[Milsurplus] Your Tax Dollars At Work, part nnnnnn

[Kenneth G. Gordon]

> More recently I was chatting with a fellow in NC who has a car stored for me.
> He came here from Oz and was into warbirds before the move (had to sell his
> Spitfire project due to the move). He mentioned an island where apparently,
> to this day, there are (I think) P-39 Airacobras sitting in crates where they
> were unloaded. He said the island hopping campaign was moving so fast in that
> area that they just left them behind. I'd never heard of them being used in
> the Pacific, so I'll recheck his email. 

Yes. P-39s were used in the Pacific. I have read several stories of them being used there in 
the magazine Flight Journal.

One very interesting story printed there illustrated how strong the cockpit of a P-39 actually 
was. A pilot took off on a mission at a forward airstrip, had a massive engine failure before he 
got off the ground, rode the airplane through a small forest, which took off all the 
appendages, opened the "car door", got out walked to another P-39 and took off on his 
mission.

I've always considered the P-39 (and the P-63) to be particularly beautiful airplanes. I guess 
they weren't much good as dog-fighters though. I also read that they got really "weird" at 
speeds approaching 400 MPH.

I also read where recently Spitifires still in crates, but buried, were found somewhere like in 
India.

Ken W7EKB
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