P-63A Flies After 40 Years!
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- Опубліковано 26 вер 2024
- After more than 40 years since it’s last flight, 16 years of restoration, being effected by the Mississippi River flood of 1993 and countless man hours by the dedicated volunteers of the CAF Dixie Wing, the Commemorative Air Force (CAF) Dixie Wing Bell P-63A-6 Kingcobra serial number 42-68941 flew for the first time on Saturday February 18, 2017. Just after 1300hrs local time pilot Jim Dale took off from the Atlanta Regional Airport, home of the Dixie Wing. Since receiving its Airworthiness Certificate several months ago there have been opportunities to fly, but each time something got in the way and the flight was always postponed. Video by Chuck Gardner
Fantastic to see another old warbird take to the skies again. I've always been a fan of the P-39/P-63 and I hope to get to see this one in person someday soon. Congrats to the men & women of the CAF Dixie Wing and thank you for saving another important part of our aviation history.
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same, there's something just so cool about the name and having a big mean cannon that will obliterate anything it fires at. the car door is also the funniest shit ever
My father, Lt Col Lawrence Sollinger, flew a P-39 during WW2 in the Canal Zone. I've always loved the look of that airplane and seeing a view from the cockpit and remembering
dad's stories of that time really brings my father's memory home. Thank you so much for the video.
The landing was so smooth I couldn't tell from the video when he actually touched down!
Jerry Lentz
3rd bolt or rivit up from bottom of the window sill. I noticed it just before he took off. Otherwise, I couldn't be sure either.
Well done!
What video did you watch? It was very clear to me the first watch. 50 yrs CP
The pilot in this video is exceptionally good, especially if we are to believe that this video is of the first flight in 40 years which the exhaust stains taxiing out seem to dispute (stains following inflight wing airfoil flow). The pilot manages the airplane expertly; The video shows his smooth expert pitch, roll / bank and yaw, heading and power (and other systems) management / control, ...in all modes of the flight (watch the horizon compared to the "canopy" framing, in all flight modes) ...also exhibited in his approach's airspeed control, flare, touchdown and taxii-in. His body language / confidence in doing all these things also underlines his exceptional expertise.
The limited view of the cockpit also shows expert supervising and TI'ing over the 16 years of restoration.
GREAT JOB CAF/DW. Heart warming to an old Aviator & Maint. Tech.
...IMHO.
@@RenKnight347 It's actually the 4th rivet from the bottom of the window sill... the 1st rivet above said sill is about 1/2 " above the sill.
@@nottachance8299 It seems like those exhaust stains are much more pronounced when he's taxing back from his flight which would indicate that the light ones at the beginning were from engine run-ups which they no doubt would have done before flying this precious bird.
I love the P-39 Airacobra and P-63 Kingcobra. They are the original mid-engine flying cars! (They have car-like opening doors!)🇺🇸👍
Lovely job! Got to admire a man with his arm resting out the window as he taxis in.
Ive never been a big fan of the P-39 or P-63, but seeing ANY warbird from this era being restored & flown is a really awesome thing. I like the looks of this plane, it's just the performance in wartime that didn't sit well with me. That said, I would have loved to hear the pilot making some commentary of this first flight after he hopped out. Great, wonderful video!
That's because you weren't on the Eastern front those days ;) Pokryshkin, Rechkalov & other boys of 9th Guard Fighter air division highly appriciated P-39 and 63.
Don’t know who that pilot is but he must be damn good ! He flew and landed that beautiful old warbird like it was a Sunday walk in the park. God, I wish I could do that but I’m much too old now and couldn’t even qualify last week to renew my DOT card !!! Lucky guy!
Love that door where the elbow can hang out, like casually driving with one hand.
Was thinking that as he rolled the windows up.So cool.
Great to see one more of these great old ladies flying again! I've always wanted one, ever since I saw the P39 at The Airf Force Museum at Wright Patterson! Too bad the only P63 they had was from Operation pinball, a target aircraft. They deserved so much better than that.if I won the lottery today, I would look for one of these first thing!
A beautiful piece of aviation history.
A fascinating aircraft flown by an outstanding pilot. Wonderful video record of the flight! Congrats on the restoration.
