The P-39 Airacobra was a fighter aircraft designed by Bell Aircraft that was active during the Second World War.The biggest difference between the P-39 and other fighters of the same period was the location of the engine: the engine was in the centre of the fuselage, behind the pilot, and the propeller was driven by the engine on a very long drive shaft. The advantage of this design was that the heaviest part of the aircraft was placed at the centre of gravity, which improved the aircraft's aerodynamic performance. Another feature was the use of a front three-point landing gear, as opposed to the rear three-point landing gear that was widely used on fighters at the time.The U.S. instead shipped large numbers of P-39s to the Soviet Union under Lend-Lease, allowing the aircraft to find a niche in the Soviet theatre.Initially, Soviet pilots were as critical of the aircraft as their American counterparts, believing that it could only compensate for the under-produced Yak-9 and La-5 fighters, and Soviet officials deliberately downplayed the performance of foreign-aided aircraft in the Soviet theatre of operations.However, because of its reliability in the cold Soviet airspace, the P-39 was able to compete effectively with the Luftwaffe in the field (especially in low-altitude airspace and front-line tactical air control missions) due to its innate design, its maneuverability at low altitudes, its robust armour, the firepower of the top calibre of aerial gun in 1942, and the lack of radio equipment in Soviet fighters at the time. This gave the pilots a chance to survive and gain experience to overcome the enemy. The P-39 not only gained considerable acclaim, but also had an excellent shoot-down record, and became the plane of many Soviet ace pilots.At the end of the war, a total of 9,529 P-39s had been shipped to the Soviet Union, 4,789 of which were lost. The P-39 Airacobra was a fighter aircraft designed by Bell Aircraft that was active during the Second World War