Dear Binksternet, 

 It is more than one article.  It is the British themselves in states and reports.  Below is what I was going to add (ie if you had waited just five minutes for that reference).  Books have even states that.  Bell did a lot of over hyping that cost lives.  That I did not even go into.  Yes, the Russians did good. I do not take that away.  When I first reported that Russian archives that Professor Zaloga at last got access to after the fall of the USSR revealed the wanted the P-39 more for the air-to-air role than the air-to-ground as had been believed for decades after WW2 in the West I caught h*ll (along with the revelation that the Russians had Mig-15 aces during the Korean War).  Finally, I believe it is time that someone else above our pay grade look into this issue.  I don't get into editing wars.  But this page is more a love-fest for the P-39 (ie it is a beautiful aircraft like the USN A-5 was, but sometimes looks are not enough).  But I would like to insert a simple statement on how the RAF were originally going to order the P-39 (one 20mm cannon and four .303 machine guns all in the nose), but if that is not going to allowed for now, then please speak up.  But I have the photo showing that one off model. 

 Jack E. Hammond 

 One of the major reasons that the P-39 was found wanting with the UK and the US in the air-to-air role was Bell's over-hyping of the P-39 in ads and articles to the general public.  Many pilots who flew the P-39 in combat were taken in by those ads and articles.  A good example is the Popular Science, November 1941, article titled  "World's Deadliest Fighting Ship"   the first large article on P-39 published in US for general public.  The very impressive cover photo showed the P-39 with one cannon in the nose and two machine guns in the nose and six more machine guns mounted in the wings. It was almost three years into the war before the general public in the US found out about the poor performance of the P-39 in air-to-air combat.  The RAF in particular were upset over Bell's being less than honest about the P-39 performance. They were expecting a fighter that could easily achieve 400mph in combat. Even before the P-39 reached service with the RAF one unidentified author stated in the May 1940 issue of Aeroplane that the performance and weight of the P-39 "is not possible with the big motor, the shaft drive, the tricycle undercarriage, the armament specification and the range and wing load claimed" and that Bell "...must have discovered some wonderful new law of nature if they can build and aeroplane which weighs no more than a Hawker Hurricane, yet has more horse power, radiators in the wings, about 300lb more fuel, a cannon, a trcycle undercarriage, a long extension shaft and a constant-speed airscrew. ... The idea seems to be to get a spectacular top speed for advertising purposes anyway.  When they are exported for War they have to be modified to make them lethal." Later when the first P-39 arrived in the UK for testing and the RAF asked for answers the USAAC officer sent to the UK with the P-39 stated "The loss of top speed from and alleged 392mph to 359mph can not be accounted for and will have to be addressed investigated in the USA." reference -  Air Enthusiast/August 1971 The Calamitious Cobra Gordon Swanborough ISBN 0-385-08171-5 publisher Pilot Press Limited.