Such a beautiful airplane!
Congratulations in restoring this beautiful piece of WW2 American Air Power heritage!!
Beautiful warbird - love the mid-engine design.
A rear engined plane was the fitst sensible effort any air force made to develop a serious interceptor.
The engine was in the back to accommodate the Oldsmobile cannon in the nose and it was thought it would be easier to add a turbocharger to the engine.
Love WWII aviation and genuinely admire these restorations. Every time I see these aircraft (39's; 36's; and 40's) I wonder how distressing it must have been for our pilots who flew them against the Zero. First encounters must have been terrifying discovering you were outmatched. Subsequent missions - knowing you were against a far superior plane took great courage. Hats off to these guys for bravely going into the teeth of combat realizing their odds were not good.
Well, P-39 were quite good against Zeroes those days, probably the only one plane that could match them at that moment, due to its fantastic agility. But there wasn't so much qualified pilots at that moment to get a full control of anxios Cobra, and American tactics those days for this plane were more of an attack plane, not fighter.
i worked at gardner aviation some 7 to 10 years ago and would visit my favotrie p51 down there often. at that time this p63 was in many......many pieces its such an honor after all this time seeing the beautiful plane back to life. Congrats to all te dedicated men and women that worked so hard getting this peice of history restored. please post more up to date videos! and keep up the hard work. Congrats.
I imagine a big sigh of relief as that prop comes to a stop after a perfect flight! Well done.
Mid-Engine & roll down windows - COOL factor!
And a 37 mm cannon that fired thru the propeller hub.
plus the door to the cock pit
These are fine on civilian aircraft, as are the automotive style doors. Pilots had a difficult time bailing out.
phlodel I flew an acrobatic Cessna 150. The hinge pins on the door had cables that allowed you to quickly pull them out, and undoing the door latch, the door was supposed to fly off - I suspect the P-39/63 was probably similar.
It's a bird! It's a plane! It'a....a flying Porsche!!! :-)
What a great flight. Good pilot. My Dad , RAAF 1941 to end of 44, loved P39s. Great vid👌
I've always had a soft spot for the airacobra series, and just like any acft if you get outside of oats parameters it will hurt you badly. It's tri-cycle gear and where do you get to roll down the windows and cruise in style with your arm on the window sill like a boss? Just to cool.
P-38
Warren Smith you can't fly the P38 with the side panels down unfortunately
Precisely!
Appreciated by The Cactus AF..
Guys with terminal Heat Rash!
They would take a keg of beer up to 30,000 ft..
Ambrosia in the stinking jungle!
The lone Japanese ice machine was a TREASURE....
To both sides..
Their ONLY luxury!
No one ever bombed it..
Read Saburo Sakai: Zero Fighter..
Was still running 1960s....
An interesting job...
@@warrensmith2902 Especially the P-38, the slipstream would cause many 👩✈️ pilots to crash 💥 during takeoff. It was stressed to make sure the windows were closed during taxi to takeoff!!
I have always loved this airplane.
Somebody has too.
I think they were pretty much well liked in service though some were relegated to odd chores as gunnery targets for the AAC.
Bruce Clements f
What a DOUCHE your Dan!
Craig Pennington. You are a complete fool. Grow up idiot.
in the 60's i had a control line .049 airacobra. i miss it now that i'm 65.
Gary Pugh. Santa Claus brought me that too. It was silver. My father didn't know about the need for a battery and fuel so I just got the airplane only. That Christmas day I proped the engine till my finger blistered. I never got the Win Mac .049 to run after getting a battery and fuel. I didn't know it was a model of a real fighter till I was a teenager. A man in Greenville MS had a P39 he would fly to Eudora AR sometime and that is when I learned about P39s and P63s
@@wms1650 Me too, only mine was a Spitfire. On my first flight, I flew it too high, which caused it to slip toward me, putting slack in the control lines, then pretty quickly into the ground. The plane survived pretty well, but the impact blew the glow plug, and I wasn't able to find a Wen Mac glow plug anywhere. That plane was way too fast for a beginner, anyway, and at the time I had no appreciation of warbirds. Santa did, though ;)
I’m yet another owner of one! (P-39) Got mine Christmas 1965. Only flew it two or three times, engine was too damn hard to start. My dad gave it to wireline enthusiast twenty years ago who had been looking for one and was overjoyed it was still in pristine condition.
