How We Searched for ALSIB's Planes. Part Six: "Airacobra"?

Мы летели искать "Бостон", но нашли что-то совсем другое. Фото:Елена Климанова
Мы летели искать "Бостон", но нашли что-то совсем другое. Фото: Елена Климанова

27.07.2022. 10:30. We fly to the Markovo Airfield area in search of a supposedly twin-engine Boston A-20 bomber.

This is according to the information received from the Aerial Forest Protection Service. We fly most of the route through solid clouds. Closer to Markovo, it becomes partly cloudy. The chances of a find increase. I am, however, absolutely relaxed – we have already completed the main task, and if we find another plane, it will be our deserved bonus.

By the end of the second hour we reach the location, as Pavel Filin informs the commander. There is an anomaly, but from above it doesn't look much like what we are looking for. The commander, too, apparently expected to see something more grandiose and continues to circle the area. One Circle, another, we fly to an oil rig and return again to the starting point. It seems, this is what we are looking for.

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Высаживаться приходится спешно. Фото: Елена Климанова
Высаживаться приходится спешно. Фото: Елена Климанова

The commander makes an attempt to land, but the landing gear instantly gets stuck in the swamp – a few minutes, and we will pet the tundra with our blue belly. Our search party is disembarking – the crew will look for a better place and return for us in two hours. The chopper literally blows us out of its insides, and we immediately lose our orientation. We seem to be somewhere near the anomaly, maybe a hundred meters or a little more, but nothing can be seen behind the tall grass. We don’t want to waste the batteries, but there’s nothing we can do – we fly up on the helicopter.

We get our bearings – it turns out that we are very close. We go carefully – I really don't want to fall through and get wet. After about five minutes we see what was once an airplane. And not at all the one we were looking for. There are no two engines in sight, you can't even see one. We are lucky: at least the place where the center wing section lies is quite dry. But you can't step aside – a full-fledged Chukotka swamp. Looking around. The center section is intact, but there is no cockpit or the upper part, the wingtips are broken off, the front and rear parts of the fuselage too. We find the tail section closer to a small lake, about twenty meters away. With the whole crowd, we pile on and tear it out of the grass captivity – a white star is clearly visible on a brown background.

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Уже хорошо знакомая нам эмблема ВВС Армии США. Фото: Елена Климанова
Уже хорошо знакомая нам эмблема ВВС Армии США. Фото: Елена Климанова

We return to the center section, trying to figure out the type of the aircraft. On the left we find a very small fragment of the pilot's door. At first glance, it is not obvious, but we, knowing well the architecture and features of the Lend-Lease materiel, no longer doubt.

Below, under the legs of the pilot's cabin, we find a shaft – this is probably a R-39 “Airacobra”. This fighter had a unique design for that time – ammunition in front, engine in the rear. There is a pilot's cabin and a long shaft between the blades and the engine. And it also had a pilot's door – and it was on the left side. However, it may be a P-63 "Kingcobra" – the layout is the same, but in this state of the aircraft, we cannot establish it more accurately.

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Непросто опознать модель самолёта, если его уже хорошенько "обобрали". Фото: Елена Климанова
Непросто опознать модель самолёта, если его уже хорошенько "обобрали". Фото: Елена Климанова

Under the wings we find cables and American gasoline barrels – clearly someone was trying to get the plane out of here. It is understandable – every aircraft was needed at the front. But to take out of here even such a relatively small "item" by technical means of that time — it was from the field of unscientific fiction. Therefore, the technicians looted the "Airacobra", removing everything that could be taken out: the engine, weapons, ammunition, radio equipment, levers, gear boxes – anything could come in handy.

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Дверь кабины. Фото: Елена Климанова
Дверь кабины. Фото: Елена Климанова

It seems that we are not dealing with a crash, but with an accident – the fighter clearly made an emergency landing.

Oddly enough, traces of this accident could not be found in any archival document. And who knows, maybe one day it will grow into another mysterious story? We'll wait and see.

P.S. And yet it turned out to be the "Kingcobra". Later, experts identified the aircraft by its characteristic details.

To be continued.

Alexey Nikulin