P63

[Pigslilspaz]

I know some of the anti Kingcobra crowd won't be happy about this, but I remembered that Hitech had in fact produced a P63C and it has been sitting on my shelf for years now.

(Image removed from quote.)

It seems this battle was over before it began.   

[Vinkman]

Then there's acceleration:
(Image removed from quote.)

ibid

A bit surprising and again, that's most likely without the underwing .50 cal gondolas. But it also lists the P-63 at 1500hp combat power, not the correct 1800hp.

The recoreds I've seen have the 1800 hp on AGI in the C variant and later. The A-variants show 1300hp mil power and 1500 WEP. With the C variant showing 1300 mil and 1800hp WEP with AGI.

[Guppy35]

Saw this posted on another forum today.  beautiful flying of a restored P63A

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KY2BGYMAYxo

[oboe]

Saw this link to a P-63 crash at an airshow on the same page.  Must be the same a/c?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=em0HsJ6vcaA&feature=related

tragic.

EDIT:  Looks like this happened at Biggin Hill airshow in 2001.

[Vinkman]

Saw this posted on another forum today.  beautiful flying of a restored P63A

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KY2BGYMAYxo

Really beautiful airplane. wow. Thanks for posting guppy, never saw this. 

[Bronk]

Saw this posted on another forum today.  beautiful flying of a restored P63A

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KY2BGYMAYxo

Beautiful AC thanks for posting.

IMO The C variant should be the one modeled. IIRC it was the most produced variant.

[Mystery]

Not much activity on this thread so here's a little data:  

Another significant difference between the P-63 and the Ta152 is that the Ta152 uses much of the Fw190D-9 geometry, making adding it easier, as compared to the P-63 which, despite superficial similarity to the P-39, would need completely unique geometry work.  Likewise the P-47M uses P-47D geometry and the F4U-1C largely uses F4U-1A geometry.

As much as I'd like to disagree with Karnak and subsequently infer that the P-63C would be a shoo-in/easy FM modification to the P-39...the data says otherwise  

Source: ibid

Rats. I hate it when the facts don't support my emotionally-held opinions  

Okay....is that a better table presentation?

[Mystery]

Ok, Saxman is going to flip but here goes anyway:

"WEDNESDAY, 21 MARCH 1945

AMERICAN THEATER

ZONE OF INTERIOR

(Fourth Air Force): A P-63 from Walla Walla AAFld, Washington, intercepts a Japanese balloon near Redmond, Washington, and, after a chase that includes 2 refueling stops, shoots it down near Reno, Nevada."

Source: http://www.usaaf.net/chron/45/mar45.htm, i.e. the online history of the USAAC in WWII

Sooooo, here's an air-to-air "kill" of a Japanese instrument of war, by a US Pilot no less, over US airspace, well documented.

How about that?  




Here's a little more detail on the incident, and more info in general on the Japanese balloon "offensive": http://aviationtrivia.blogspot.com/2010/12/japanese-balloon-offensive-of-1944-1945.html

[Guppy35]

From Stanaway & Mellinger's book  "P39 Airacobra Aces of World War 2"

The caption speaks of the single Russian 63 kill, but also speaks of this particular unit converting from 39s to 63s and participating in the brief conflict between the Soviets and Japan

[Mystery]

The Twin Cities Aero Historians meeting is next weekend and I'm going to be able to attend so I'm hoping to find him there.  If I hear something sooner, I'll post it.

Any luck so far, Guppy?

[perdue3]

He 111

[Pigslilspaz]

He 111

Don't even try to hijack once a thread reaches page 5, won't work

[Guppy35]

Any luck so far, Guppy?

Nope.  Not sure where Mr. Mellinger has snuck off too.  The TCAH bunch meets again next week.

[AWwrgwy]

http://rwebs.net/dispatch/output.asp?ArticleID=26

How then did the Kingcobra perform in combat with the U.S. Army Air Forces? It didn’t – the only American use of P-63s as fighters were a few hundred employed as transition trainers in Advanced Training Units. Most, about 2,397, Kingcobras were provided to the Soviet Union under Lend-Lease, ferried by U.S. and Soviet pilots via Alaska and then Siberia. As with the P-39, the Soviets used the P-63’s 37mm cannon for attacks on tanks and other armored targets and seemed to have good luck with them in air-to-air combat. However few details have been published about the later.

http://www.americancombatplanes.com/p63_1.html

All this production and delivery effort resulted in the destruction of only one Axis plane, a Japanese fighter shot down during the invasion of Manchuria. The first P-63A regiment, the 28th IAP, was part of the Moscow area PVO, but there had been no raids on Moscow for three years. Most Kingcobras were still in Siberia when Germany had been defeated in May 1945. For the war against Japan in August, they equipped the 190th and 245th fighter air divisions (IAD) on the Transbaikal Front, while the 410th and 88th IAPs on Kamchata supported the attack on the Kuriles, and P-63s served the Soviet Pacific Fleet’s 7th IAD. That division’s 17th IAP scored the Kingcobras sole recorded victory over a Japanese fighter on August 15, 1945.

After the war, P-63s were flown by several VVS divisions and naval fighter regiments, until replaced by MiG-15 jets. As late as 1952, the P-63C was involved in Cold War episodes, when eight were destroyed by P-80s strafing a VVS base near Vladivostok, and those with a Soviet fighter regiment in Siberia unsuccessfully attempted to intercept RB-47 spy planes.


France also had the P-63C-5, receiving 114 from April to July 1945 as the war ended in Europe. From August 1949 to April 1951, four French groups flew ground support missions in Viet Nam.

Someone go to Russia.


wrongway

[Vinkman]

http://rwebs.net/dispatch/output.asp?ArticleID=26


http://www.americancombatplanes.com/p63_1.html

Someone go to Russia.


wrongway

We really need to go to Russia or get hold or a russian history expert via the internet. "Attack of the Airacorbas" which chronicles the P-39 use during WWII list active equipment rosters for units fighting the Germans in the Crimia, and lists P-63's in the those units. This reference is one that interests me the most. I will try to find it and post it again.