Just out of curiosity - Airplane Guys

Nope, that's a P51. P39 was a mid-engine bird with a LOOOONG driveshaft for the prop.

Hi DE,
that prop driveshaft ran between the pilot's legs.
Betcha that worrying that it would fail in service distracted the pilot's attention from worrying about an attacking enemy.
 
Hi DE,
that prop driveshaft ran between the pilot's legs.
Betcha that worrying that it would fail in service distracted the pilot's attention from worrying about an attacking enemy.

I suspect that's one of the reasons it wasn't too popular. I also suspect it was a b!tch to work on.
 
It gets worse.
There's a cannon in there...

p39cannon01.jpg p39cannon02.jpg
 
True, and an important distinction.

At my age, a ride on ANY of them would leave a smile on my corpse.

If forced to choose, I'd probably go with the air-e-o-plane...:eek: May or may not be more fun, but it'd certainly last longer!
I like my women just the same as my motorcycles. Vintage! Both seem to have similar repair incidence, but both keep me happy.
 
I suspect that's one of the reasons it wasn't too popular. I also suspect it was a b!tch to work on.

One might think that the long driveshaft was a hassle - but my research revealed that it was actually quite troublefree and not a cause of great concern. The P39 had other problems - largely related to the lack of a turbocharger and so it ran out breath at about 14-17,000 ft. and the hassles of serviceability due to the layout - but the driveshaft wasn't one of them.
 
Stop by a buddies house the other day when I was out on the XS2. Hadn't seen him all winter. While shooting the shit with him I noticed he had a new wind thing in the back.
upload_2021-4-9_15-46-48.png

Asked him about it. Thought it may have been something his dad made. He told me he made it last winter. He had binged watched 12 O'clock high one day and decided to make the plane. He made his pattern from blowing up a pic. Said it to took a couple of tries to get the thing to look good enough. He had a question that I had no idea what the answer was. The question was what direction did the props turn, all the same or 2 one way two the other? If you know please say whether facing it or sitting in it.
I thought it was very cool. He also said he had little gens in the motors and they were powering his beer fridge. I checked, no wires. Would not put anything past this guy.
 
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