

About 25 years ago heard an interview with a WW2 Soviet Ace that he and the other Soviets that had the plane loved the P-39. He said their mechanics would wire all the guns into one button allowing a one-second burst to achieve a kill. They loved that and the armored cockpit! Whereas the Americans had a love-hate relationship due to the door and multi-trigger system.

[@Sergeant_Crecker]

I always loved that kind of useful things. Small, simple, ideal.

[@GladlyKillmore]

Climb out onto the wing+get out safe.
Interestingly contradictory set of words but comforting none the less.

[@member57]

My grandfather ferried these. Lots of stories.

[@baseball741]

Don't know what landed (heheh) me here but I'm not disappointed. Interesting stuff.

[@jps99]

Airzoo is awesome, a must visit!

[@Crackpidgeonextreme]

Looks like a dangerous plane lmao safely hit the tail when bailout lol

[@wavebuilder14udc75]

Imagine spiraling down pulling 10+ Gs and you gotta lift your legs up and climb out the side.

[@PotatoeJoe69]

Of all the hundreds of hours of research I've done on WW2 aircraft, the fact the Aerocobra had what amounts to car doors, is something that completely slipped by me.

[@Dad_Brad]

Seems smarter than jumping up and getting tagged by the tail of your P-51.

[@nigel900]

The “Flying Dog”. 👍🏻🇺🇸

[@NaughtyShepherd]

Imagine getting out through that opening while the air rushes past hoping to get out far enough to not clip the rear wing. 😳

[@martijn9568]

You just roll out of the cockpit and slide off the wing if you do it correct.

[@TheMattCavender]

What is a rear wing?

[@leonardosousa297]

@@TheMattCavender the horizontal parts of the tail. Its actually called horizontal stabilyzer, but some people call it rear wing

[@GojoTSB]

Easy fix: roll inverted then jump out

[@Heatherder]

Such an underrated airplane

[@noahsawesomevids422]

I luv old school planes :) I really want to see them in person

[@masterwrench4252]

Built an r/c model of the p 39 as a kid. Dang good plane!

[@BakkuIa]

Not much has changed in 80 years. We still have a similar system on C-130s, where there is a lower torque tube fitted with hinge bearings. The hinges, which we called tootsie-rolls, slotted into the bearings, which we dubbed "Pac-Man fittings" because they look like a very wide Pac-Man. The bearings look exactly like the ones in the video.
When the jettison handle is pulled, a cable connected to a hook releases, actuating three key linkages. The upper torque tube is rotated, unlocking the hooks which hold and seal the door. The pin holding the negator spring's telescoping arm is retracted; hinging the door open. The lower torque tube, housing the pac-man fittings, which hold the tootsie-rolls, is rotated in such a way that the hinges simply fall out of their fittings, releasing the door. This all happens in the same moment, and the door then goes on its merry way to hopefully not hit the No. 2 propeller.

[@billygames7107]

Bail out, yes. I dunno about how safe it was though lol. Cool aircraft!

[@patrickwright8352]

Chuck Yeager loved it

[@matydrum]

Surprising the space in that thing, when you see how cramped a spitfire or 109 cockpit was, shoulders against the sides and the canopy a few inches from your head!

[@davidsaldana4084]

This is still one of my favorite planes

[@evanlarson1724]

Nah, imagine the pilot just starts riding the door like subway surfer

[@user-nz1jy1di5q]

Interesting plane.

[@JNM11787]

Another cool thing is the aerocobra is its a mid engine like a euro sportscar

[@nine-0991]

Climb onto the wings?
I mean they probably do that but i dunno it sounds weird to me

[@threeratsinasuit349]

The wing is directly outside the door, so in the event of bailing out of the plane, they would be climbing onto the wing before surely being swept off the plane to safety hopefully

[@rplanet_ua]

@@threeratsinasuit349 And if the wing is on fire or torn off?

