CobberKane
Banned
- 706
- Apr 4, 2012
It is spring in the Antipodes, and a not-so-young man's mind turns to the upcomming vintage, Christmas festivities and why the Soviet Air Force persisted with the 37mm cannon in the P-39/P-63. Amongst the many complaints levelled at the Airocobra by allied pilots was the unreliability and drooping trajectory of the big cannon. I have read that Soviet pilots too preferred the 20mm equiped version of the Iron Dog - does the fact that they neither retrosectively fitted their fighters with an indigenous 20mm or used their procurement clout to require that Bell did so at the production stage suggest that the 37mm was a apractical air to air weapon in the right circumstances? Are there any surviving accounts of succesful use of the thirty-seven? Must have been pretty spectacular when it worked!