Subject: Number Forty-Five in the Series--Bell P-45 Airacobra

From: [email-masked]
Date: 18 Jan 93 16:03:07 GMT

>From [email-masked]

The Bell P-45 was the designation initially applied to the first 
proposed production model of the Bell XP-39 Airacobra, even though it 
were almost identical to the YP-39 service test aircraft already under 
evaluation.  However, in the political climate of 1940 it was virtually 
impossible for the USAAC to acquire any new aircraft.  But it could 
order more examples of an already-existing model.  Consequently, the 
designation of the Airacobra was changed to P-39C prior to the 
delivery of the first aircraft.  

Sources:

  War Planes of the Second World War, Fighters, Volume Four, William 
  Green, Doubleday, 1964.  

  The American Fighter, Enzo Angelucci and Peter Bowers, Orion Books, 
  1987.  

  United States Military Aircraft since 1909, Gordon Swanborough and 
  Peter M. Bowers, Smithsonian Institution Press, 1989.  

  The Calamitous 'Cobra, Air Enthusiast, August 1971.  

Joe Baugher       AT&T Bell Laboratories    2000 North Naperville Road 
		  Naperville, Illinois 60566-7033.   (708) 713-4548