[@nine-0991]

@@rplanet_ua there are two doors but am not sure about the tail

[@MrElis420]

@@rplanet_ua Yeahhhh thats what so many people are forgetting, if you read the accounts of survining pilots who did bail out instead of trying to ride he plane down, they broke their legs or arms doing it cause no shit, you're frantically trying to launch yourself out of a shot down plane, not walk on the wing then jump.

[@huey5694]

I love the cobra!

[@parallel-knight]

Love the P-39 it’s so cool

[@shaunolinger964]

Actually... the fastest way to bail out was not to "climb out on the wing". That took FAR too long. Rather... the pilot would jettison both doors, unhook his seat harness, then stomp a rudder peddle. The airflow through the cockpit would spit the pilot out the other side like a spitball through a straw. It also got them away from the horizontal stabilizer because that was a very real hazard to a traditional bailout.
The AiraCobra was a good enough fighter, but it was so different from most other fighters of the era that it was not well understood.

[@johnnied6630]

I am trying to convince the kids and my wife to travel to Ireland. So When they are looking at all the beautiful planes, I can get wasted by Pure Irish whiskey. But can remember averything by the stories my kids tell me about the planes😂

[@squgieman]

The airzoo is in Michigan

[@stinkytoy]

@@squgieman Fortunately, getting drunk and neglecting one's family is universal to all peoples and nations ☺️

[@Ferrari255GTO]

Ah, the ultimate memory loss prevention system, using your kids as USB Sticks XD

[@markeyonethousand]

This museum is in Michigan and Euan here is Scottish lmao

[@johnnied6630]

Lol you get what I mean lol

[@rickmaldoo4205]

All I need to know is the propeller easily accessible to be spun vigorously

[@kevintucker3354]

That nose cannon was the cool thing.

[@xpndblhero5170]

I could see that being used in a video game when your character has to bail out of that plane w/o a parachute.... You'd have to bail on a hillside and slide down the hill to safety. LoL

[@chefyboy2748]

Wow, that's cool!

[@jdmmike7225]

Tho I am super partial to the Corsair as I am from Stratford CT one of the main homes of the Corsair I've always loved the quirkiness of the P-39 Airacobra. The mid engine layout was always interesting to me as well.

[@skookapalooza2016]

It was innovative. I thought it was brilliant to put the engine near the center-of-gravity.

[@wes11bravo]

If I was ever in the position to own a warbird, it'd be a P-39.

[@tommyr7105]

There's a good improvement here Euan. Sounded a bit Irish though at the start. 7/10. Well see you next audit!.
Good content as always. Top lad. 😅

[@cookedo5743]

100% recommend checking this place out. Tons of fun!

[@thegeneralissimo470]

Love the p-39
One of my favorite to fly in war Thunder.

[@nmatthis]

I’m surprised they bothered having two doors.

[@c.j.1089]

my favorite fighter of WW2.

[@ryanm.191]

Ingeniously simple, yet worryingly easy

[@trail_mix24]

My favorite aircraft, I'll have to go see it now. My local air museum was supposed to get one when I was a volunteer there, but the deal fell through

[@richsmith7200]

Ok.....now I want a model kit of one..
.

[@Lightning_Mike]

Man that thing is spacious

[@adamtruong1759]

As one of my favorite aircraft in WW2, this is definitely one of the less appealing features of the P-39 Airacobra. I'd much prefer a traditional canopy.

[@billyjackjohnson4358]

Reverse lights were brighter than your average car

[@rtaf4206]

There are so many unique things about this plane including American pilots didn’t like them but Soviet Union does !

[@UnsungAces]

Maybe if Bell retained the turbocharger from the XP-39 prototypes they might have liked it

[@martijn9568]

@@UnsungAces Probably not due to it's cluttered design.

[@cristsan4171]

"Air a cobra"
Cobra: you had a stroke?

[@Tiagomottadmello]

Real cool, vídeo 👍🏻👍🏻!!
🤔 But I would rather fight in a Me 109 or in a Fw 190....

[@darksunrise957]

Imagine being able to turn your airplane into a jeep-style convertible mid flight.

[@rocketg4360]

Hey, look. It's Euan with the Airzoo.

