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Early Access: Inside The Cockpit P-63 Kingcobra
🕑 Added 2023-12-28 18:00:02 +0000 UTCI hope you all enjoyed your Christmas celebration or regional equivalent - before we jump into the new year, here is a final early access update for all of you: An Inside The Cockpit of the P-63 Kingcobra!
Fast, heavily armed and with a very different design that many other fighters at the time, the Kingcobra sure is a looker. Join me as I jump inside one and show you the ins and outs of this aircraft. Initially produced as a (admittedly late) competitor to the P-47 Thunderbolt and P-51 Mustang, the P-63 never got their chance to shine with the USAAF (except as targets, check out Pinball) but were instead send to the Soviet Union. But whether it’s about performance or firepower, this plane deserves to have its time in the spotlight!
Big thank you to the Legacy Flight Museum in Rexburg, ID for their hospitality and access to this machine.
As always let me know what you think of this episode and and a big thank you to all of you for your support over Patreon. It allow Inside The Cockpit to be 100% Community Funded - without you my trip to the US would not have been possible.
Have a great start into 2024!
Chris
Comments
EpicSeaDragon
Thank you I've always been fascinated by the AiraCobra and KingCobra with their unorthodox design. I had seen one in a museum, but if was one of the few aircrafts in their collection that was not airworthy (yet)
Frank C
Bell Aircraft really had 'out of the box' thinking. It took me awhile to get my head around a fighter having a 'driveshaft' to spin the propeller and such a 'driveshaft' ran centerline through the cockpit. Yikes! I believe there is a gear box though connecting driveshaft to propeller. 37 mm cannon. I'd think pilots needed serious gunnery practice to employ that weapon effectively. 37 mm, geez. 20mm in AH-1 cobra is a big bullet. 37, yeah, that will punch through anything. I noted with nostalgia the white wiring on that transponder box behind pilot. Oh, those were the days (Avionics). That S-2 looked pretty cool. My friend's dad flew those in the 1960's / 1970's.
