U.S. on Test

The R.A.F. last week laid low the myth that U.S. aircraft manufacturers cannot build fighters fit for World War II. The first R.A.F. squadron equipped with the first U.S. planes designed for full fighter duty in Great Britain tried out its wings. The ship was Lawrence D. ("Larry") Bell's Airacobra.

From a rolling green-sodded R.A.F. airdrome, the Airacobras tucked up their tricycle undercarriages, climbed like express elevators and turned east in a sweep, searching for Germans. In the air they looked like ducks. Their long necks were stiff with a fast-firing 20-mm. cannon and two .50-caliber machine guns. Their tight-clipped wings coddled four ,303-caliber machine guns. Their pilots sat in a comforting body of armor. Up above the two-mile mark they hunted for their first live targets. But no Messerschmitts appeared. The Airacobras waited a while, then turned homeward in a grey swoop. On the way the commander could not resist trying out his deadly new toys. He brought the squadron low over a French port. Said he, when the Airacobras were safely home again: "We made a German ship unhappy and brushed some Germans off a wharf."

The Australian, British, Czech, Canadian and New Zealand pilots in the squadron brought down a unanimous verdict: within its effective altitudes the Airacobra is the fastest fighter in the R.A.F. When a U.S. newsman asked the commander if he was praising the ship for the press, the commander snarled: "I don't talk for the papers. I bloody well mean what I say."

The scrupulous commander was careful to specify that what he said applied only to the Airacobra's effective altitudes; the Spitfire is still the R.A.F.'s high-altitude standby. Said he: "You can't have everything in one aircraft. We have got to specialize."

The commander was quoting from the most significant fighter lesson learned in World War II. Both the R.A.F. and the U.S. Army Air Forces until lately were inclined to judge fighters mainly on performance at maximum altitudes, to wash them out from front-line duty if they fell short by this standard. Now U.S. and British airmen see, as the Germans saw before them, that the idea of the all-purpose, all-altitude fighter is a wasteful fallacy. Result: aircraft already built and flying are assigned duties fitting their capabilities; new designs are shaped to specific predetermined functions, at high, medium and low altitudes. The Airacobra is built to operate at medium levels, i.e., 10,000 to 18,000 ft. But it can challenge any German fighter in height, except the new Me 109F, which is Spitfire meat.

Powered by the improved U.S. Allison (1,150 h.p.) engine, the Airacobra has a high speed in the 400-m.p.h. bracket, a 1,000-mile range equaled by few European single-engined fighters. Ahead in many ways of anything in the air, with its clean design and high aerodynamic efficiency, the Airacobra is likely to get bomber-escort jobs in its packet of missions. While Builder Larry Bell and U.S. air chiefs awaited further dope on the 'Cobras' performance, Britain's Airacobra pilots were anxiously waiting to get into a scrap that would supply it.

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