Here's a fun generation gap. I miss my 049 f18. No more legit o49s
Cox .049 . plastic.
1. Prefight check - look between your legs check to see if driveshaft is flailing around. What a cool plane, thanks! Engine right behind pilot, not too loud!
Had a Testors "Jungle Fighter" back in the 1970s. Patterned after a P-63 "Pinball" and .049 engine power. Featured spring-loaded missiles and pilot ejection.
I remember that control line model...did you get that .049 engine to run more than 60 seconds?
These fine planes were made in my hometown Buffalo NY. Well done!
Thomas Bernecky, P-63 no doubt could fight any fighter. 1st part of war they had the p39. Pilots knew nothing about it. Soviets Got ahold of the P63 Kingcobra & blasted German fighters out of the sky
Great job CAF keep the history alive. I remember being a son of a combat veteran of WWII how much reverance my father had for those who made the ultimate sacrifice God Bless.
I remember building model aircraft of many sorts. And air cobra was of course one of them. 👍
I can't help thinking it sounds like my Cummins diesel in my Kenworth, especially at idle.
I have to agree with you there TRUCK DRIVER! I drove a KW T680 as well as an International Pro-Star Eagle (that one a few years ago) both had an ISX Cummins that sounded quite similar to that V-1710 Allison. Those Allison's were made by GMC many were installed and tested up in Indianapolis IN. The hangar where much of this work was done still stands in "Indy".
Fantastic,another piece of history fly's again
Man he got off the ground in no time! Great video, It's always great to see an old warbird get back into the air again.
They probably don't need much runway if they're not full of ammo.
Love seeing old things run again.. brings a machinist some emotions... seeing in the year 2000 we where still using boring mills from the era... out live.. out fly.. bring respect to the hands that touched you :)
Or in the least give them one more ride. Its a honor to see something outlive the tradesman.. or woman ;)
It was great to ride along, THANKS!
She was appreciated by soviet aces. They loved her.
The Soviets got the P-63 from the US on the condition that it only be used against Japan however German pilots claim they encountered King Cobras. Russia claimed only one Ki-43 kill with the type. However they kept them in use up to about 1952.
@@danzervos7606 Given that Russia only declared war on Japan when WW2 was virtually over, it seem odd the US would have a reason to make that stipulation.
@@c.a.t.732 The US was encouraging Russia to open a second front against Japan. Stalin bided his time to reduce his losses.
SUPERB I love that you can roll the windows down in this aircraft!! It does get hot under a lot of sun in the closed in cockpits!
Congrats! What a beauty!
piski82, I wonder why Black people don't attend air shows
Man, that was fantastic..... thanks for taking us for a ride!!
I remember walking around that hanger with Alan Armstrong and seeing that being built back in 2008-2009. Awesome job!
What a rare bird.. God bless these people. fly it very very carefully we can't afford to lose this one.
Long live the CONFEDERATE AIR FORCE. Never be ashamed of who you are.
Do you get a kick out of being racist? It's now the Commemorative Air Force and now everyone is happy. Unity is a good thing. That's why I live in the United States. Maybe you should want to as well. The Confederacy, which fought to enslave our dark skinned cousins, ended when Robert E. Lee signed the articles of surrender with Ulysses S. Grant and the West Point classmates shook hands. By the way, I happened to be good friends with his Great great Great Grand Son. Guess what. His name is...Robert E. Lee, and he lives on a yacht in Marina del Rey. We used to be dock mates, and he and his wife would bring glasses of wine and treats over to our slip after we'd dock after a sailboat race. I still see him from time to time.
Weren't the confederates the losers ?
A real beauty to behold.
*Beautiful*
Who doesn't love a fighter with roll down windows?😉 There is a beautiful one restored in Palm Springs too. Great museum there also.
Man that was a very nice landing, I didn’t even know we were on the ground!
