that's a P-63 which didn't even start production 'til October 1943.
p-63's you say? Comrade Stalin might take issue with you
From a link back in this thread---> Pokryshkin took a great liking to the P-39 Airacobra fighter he was assigned, particularly in regards to the ample fire power. He modified his aircraft so that a single button could simultaneously fire all forward weapons mounted on it, thus tremendously adding the destructive power of each salvo. Several times during the war, directives from Moscow requested his units to consider switching to flying Russian-built aircraft such as the La-5 or Yak fighters, but he turned down the request each time. There existed a rumor that in 1944, his unit secretly switched to flying the P-63 Kingcobra fighters, another design from the United States exported to Russia via Lend-Lease that was not supposed to be used in Europe (instead, they were to be readied in the far east for use after the eventual declaration of war of Russia on Japan), though none of the Russian state records support such a claim.
