P-39 Airacobra "Hell's Bells"Bell P 39 Airacobra airplane model. The P 39 was one of America's first line pursuit planes in December 1941. It made its initial flight in April 1939 at Wright Field and by the time of the Pearl Harbor attack, nearly 600 had been built. Its unique engine location behind the cockpit caused some pilot concern, but this proved to be no more of a hazard in a crash landing than with an engine located forward of the cockpit. The Airacobra saw combat

terrain avoidance radar and a Forward-Looking Infrared Radar (FLIR) system were installed

and four nearly finished Arrow 2s were destroyed

The F4U-5NL was equipped both with de-icing rubber on the leading edges of the main wings and with a water and methanol-injected de-icing system for the propeller leading edges and the canopy front windshield

These changes make it possible for the improved version of the airplane to operate at a higher gross weight

The USAF version (T-28A) was powered by an 800-hp

On August 6

was one of the first of the new generation of turbofan-powered business jets

it went into large-scale operations during the North African campaign where the German Luftwaffe named it "Der Gabelschwanz Teufel"- "The Forked-Tail Devil

it was not until the closing months of World War II that the prototype was flown for the first time

The Panther bore the brunt of carrier-based jet fighter operations in the Korean War and had the distinction of downing the first MiG-15 to be destroyed by a US Navy plane

ammunitions

built as a stopgap