My understanding is that from the outset the P-63 was intended mainly for the Soviet Air Force, and that Soviet officers came over and were involved in its design and testing. The US wanted them to be used against the Japanese (the Soviet Union was slow restarting hostilities against Japan), but apparently some did get used against Germany. Let's recall that the US had more industrial capacity and the Soviet Union had more manpower in fighting the Axis.
The Soviets denied they used them against Germany, however German pilots claim they engaged them. Russia claimed only one Ki-43 Hayabusa as a kill with the P-63.
that was the most awesome video of an in cockpit flight of the real deal for prop planes, wow! what I wouldn't do to have one of those babies to get up and fly every morning! beautiful plane, gorgeous lines!
One of my favourite ww2 warbirds just because of how unique it is. Tricycle landing gear, mid mounted engine, car style doors and a 37mm in the prop hub. Truly a beauty to behold.
Stefano Bonilla, I could only find one video of Kingcobra shootin the nose cannon.
Wow! Envy you, guys... What a beautiful thing to watch and hear this re-born WW2 relic flying!
Larry Bell,,
Bell aircraft producing concern,
Buffalo New York U.S.A.
Allison 1710 V/12, Oldsmobile 37 mm prop center cannon.
The air frame and layout was excellent, it was intended to be turbo charged but was deleted because other aircraft got the go ahead. These planes most certainly did not deserve the negative reputation that many have repeated. Not one drive train failed that I know of, and at lower level flight 10,000 ft. and below was a superior craft indeed.
Was it politics that keep these beautiful planes from being fitted with Packard/Merlin's superior engines?
@@johnstauffer8772 The difference between Allison V-12s and Packard/Merlins is very small, compared with the difference that a 2-speed turbocharger would have made. It's all about how much manifold pressure you can feed it.
Thanks for that history! Love it
Feb. 9, 2019----Did some training at Goodfellow AFB, Texas back in the mid 70's. This was where the city rolled up the sidewalks at 5pm. Walked a few miles to stretch my legs and found myself at the airport. Not sure now whether it was a P-39 or P-63 I photographed, but I do remember the airplane. Thanks for the video.
HERMOSO!!! Cuídenlo mucho . Reliquias vivientes como esta , no hay en abundancia.
Always loved that plane.
John Bagley’s P-63 King Cobra at the Legacy Flight Museum is a stunning sight.
Always one of my favorite fighters on that era, it was a beautiful and unconventional design, and I suppose that is what I like the best about it. This one must have the Packard built version of the Rolls Royce Merlin power plant, it has that wonderful and unmistakable sound flying by. An awesome piece of history, what I would give to fly one just once.
The P-63 was never given a Merlin engine when they were built. Instead they still relied on the Allison V-1710-E. What they did add, however, was a hydraulically driven second stage supercharger.
John Cifra, are you sure they put a Packard built Merlin in the p 63. Sure all that was installed was Allison
This is a nice vid. The P-63 King Cobra was a different aircraft than the P-39 Airacobra but it was still based on the P-39. There remained many similarities between both aircraft inside and out. The P-63 was supposedly faster than the P-39, able to fly 390 mph, compared to the P-39's 360 mph. But both were intermediate altitude fighters, which didn't make a big difference to the Soviets, who were the primary users of the P-63. The U.S. Army Air Force quickly abandoned the P-39 when sufficient numbers of P-38s, P-47s, and P-51s became available. I had read that the P-39 cockpit, while designed to be modern, proved cramped. You could not be over 5'10" to sit in it.
Neither of them were carbonmonoxide coffins though!
My father was an armorer on the P-39 in the Aleutians until the P-40's and the P-38's came
Your are wrong on two points. The P-63 top speed put it in class with the P-51. It's top speed is usually understated in texts and online, but Air Force performance tests (also available online) show a top speed in excess of 440 mph. The second point is that the P-63 had good high altitude performance. The difference between the P-39 and the P-63 was that the P-63 had an additional supercharger mounted behind the engine that fed the engine mounted supercharger. This additional supercharger was driven by a variable speed hydraulic link off the engine. Between the first and second supercharger, water injection was used instead of an intercooler to maximize performance for periods of maximum speed. Using the water injection (wet) the plane could hit speeds above 440 mph at altitude. Perhaps the lower top speed commonly attributed to the P-63 is what it could achieve dry (without water injection) as too high a boost would result in pre-ignition and engine damage if water injection was not used. The Americans called it water injection, the Germans more accurately called it methanol-water injection as alcohol had to be mixed with the water to prevent it freezing at altitude in its storage tank and feed line.
