The restoration of a Bell P-39Q Airacobra aircraft

• Published in: Nordisk Museologi
• Main Authors: Valtonen, Rauni, Valtonen, Hannu
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: University of Oslo Library 2016
• Subjects: karelian
• Online Access: https://journals.uio.no/museolog/article/view/3568; https://doi.org/10.5617/nm.3568

On June17,1944 a formation of four - according to some sources five - Bell P-39Q fighter aircraft lost their bearings. The great Soviet offensive on the Karelian Isthmus was in progress and the weather was cloudy and rainy. The formation in which the Airacobra «26», the subject of this restoration report, flew got lost and split up. The Russian regiment to which the fighters were attached is not known but the higher command is thought to be the 2nd Leningrad Guards Fighter Corps (II Gv.IAK). One of the aircraft landed some six kilometres north-west of Jantama village at Syväri, another at Pätsinsuo in Ylä-Uuksu in Salmi parish, north-east of Lake Ladoga (P-39Q-15-BE, USAAF 44-2664, No. «26») and two at Pikkusuo in Marinkylä in lnkeroinen (P-39Q-20-BE, USAAF 44-3255 No. «25» and P-39Q-15.BE, USAAF 44-2092 No. «20»). The fighters were a part of the U.S. war material aid to the Soviet Union. An enormous number of Airacobras was delivered, in total 5 707 aircraft.