Chuck Yeager enjoyed the sleek little P-39 Airacobra. Some other pilots damned it as a tumbling deathtrap. Soviet airmen embraced its low-altitude performance and made a fearsome ground attack weapon of the P-39. Latter-day magazine articles ridiculed its performance in the air-to-air combat arena. And Bell pilot Tex Johnston raced an Airacobra to glory. Somewhere in this wilderness of differing opinions and exploits resides the true nature if this pioneering tricycle-gear warplane.