Regarding the 5'-10" limitation I believe 5'-9" was the max allowed by AAC for fighter pilots during WWII, according to my dad, a WWII B-25 pilot. He graduated primary flight training in class 42H, which stood for August 1942. To determine who flew fighters and who flew bombers, transports, etc., his graduating class was told to form up into 2 groups. Everyone 5'-9" and shorter went into the fighters group and the taller guys went into the other. Since my dad was a whopping 6'-4" he had to go into the other group. He ended up flying B-25s, although he really had wanted to fly fighters. Looking back, that was a really stupid rule since most fighter planes could easily accommodate taller pilots. In fact, a little later during WWII, my dad, after a lot of "politicking" got to fly the mighty P-51 that he had been aching to put through its paces.
Jimbo in Thailand My father was 6 foot. He finished advanced fighter school at Mission Texas. He signed up for a P-47 group that was forming. They took half the class, alphabetically. He ended up spending 2 years as a pilot in the training programs at Harlingen (gunnery, bombardier) and then Sioux Falls SD (navigation, instrument flying) before going to B-17 and B-29 schools.
"Experts" get the P-39/63 confused with the export version P-400. P-400's had no oxygen system and were relegated to a 12,000 ft. ceiling. Their most notable use in combat was at Guadalcanal, 1942. Just like the Marines, stuck with bolt-action rifles, they needed ground support aircraft so the P-400s were diverted and delivered in crates. They had to be assembled with available hand tools. The Marines made good use of them while they lasted. 1942 Henderson Field was the most valuable and fought over piece of real estate in the Pacific, if not the world. Dozens of ships and hundreds of aircraft downed. Thousands of sailors, infantry and airmen gave their lives there and "the Slot" in the Solomon Islands in possibly the most epic 6 month battle of WW 2. It was here the USN outlasted the IJN that never recovered from the loss of so many irreplaceable ships and carrier pilots.
Only the P-39 version built for the British was called the P-400. It had a 20 mm cannon instead of the 37 mm cannon. You can tell the difference because the 20 mm barrel stuck out the nose of the plane by about a foot while the 37 mm was almost flush. It was euphemistically called the P-400 as it was assumed it cold reach 400 mph. American pilots joked it was a P-40 with a zero on it's tail. The British placed a big order for the P-400 but cancelled shortly after realizing it couldn't perform at 20,000 ft where their war was being fought. They sent the ones they got on to Russia and perhaps some to North Africa for the American forces there in 1942. The remaining order left in the USA was sent to the Pacific. The USA gave P-39's to a few other allies to use primarily as ground attack aircraft which may be one of the reasons why it was thought Russia used them for ground attack (they were used as air superiority fighters by the Soviets). The P-400's were built with oxygen systems of British design and American pilots in the Pacific discovered that their oxygen masks were not compatible with the P-400's fittings so they had to fly without oxygen.
By the way, the battle for Guadalcanal effectively lasted from the beginning of August 1942 to the beginning of December 1942, about 4 months. After that it was a clean up operation with the army replacing the marines who won the battle and the allied Navy having gained control of the local waters.
Also, the P-400 were flown by Army Air Force pilots, not Marines. The Wildcats had two speed superchargers that gave them better performance than the single speed superchargers in the Airacobras. The P-400/39s turned out to be very effective against the Japanese besieging the Americans at Henderson Field.
I loved the series The Pacific. Did they show the Henderson field battle? I don't want to re-watch the whole series. Thanks.
@@danzervos7606 THE P-400 ALSO LACKED TORBOSUPERCHARGERS. THEY WERE DEFINATLEY INFERIOR TO MOST IJN FIGHTERS IN THE THEATER.
@@margaretchriskurtz3819 DEFINE INFERIOR, no seriously. The way the P-400 was used as a fighter didn't suit the aeroplane well.
Same reason why the British didn't use it, it's medium to high altitude performance.
If it was used to it's strengths, then we'd probably talking differently, just ask the Russians.
