I am not an aeronautical engineer, I just know that the P-39 was one of the hottest fighters in the world below 10000 feet (why the Russians loved it, their air war was fought at lower altitudes), above 10000 it started to struggle and above 15000 feet it was pretty much useless. During the early stages of the New Guinea campaign, during some raids on Port Moresby, P-39 pilots were ordered to scramble and get clear of the airfield and not even try to counter the raiders because they were too high.
Its other big limiting factor in SOPAC was its short range. A lot pilots criticized it for that reason as much if not more than poor performance at higher altitudes.
Thanks for the suggestion about "Fire in the sky". I read the book a couple of years ago and I found it to be an excellent account of the Pacific air war.
I agree with your summation of the P-39s flight characteristics. If you read CalBears remarks in this thread on the P-39 in the SWPA he states that it was performing poorly at and below the altitudes that are usually considered to be it ideal operating altitudes. I'd never read that stated before. Perhaps I misunderstood him.
The New Guinea environment was rough on aircraft. It wasn't until toward the end of 1942 that 5th air force ground crews learned how best to keep their airplanes maintained effectively in that humid environment. Corrosion and poor maintenance would certainly reduce an airplanes' performance but once that problem was corrected then the airplane should perform within spec.
What I'm curious to know is whether there was some other factor involved that made the P-39 perform more poorly in the hot and humid air of New Guinea more so then the other aircraft that were operated there. Some particular quirk of the P-39 that still existed even after maintenance was improved.
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