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- #121
FLYBOYJ
"THE GREAT GAZOO"
The P-39 had a lateral and vertical center of gravity that were inches of each other making the aircraft inherently unstable if any of those envelopes were slightly exceeded. I would gather the majority of those P-39 losses occurred while performing combat or aerobatic maneuvers.Between P-39 and P-40, the P-39 had a much higher fatal accident rate in USAAF service. 47 per 100k flying hours v 17. See this page from USAAF stats digest, though you have to do a little arithmetic to get those numbers:
Army Air Forces in World War II