The Cobra maneuver requires more than just pilot input and aircraft maneuverability to be performed. Since the maneuver requires the aircraft to not lose or gain substantial altitude during the maneuver, the change of alpha during the vertical pitchup has to be fast enough to break the airflow of the wings, as to not make the aircraft climb. To be able to perform this rapid vertical pitchup the aircraft needs an "instability" in its core aerodynamics which will make the aircraft rapidly pitch up by itself once the elevator of the aircraft is pitched to the point were it breaks the airflow during a pitch up; but also the stall-control needed to not enter an uncontrollable stall at the peak of the pitch; which allows the aircraft to center the elevator and using the torque from the elevators added drag to pitch forward to horizontal flying again.