Originally posted by Treize69
That's one of George Welch's P-39D-1s. He shot down a Zero and two Vals in that bird. He did so firing only 16 rounds of 20mm and 78 rounds of .50 cal (didn't fire the .30s at all). Welch got four at Pearl Harbor, 3 in this P-39 and four in his next combat in a P-38G. That's 11 kills in three combats. He shot down 5 more in his next two air engagements. Welch refused to put claims in for single kills (according to squadron mates). Two of his former squadron mates claim that Welch shot down 5 or 6 more than he claimed. In September of 1943, Welch was shipped to Australia with a severe case of Malaria. From there he was sent home. He did bond drives and was assigned as an Army test pilot. After a few months, and with Hap Arnold's blessing, he resigned from the USAAF and went to work at North American Aviation as a Program Test Pilot on the XP-82 Twin Mustang project. He eventually was selected as the Lead Test Pilot for the XP-86 and YF-100 programs. Welch took both supersonic on their maiden test flights, becoming the first man to fly faster than sound in a dive (two weeks before Yeager did so in level flight) and the first to fly faster than sound in level flight in an air breathing aircraft (YF-100). In 1954, he was tragically killed in the break-up of an F-100A during a max performance demonstration flight.
Since the 20mm will be optional in the hanger for the P-39D, I expect it will be used a great deal. Total fire power is very close to the P-38s (including the four .30s). However, the 20mm carried only 60 rounds (drum fed).
My regards,
Widewing
