My regards to your father, glad I could make his day.
I always thought that the P-39 was a cool airplane. It was to bad that it had such a dog of an engine.
Regards
alfa6 ;>}
My Dad told me there was virtually no luggage room in the P-39. When they traveled a longer distance they would wear several shirts and a pants at a time.
Back in the mid forties he was in a group ferrying some craft from Washington State to Oklahoma, one of the guys had an engine failure. He rode the craft down rather than hit the parachute. He was killed in the crash. Dad confided that the night before they had popped the chute while horseplaying in the barracks. He knew the guy didn't bail because he was afraid the chute wouldn't work properly.
You just never know......