It would be stupid to say that the P-400 was inferior to Japanese planes. The P-400 can do something very well that few Japanese fighters can, disengage.
@@margaretchriskurtz3819 The original intent for the P-39 was to have a turbocharger feeding the engine mounted supercharger. The installation was basically a mess and the Air Force decided to delete the turbocharger. At low altitude the P-39 was as fast as most other aircraft and because it had a bigger wing and lower weight per square foot of wing compared to the Bf-109, it could outperform the German plane at lower altitude, which is where the war was fought in Russia.
It's one of the strangest good planes ever. Wish it had shown a cockpit shot and the crazy drive train. And BTW...what makes one give a thumbs down on a video like this?
mindless trolls
Unique design & we gave them to the Russians on the lend lease act.
Love the military channel!
Seeing some of these older designs, built with modern materials etc would be good. It would help keep these legends alive.
Shame i don't have the money to do it.
By chance I was there today and got to see this thing start up and do full run-ups. Wow. It is now olive green with the big yellow word TEST painted on the front. Either it was this same plane, or a different one. Edit: I think it was a different one, the one I saw today had numbers 268941.
what a beautiful bird.
I never heard of this model of fighter the P-63? When did they make it? What was the difference between the P-39. I always thought that it was a pretty good plane for the times. The Russian really put it to great use once they figured out all the quirks.
In 1944 Bell started producing the P-63 and phased out the P-39. The big differences were the P-63 was 18 inches longer to accommodate a second supercharger which moved the pilot forward about 9 inches and the tail back about 9 inches. The vertical tail was taller and not rounded. The 37 mm cannon increased its magazine capacity from 30 to 60 rounds. The P-63 had laminar flow wings and good high altitude performance. It also had water injection for war emergency power.
Not an expert here but I understand that these used the Allison V-12. If true I wonder how well it would have performed if it, instead of the P-51, had been refitted with the RR Merlin.
Great job Jim Dale!
God bless you Son!
Well done! I noticed one thing about when the engine fired up, one of the valve was sticking a bit. Might want to check the valve lash to ensure that there would be no valve damage. Since the plane spewed some extra soot, would suspect an exhaust valve.
Bravo and congratulations, CAF!
Peachtree City, Georgia? I have stopped by Aircraft Spruce just outside the main gate a few times. Beautiful area to go flog the P-63!
Still one of my favorite planes!
mcm95403, Kingcobra will take a Zero out. Pilots in America & England just didn't know how to fly the little plane. The Kingcobra can take G'S no other fighter can do. Russian pilots found this out by necessity. It was used as fighter in Russia not a straffing plane.
Holy makrel what a beutiful aircraft !!
Lars Jönlid, the first time I saw this plane. I said to myself. That is one Sharp looking plane
What makes me wonder is how the engine could develop it's full potential with all the gearing, bearings and shafting between it and the prop? The frictional losses must mount up not to mention the additional maintenance complications. Why was this design successful? It can only be because the centre of mass is in a good position.
It wouldn't have lost too much more than a regular prop reduction unit, they're full of gears and bearings also, the only real additional losses would be the mass of the driveshaft, and we are talking about 1,500 HP engines at lower RPM's than the drive in a vehicle so it probably wouldn't make that much of a difference from a conventional arrangement.
Also unlike the P39 these had a second supercharger that was hydro coupled to the engine so when it got to the altitude where the P39's performance would start to suffer it could engage the 2nd supercharger and get 10,000 more feet of maximum power.
The biggest downfall of this plane is it's range, because of the basic design there's really no room for fuel in the fuselage so from day one they had wet wings, but their wings are small so they just didn't have that much fuel capacity, there were drop tanks to extend it's range but how much they were used I don't know, from what I understand the Soviets were pretty happy with it the way it was.
@@dukecraig2402 I read recently Russian 4000 German planes were lost to P39s. At low altitudes it was a great fighter, it's short range and lack of turbocharger for high altitude performance was the reason it wasn't liked by the other allies. Such a beautiful airplane.
Saw the CAF's P-39 at Selfridge ANG this month.
that was a awesome ride along !!!! thumbs up to the roll down windows....
