@ Niagara, NY
August 2018
One of the main exhibits in the Niagara Aerospace Museum is this unrestored P-39Q Airacobra. This aircraft disappeared during a flight in November 1944, not to be seen again until 2004 when it was located at the bottom of Lake Mart-Yavr within the Russian Arctic Circle. 4,719 P-39s would be sent to Russia during the war, and they remained in service until 1949. Aleksandr Pokryshkin scored 47 of his 59 victories in P-39s, making him the highest scoring Allied fighter pilot using an American fighter. First flown in 1938, the Airacobra had many unique design features such as locating the engine mid-fuselage behind the pilot, and being the first fighter to have a tricycle undercarriage. More than 9,500 were produced from 1940-1944 at the Bell plant in Buffalo, NY.