[@strakhovandrri]

You bail out safely and also safely break your legs on tail stabiliser

[@-Strit-]

Its basically the same system on the C-130 Hercules crew entrance door.

[@Oblio1942]

"bail out safely" right into the vertical stabilizer

[@davidelliott5843]

Rolls-Royce designed a new aircraft using Mustang wings and a P39 style engine position for its Crecy engine. Turbo jets overtook piston engines so it never happened.

[@ricochetparadox8128]

The thing he didnt mention, is that bailing out of the airacobra was very dangerous thanks to the local of the tail stabilizers.

[@lookronjon]

My friend has a giant scale RC p 39 in his car warehouse. It’s 110’inch wing. One day the heavy thing might fly again with all new gear.

[@kerbalairforce8802]

Aircrew doors on C-130s pop off in a similar way.

[@backwoodsjunkie08]

Kinda like a old Cessna!

[@MrMarkguth]

C150 aerobat has a similar design, pull a cable to remove the hinge pins

[@Ellron23]

So simple!

[@TheEDFLegacy]

Tricycle Landing gear, car doors, mid-engine propulsion.. it was definitely one of the weirdest fighters of the war. If they had actually added the supercharger as intended, it could have completely changed the war for the better. Instead, it became more of a ground attack aircraft, and the Russians absolutely _loved_ the thing.

[@prg2812]

They got the idea from British Leyland cars in the UK. Doors would fall off regularly.

[@fuffoon]

A kind of one-off airplane. It had a look.

[@jtuttle11]

Another 'Unique' thing about the P-39 (and the P-63) was the 'Drive Shaft' that went directly between the Pilot's legs (VERY DANGEROUS)

[@JimsEquipmentShed]

I love that the windows roll down. Anyone tell Cessna about that yet? ;-)

[@JimJim-md8ll]

Could you show the unique engine situation behind the pilot and the drive shaft to the prop?

[@VisualBasic6]

I'm honestly shocked at the space in this cockpit!

[@donaldscott6231]

looks just like a vw beetle door from the era

[@donttouchmydoritos3442]

imagine you're on a mission and randomly your door pops off and you're just trying to strap in while there's a rapid decompression

[@Jamesbrown-xi5ih]

Several things wrong with that.
First and foremost you're always strapped in tightly.
Second of all, the aircraft cannot have a rapid decompression as it was never a pressurized aircraft to begin with.
On top of that, the door will not randomly pop off, it takes a very deliberate action to cause that.

[@Hrlpyslrpy]

Then the door hits the elevator causing the plane to do a nose dive.

[@gregoryp2859]

Sounds simple in theory, but my guess is that the actual act was a bit more difficult.

[@HetzerTheTutel]

do you guys have ww1 planes? and if yes could you show us the cockpit?

[@aerospacematt9147]

You know, it’s probably faster to bail out from the side than out the top. Nowadays, if this fighter were in service, they’d use an ejection seat with explosive charges in the canopy to shatter it.

[@S.T.R.Y.K.E.R.]

they should have just made it so that the door opens the other direction. so like it swings out toward the tail instead of the propellers.

[@nielsdejonge6090]

This is similar to how most gliders jettison the canopy

[@howlingbeats2544]

Do you have any helicopters? I would love to see some lesser-known things about those.

[@Mikishots]

And the door shears off the horizontal stab.

[@MosoKaiser]

What's not so cool about the caar doors: the high probability of getting smacked into the horizontal stabilizer when bailing out.

[@milosvojinovic5710]

The most popularity, P 39 during WW2, had in SSSR. The Russian pilots loved it

[@johnnywad7728]

I have wondered for years what the P39 would have done if it had a supercharged RR Merlin installed??! The P51;was a dog until the Brits put Merlin's in them. That's when the P51 became what it was. The Allison was never up to the task.

[@MrFaridNazmi]

Pop...nice

[@John-tb8bs]

Huh,I always wondered about that

[@williamriley-jones]

Bro, that’s actually so fucking smart