Gorbunov Go-3 Кобра

[TomZ]

Gorbunov Go-3 Кобра



The Soviet Union received more than 4.700 P-39 AiraCobra's under the lend lease agreements. The Soviets liked the P-39 for it's heavy canon armament but thought the mid-engine arrangement to be unnecessarily complicated. So when they started to receive the P-63 KingCobra the designer Vladimir Gorbunov got the task to redesign this to a front engine variant.



The Gorbunov Go-3 first flew in 1944 and proved marginally faster than the P-63. The aircraft did have some stability problems however caused by the relocation of the engine to the front.



Only 113 aircraft were produced.





Model: MPM 1/72

TomZ

[comrade harps]

Neat 

[Old Wombat]

That's got to be one very slim-line engine & gearbox.

Neat mod, though!

[Tophe]

unusual (for a P-39) and beautiful --> perfect

[TomZ]

That's got to be one very slim-line engine & gearbox.

Neat mod, though!

The nose is 1-on-1 taken from an Airfix Defiant model so it should be wide enough.

TomZ

[Dizzyfugu]

I like that, even though I am bit skeptical about the space under the engine for the landing gear well?

However, reminds me of a P-39 conversion project on the list that I should tackle some day...

[Tophe]

I am bit skeptical about the space under the engine for the landing gear well?

In the whif world, room availability is simply magic... everything is possible, and even more

[Dizzyfugu]

Hmmm, I feel inclined to borrow the "Gorbunov" name for the aforementioned P-39 conversion - it just made it onto the work bench, to become the Go-1... 

[TomZ]

Hmmm, I feel inclined to borrow the "Gorbunov" name for the aforementioned P-39 conversion - it just made it onto the work bench, to become the Go-1... 

Gorbunov was an engineer in the Lavochkin bureau. He was one of the G's in the LaGG designations like LaGG-1 and LaGG-3.

The other G BTW was Mihail Ivanovich Gudkov who created the Gudkov Gu-1 which looked very much like a P-39........:



TomZ

[kitbasher]

Also an air of Macchi surrounding that design (to me at least).  I think its the fin/rudder.