 Bell P-39 Airacobra
Mushroom Model Magazine
Yellow series no. 6106 book
Authors: Artur Juszczak & Robert Poczkowski
ISBN: 83-916327-9-2
MSRP: $17.97 Latest release from Mushroom Model Magazine is this book on the U.S. Bell P-39 Airacobra. This book covers the innovative, but not wholly successful P-39. Technical details, photos and plans (the plans in 1/72nd scale drawings) are included of all main versions. There are 56 pages of full-color photos of surviving airframes. Most of these photos are of the walk-around type, showing every part of the plane's anatomy. One aircraft is a P-39Q in a Finnish Museum and the second one is a P-39N that is being restored. However, we are not told where the pictures of the P-39N were taken. These shots include numerous pictures of the cockpit interiors too. There are 24 pages of color side profiles of USAAF, RAF, Soviet, French and Polish P-39s. A full list of Soviet P-39 aces, and details of Soviet modifications to the P-39, are published for the first time in English. P-39 versions that are covered in this book are: YP-39, P-39C, P-39D, P-39D-1, P-39D-W, XP-39E, P-39F, P-39J, P-39G/H, P-39K, P-39L, P-39M, P-39Q, P-400 (British version) The only omissions I could find in the book were the P-63 KingCobra and the one known as the Flying Pin-ball machine. This second one was used for air gunnery practice and was used as a target for frangible ammunition, which would disintegrate when it hit this P-39 version and make several lights on it flash. Details of the aircraft's fuselages, cockpits, wings, engines, tails, undercarriages, and armament are fully covered. The book is purely about the development and design of the P-39. There is very, very little in it about it combat history. However, for a reference book about the differences and details of the various types of P-39s, this book is invaluable to historians and model builders, and aviation enthusiasts. Mushroom Model Publications announces that their next book will be on the Mitsubishi A6M Claude. Highly recommended. I want to thank Roger Wallsgrove, Editor-in-Chief of MMP, for this review sample. This book is available from all good bookshops and Squadron, or directly from the publishers: | 
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