give me operations
way out on some lonely atoll
for I am too young to die
I just wanna grow old
& don't give me a P-39
the engine is mounted behind
she'll tumble & spin
& she'll auger you in
don't give me a P-39
NO
don't give me a Peter 40
it's a hell of an airplane, I know
she's a ground looping bastard
& you're sure to get plastered
don't give me a Peter 40
One of the advantages to driving a cab, which I did for about 10 years was the people I met. One gentleman I picked up to take to the airport had vanity plates that said “P-38J”. We talked during an all too short ride, and he told me that he did love the Lightning. However, he trained on P-39s. For those of you that aren't familiar with that little beast, it had an engine mounted behind the pilot with the crankshaft running between his legs. It also had an automobile type door. This gentleman told me that they had a rash of P-39s come back from training hops with the door missing. They couldn't get a straight answer from the pilots as to what was happening. Finally it came out. With the center of gravity in the middle, a P-39 could be easily put into a flat spin, much like a Frisbee. The pilot would try every trick in the book to recover, usually with no success. Left with the only option of bailing out, the pilot would take his hands off the stick to hit the emergency door release. With both hands off the stick, it would center up on it's own, and the Airacobra would return to it's normally rather docile flight characteristics. I also used to carry around a very nice old German lady, who was a Luftwaffe veteran. But, that's another story.
My father flew the ‘39 a lot. We have lots of photos of him with those birds. Strangely, his favorite aircraft was the B25.
He told us once of his flying (P39s) in the Oregon area when his wingman went down with engine trouble. He would not bail out, possibly because he had played with his chute the night before and it popped out; he repacked it himself. He died in the crash. He remarked that there was a lot of death in the 40’s.