In lieu of any Sales-Storage Depot No.41

P-39 images, this shows one of the many Wartime

training accidents at Kingman...

Details on the Kingman Airacobras are a bit sketchy, but it is known that there were a few of them assigned to KAAF during WWII for training purposes. Now, if any of these Bell fighters were sent to Sales-Storage Depot No.41 for disposal after the War, their number currently remains

a mystery... Any help out there?

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The Depot 41 Museum Collection contains several P-39 artifacts, including these heavy

and still-greasy Transmissions—part of the Airacobra's bulky Landing Gear System.

But whether they were Wartime spares, stripped from the carcass of some unrepairable Kingman wreck, or taken from a fighter about to go into the furnace, it's difficult to determine.

More intriguing Cobra artifacts from Kingman

are these 48" Impulse Tube Assemblies:

Unique to both the P-39 and P-63, whose

fuselage machine guns fired through

the rotating propeller's arc,

these synchronizing devices connected one

another, relaying impulses from the propeller

so the two machine guns 'knew' when to fire

another .50 caliber round...

...all without striking one of the blades

spinning at SEVERAL THOUSAND RPM

... fascinating!

 

 

 

Photo credits this page:

Maude and Vern Heaton,

Depot 41 Photo Archive