I love that the P-39 and the P-63 have doors and roll-down windows... quirky little aircraft. Shame the USAAC didn't appreciate the merits of the design as much as the Russians did.
Neither plane had the range the USAAF needed and the P-39 could not operate at the altitudes the bombers were flying at.
Good Allison's... Never Quit
3000 of these were built! Hard to believe how overlooked this plane is.
kool plane...looks like it's running a lil rich tho, i know if a Merlins run rich it'll kerplonk on the pilot with fouled plugs. looks like it doesn't bother an ol Allison V-1710.
Yeah. I'd have to agree. Judging by the exhaust stain along the fuselage it does seem to be running a bit rich.
Sounds great
I saw a plane very similar to this near San Antonio, about 5 years ago, being restored at a CAF hangar. Thought it was a regular P-39.
So damn cool. Man I wish I could come and see it.
Love it. The P63 is one of the most under appreciated warbird. Its a great plane to fly and I believe Chuck Yeager owned one and said it was one of the best airplanes to fly. Kermit Weeks has one on rebuild as well.
In his book, Yeager flew a P-39 or a P-63 in USAAF pilot training and loved it. One of the reasons he decided to fly the Bell X-1 rocket plane was because of his experience in the Bell aircraft in training.
It WAS very appreciated bird, by most of the Soviet aces, at the Eastern front ;)
What a great sounding engine !
Anyone fancy a propshaft between your wedding vegetables?
Great aircraft.
I heard they were a bit of a widow maker on crash landings because of the drive shaft running between ya wedding tackle but i like the vegetables as well. lol
T's & P's feel the throb!!!! Lol...
Hahaha! Hey Sky, I always wondered where the futch that shaft was routed! Cain't be a straight line as I see it. I figure there must be 3 or more gearboxes taking the power down/under/up...? Is that a bad thing for my 'vegetables' if that shaft goes rogue and starts a flappin'...bouncin'...shearing violently?
If you got a vegetable patch down south, you should probably lay off of the soy lattes :-D
@@boboala1 It is close to the floor running up to the gear box for the propeller where it enters at the bottom of the gear box with the cannon located above and shooting through the center of the output shaft to the propeller. The pilot is probably not sitting as close to the driveshaft as a driver of an MG.
What a saddisfaction after all these years.
What? no power windows? They should have gotten the XLT version.
Mishn0 with Crome exhaust.
Mishn0 the p39 and p63 had car doors with wind up windows made by the Hudson car company a sub contractor. Wild bill
THats funny right there lolol I was surprised and thought wow that thing has crank windows like a car!
REAL men can hand-crank a manual window up and down! :-)
These were work trucks! Staight F1! Well theP-36, now this one mighta been a custom cab model,maybe even a camper special ranger!
I am confused as to why the person on the ground filming the start up and taxi out didn't provide any footage of take off, landing or the flight from the ground.
It really needs to be painted in Soviet Colors. They're the only people that used the plane effectively.
My thanks to all involved in resurrecting her. Trained at Falcon Field in 1990. Was the CAF there at the time? I don't remember it.
Saw another Bell in Harlingen, TX wing back in 1987 being restored. They had a pranged twin Mustang to be reworked after the Bell. I think it was a P-63... Can't be sure.
Look at that clock shake.
OOOOO!, Shivers, man - Pure JOY!
Hoary old pilot, a planet's worth of experience right there. And 1:40 - aaargh!!!
Over here in the UK Duxford has a Cobra I thought did the pilots find it a bit disconcerting with a prop shaft spinning between thier legs if the balance wieghts came off it could be most uncomfortable in the neather regions.
never was any problems
@@hotrodray9884 Maybe no-one got to hear about any (painful?) problems.
With the CG further back, it was probably very maneuverable if you could keep it under control.
and all of these years i have been call it the P39 bellaire king Cobra.
Congratulations on getting this rare bird back to where she belongs.
LOVE THIS ONE.
DEDICATION! Far out! When you think of American fighter aircraft worthy of restoration where does this aircraft fit in? Hats off guys.
you'd go nuts listening to that engine for hours on end
Wow! Awesome to be in the cockpit. Landing....a greaser!
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Sounds great ... Brave man too !