P-39 Wing IWM London

mjfur · Feb 24, 2025

This P-39 wing section is hanging on the wall at the IWM London. I couldn't find a plaque that provided any information for it.

What's odd/interesting about it is that it has two RAF roundel applications and what I presume is a Russian star on it as well.

Did RAF P-39's get transferred to Russia?

Did Bell Aircraft initially build this for the RAF, but then re-assign it to Russia before RAF delivery? If so, why the double RAF roundel?

special ed · Feb 24, 2025

If it had German crosses, it would still be in one piece on the plane!

buffnut453 · Feb 24, 2025

mjfur said:
This P-39 wing section is hanging on the wall at the IWM London. I couldn't find a plaque that provided any information for it.

What's odd/interesting about it is that it has two RAF roundel applications and what I presume is a Russian star on it as well.

Did RAF P-39's get transferred to Russia?

Did Bell Aircraft initially build this for the RAF, but then re-assign it to Russia before RAF delivery? If so, why the double RAF roundel?

View attachment 819233

View attachment 819232

There may be 3 roundel positions visible in that image. There are 2 red dots, and then there's the sweep of another outer blue ring, showing as a grey colour between the blue of one roundel and a more yellowish tone towards the wingtip. That shadow of a previous marking doesn't align well with either of the red central dots.

Yes, ex-RAF Airacobras were transferred to the USSR. As for the repainted RAF roundels, one cause would probably be the change from Dark Earth/Dark Green/Sky and Type A roundels to Ocean Grey/Dark Green/Medium Sea Grey and the move to Type C roundels. I'm struggling to come up with a rationale for a third roundel position, though.

MIflyer · Feb 24, 2025

Yes, some of the RAF Airacobra Mk I were sent to Russia, still in their RAF style camo. Note the picture where you can see the roundel was painted out

nuuumannn · Feb 24, 2025

Here is an interesting aside I saw during a visit to Berlin a number of years ago. This is a page from a Soviet manual for the P-39, note that the aircraft has an RAF fin flash. It is on display in the German Russian Museum located at Karlshorst.

Europe 328

MIflyer · Feb 25, 2025

nuuumannn said:
This is a page from a Soviet manual for the P-39,

That drawing shows the Airacobra I/P-400 version and it came from a British source, drawn by J.H. Clark and published in the magazine "The Aeroplane."

nuuumannn · Feb 26, 2025

MIflyer said:
That drawing shows the Airacobra I/P-400 version and it came from a British source, drawn by J.H. Clark and published in the magazine "The Aeroplane."

The drawing is obviously British, but it is printed in a Russian manual, which is why I thought it unusual. Look at the writing, it's Cyrillic.

BEAR VMF257 · Feb 28, 2025

special ed said:
If it had German crosses, it would still be in one piece on the plane!

There were a lot of good German planes with their wings on them, Just no pilots left to fly them.

Thumpalumpacus · Feb 28, 2025

The Brits shipped on to USSR P-39s and iirc P-40s as well.

MIflyer · Feb 28, 2025

Thumpalumpacus said:
The Brits shipped on to USSR P-39s and iirc P-40s as well.

Prior to Pearl Harbor there were USAAF pilots in the USSR, test flying reassembled Hawk 81A fighters. At least one of them went after German aircraft when he saw them.

P-39 Wing IWM London

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