AIR: 620 m.p.h.

Last week the Bell Airacobra (P-39), already in production, was ready for its final test dive. For four days Test Pilot Andrew McDonough, on a busman's holiday from Eastern Airlines' Miami-Chicago run, had had her aloft feeling her out, making longer and faster dives as pilot and ship got acquainted. Swaddled in a leather flying suit, stringy, 29-year-old Andy McDonough crawled into the cabin for the last trip, secured his capsule microphone alongside his Adam's apple, quickly checked over his instruments. Across the Buffalo Airport and into the air sped the Airacobra,...

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