P-39Q

This aircraft page is in two sections:

• Historical information about the P-39Q in World War II; and
  
• Information about the P-39Q in the massively multi-player online combat simulation Aces High II.

World War II aircraft
P-39Q
Type	Fighter/Attacker
Country of origin	United States
Manufacturer	Bell
Crew	Single-seat
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The P-39Q in World War II

External Links

Historical documents

• P-39Q-1 Flight Charts

Aces High II aircraft
P-39Q Airacobra
Variant of	P-39 Airacobra
Type	Fighter/Attacker
Aces High II loadout options
Package 1	1x 37mm cannon, 30 rounds 2x .50cal MG, 200 rpg
Package 2	1x 37mm cannon, 30 rounds 2x .50cal MG, 200 rpg 2x .50cal MG gondolas, 300 rpg
Options	1x 500lb bomb, or 1x 75 gallon drop tank
Aces High II Main Arenas
Earliest MA	Mid War
Typical perk cost	0 (Late War)
ENY value	20 (Late War)
Available on carrier	no
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The P-39Q in Aces High II

Engine Power

Aces High II Performance Charts

In Game Test Data
Turn performance
Clean w/25% fuel at sea level
Sustained turn radius	609 ft.
Sustained turn rate	20.0 dps
Corner Velocity	224 mph
Turn rate at CV	33.2 dps
Stall speed	91 mph
Full flaps w/25% fuel at sea level
Sustained turn radius	522 ft.
Sustained turn rate	17.7 dps
Stall speed	81 mph
Acceleration times
From 150 mph to 200 mph	10.5 sec
From 150 mph to 250 mph	26.2 sec
From 200 mph to 250 mph	15.7 sec
From 150 mph to 300 mph	58.5 sec
From 300 mph to 350 mph	N.A.
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Firepower

For gun package one you have 2 0.50 caliber brownings with 200rds per gun in the cowlings. These are the same as on the P-51, P-47, and P-38. You also have a 37mm cannon in the nose with 30 rds. For gun package two you have the same 2 .50's with 200rds per gun, 2 more .50's in the wings with 300rds per gun, and the 37mm cannon with 30rds. The .50's good, hard hitting, flat firing, with good balistics. I set the cowling mounted guns out to D650, and the ones in the wing for D400.

The 37mm may be somewhat hard to adjust to for new players used to the .50's and hispanos. Lack of ammo and low rate of fire are a problem with this gun. You will often be just a bit off with one shot, and by the time it fires again, your will be just a bit behind it. You will wreck any fighter with it, but it can be hard to land hits with. I have it set out to D450, but this is personal preferance. To conserve ammo, you'll want to fire 2-3 rounds, and then re-aim. I treat it simmelar to the 30mm in the Bf109-K4.

For external armament you can take a 500lb bomb, or a 75 gallon drop tank. I will take the bomb if I know I will pass by a base or so that I can kill a tank without having to make multiple passes at one, which may leave you vulnerable to enemy fighters. I haven't noticed any serious issues with taking the bomb, and you can always drop it if you are in trouble. As for the drop tank, I almost never take it, as I find I usually run out of ammo before I get close to running out of fuel.

Maneuverability

Fighting in the P-39Q

The P-39 strengths are its maneuverability at low and high speed. The P-39 can dive to over 550mph without significant compression effects. At low speed it can maneuver with a smooth hand without buffeting or departure at speeds as low as 100mph. With 5 levels a flaps it can really put on the breaks. Very effective elevators and Rudder combined with low polar moment due to mid engine configuration make rotating the plane at low speed easy. Reducing throttle during these maneuvers helps quite a bit, so work the throttle. Good pilots will be able to use the planes e-bleed and high and low speed controllability to dive down and drop in behind bandits that other planes would overshoot. Once there the P-39 can use its controllability and cornering ability to get a good first shot. But you better make that shot at the first opportunity because the P-39 has two big weaknesses. The first is the gun package. The 37mm will kill any fighter it hits with one shot. But the fire rate (200rpm) and the poor ballistics make hitting a maneuvering fighter a challenge. Randomization of bullet trajectories on the 37mm means you can't expect the second round to follow the path of the first round adding frustration to your attempts to zero in on your bandit. The cannon is also limited to 30 rounds so spraying at a target will run you out of ammo in 10 seconds. Since the ballistics and fire rates are so different from the machine guns, be sure to set up the cannon for the secondary trigger and use sparingly. The .50's provide a pretty credible back up weapon, as (if you take the gun pods), the fire power is equal to that of the P-51B, and the FM2, both of wich are good planes.

The second big problem for the P-39 is that it gains and holds Energy very poorly. It's underpowered so sustained turning or looping fights will enable your bandit to regain the advantage. This also means the plane is very poor in sustained vertical maneuvers. In 1v1s the P-39 can be flown aggressively to enable first-shot-first-kill tactics as long as you are a good shot. In the furball this should be avoided as the P-39's poor acceleration, and low top speed make the P-39 a magnet for attackers and limit your exit strategies. But if your feeling adventerous, you could take the P-39 into a crowded furball, and see how many enemys you can drag down with you. BnZ works best here but the gun package (neither are suited to snap shots: the cannon due to low rate of fire and low ammo capacity, and the 4x .50's means you can't rely on brief snap shots to get kills, like you could with planes carrying 6x .50's) and high instrument cluster makes high deflection snapshot kills very difficult. The P-39 does excel as a bomber killer. Good maneuverability at high altitude and no compression problems, combined with the powerful cannon make it ideal for dropping down on bombers. From the vertical, the ballistics of the cannon improve, and the large wing area of the non-maneuvering bombers are ideal conditions for scoring hits with the 37mm. Dive, fire three cannon rounds, watch bomber explode, dive through, climb, repeat. Killing 3 Buffs is easily do-able with just 10 cannon rounds. Getting over the top of them requires patients as the P-39 only climbs at a sustained rate of 2.5Kft/min.

Fighting against the P-39Q

There is no real reason you shouldn't be able to dictate the fight with a P-39 unless you are in an equally poor or worse preforming plane. The P-39 really has no strengths to speak of, unlike a lot of MW and LW (and even some EW) planes that have 1 clear strength to play to. He may turn a bit tighter than average, but usually the advantage isn't that pronounced. The P-39, like a lot of U.S. planes, seems tougher than most of its european and japanese counterparts, so be ready to hold the trigger down a 1/2 second longer than you would agaist a spitfire or 109. He will likely try to dive since, again, like a lot of U.S. planes, he dives like a banshee and has good high speed manuverability, but he doesn't hold E well. Just stay with him untill his E drains away to the point you can catch him. Unless you make a fairly large mistake (and he will need a pretty big one), you should have no real problems beating a P-39.

Defensivly, your main worry should be the .50's once you get out past D400. The 37mm cannon shouldn't hit you unless you are either very unlucky (always a possibility in AH) or are dumb enough to fly in a perfectly strait line. The P-39 dives pretty well, and will easily catch something like a 109 or Ki-84 in a dive, so be carefull if this is your usuall course of action when under attack. He only has 10seconds worth of firing time with the 37mm, and not much more with the nose mounted .50's. Once he runs dry with those, if he manages to kill you with the 2 .50's he has left, your number really is up and you would have crashed on landing had you managed to kill him.

External Links

Soda's Aircraft Evaluations