Bell Airacobra

The Airacobra was Bell’s unconventional American fighter, with its Allison engine mounted behind the pilot driving the propeller through a long shaft, leaving room for a 37 mm cannon firing through the spinner and a tricycle undercarriage. The RAF received it in 1941 and used it operationally only briefly with No. 601 Squadron, which found its high-altitude performance poor and its handling tricky; most of the British order was diverted to the Soviet Union, where the type was far more successful at the low altitudes of the Eastern Front. For the RAF the Airacobra was a short-lived experiment, but a notable early example of American fighter supply to Britain.