Originally posted by crockett
Kinda makes you wonder if it was possible to actually bail out of the plane in a fight. At speed I bet it would be hell to open that door. Then trying to play dodge the tail feathers would be real fun..
The door jettisoned.
Interesting:
"Re the P-39: It was put into production before all the bugs were worked
out. And, yes, it certainly should have retained the turbo-supercharger it
was originally equipped with (which gave it a top speed of 390 mph at
20,000 ft when it was first flown in 1939, making it much faster than any
European fighter of that era). The P-63 was the aircraft the P-39 should
have been. The early versions of the P-39 were underpowered. The Q
version was actually quite good, performance-wise, but still suffered from
over-sensitive controls and the rearward movement of the center of gravity
once the nose ammo was expended. This made the plane susceptible to flat
spins. Experienced pilots could handle it. But most service pilots first
got their hands on a P-39 with less than 300 hours in their logbooks.
It was an easy plane to bail out of: merely jetison the door and roll
out. It was actually easier to bail out of that most other fighters.
That's not really saying very much. The chances of a successful bailout
averaged between one in four and one in two, regardless of aircraft type.
The chances of successful bailout varied based on the reason you had to
bail out, the attitude of the aircraft and its motion, and what the
altitude was. P-39s were notorious for killing their pilots because they
used an unreliable electric propeller that often ran wild. At altitude, no
problem. The pilot merely exited and floated to safety. But if it
happened at low altitude--and it seemed to happen most often when pilots
were practicing touch-and-goes in the landing pattern--the pilot usually
died. This was because the pilot tried to do something to bring the prop
under control, all the while losing altitude and airspeed. He often stayed
with the plane until it stalled and then it was too late. Veteran P-39
pilots got the hell out at the first sign of a runaway prop."
http://www.yarchive.net/mil/p39.html
