Was The WW2 Bell P-63 Kingcobra A Good Fighter? (2025)

Summary

  • King cobra snakes slither at 12 mph and can't fly, unlike "flying" (gliding) snake species.
  • The WWII-era P-63 Kingcobra was an American fighter plane, not venomous but certainly deadly.
  • The Soviet Union extensively used the P-63 in combat during WWII, accounting for most of its production.

In Mother Nature's world, the king cobra (Ophiophagus hannah) is an extremely deadly species of venomous snake. As if the animal's ultra-lethal venom weren't scary enough in and of itself, it's also a remarkably fast snake, able to slither after its prey at 12 mph (19.31 kph). About the only thing that might make a would-be human victim breathe a little easier is the fact that the flesh-and-blood king cobra doesn't fly. Yes, there are flying snake species (though it'd be more technically accurate to call them "gliding snakes"), of the genus Chrysolopea, but luckily they're nonvenomous to humans.

In the mechanical, military aviation world, there was (as still is, in numbers small enough to qualify for the Endangered Species List if one were talking about a live animal) a very deadly "flying snake" that did indeed bear the name of "Kingcobra" (yes, one word, not two, in this context), but in lieu of venom, she dealt out death in the form of machine gun bullets, cannon shells, and bombs. Say hello to the Bell P-63 Kingcobra fighter plane of World War II and the early Cold War.

The "Flying Snake" sequel" P-63 Kingcobra early history & specifications

The P-63 Kingcobra made her maiden flight on December 7, 1942 (the one-year anniversary of the Pearl Harbor bombing) and was officially introduced into U.S. Army Air Force service in October 1943. She was manufactured by the then-Bell Aircraft Corporation (now Bell Textron), as the direct "sequel" (so to speak) to Bell's first "flying snake" fighter plane, the P-39 Airacobra. Bell Aircraft, of course, also made aviation history via (1) the P-59 Airacomet, the first American jet fighter, and (2) the rocket-powered X-1, the first aircraft to break the sound barrier (thanks to Chuck Yeager).

Like her Airacobra ancestor, the Kingcobra featured the same unusual mid-engine configuration. However, notwithstanding that fact and the two planes' cosmetically similar appearance, the Pima Air & Space Museum of Tucson, Arizona, notes the following:

"[T]hey are in fact quite different and share no parts in common. The Kingcobra is significantly larger and uses an advanced laminar flow wing design similar to that of the P-51 Mustang. "

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The P-63 had the following vital stats"

Fuselage Length

32 ft 8 in (9.96 m)

Wingspan

38 ft 4 in (11.68 m)

Height

12 ft 7 in (3.84 m)

Empty Weight

6,800 lb (3,084 kg)

Gross weight

8,800 lb (3,992 kg)

Max Takeoff Weight

10,700 lb (4,853 kg)

Max Airspeed

410 mph (660 km/h, 360 kn) at 25,000 ft (7,600 m)

Range

450 mi (720 km, 390 NM)

Service Ceiling

43,000 ft (13,000 m)

Armament

Guns:

  • 1 × 37 mm (1.5 in) M4 (later M10) cannon firing through the propeller hub
  • 4 × .50 caliber (12.7 mm) M2 "Ma Deuce" Browning machine guns (two synchronized in the nose, two in the wings)

Bombs:

  • 1,500 lb (680 kg) bomb load on wing and fuselage

Kingcobra combat performance

Well, in the USAAF context, that's actually a non-sequitur, as we Yanks never used the P-63 in combat; instead, we used them for a highly unusual -- but also innovative and high-tech for its time -- form of target practice! The Military Aviation Museum of Virginia Beach, Virginia elaborates:

"Provided with special armor plating and a system of lights to indicate when it had been 'hit,' manned P-63s would be fired on by trainee gunners using special frangible bullets. The flashing lights earned these airplanes the nickname 'Pinball.'”

Was The WW2 Bell P-63 Kingcobra A Good Fighter? (2)

Photo: U.S. Air Force | Wikimedia Commons

As was the case with the P-39, it was the Soviet Air Force that had much greater love and appreciation for the P-63. In fact, the Soviets were the only entity to use the Kingcobra in combat during WWII. A total of 2,397 airframes were delivered to the Sovetsky Soyuz (Советский Союз; "Soviet Union") via the Lend-Lease Act, thus comprising 72.6% of the overall 3,303 production tally.

In accordance with the terms of that agreement, Soviet P-63s were disallowed for use against Germany; instead these Russified "flying snakes" (Летающие змеи/letayushchie zmei) were earmarked to be concentrated in the Soviet Far East for the eventual attack against Japan. Though it is widely thought that P-63s did see service in Europe unofficially, this is not corroborated by any official Soviet records.

What *is* verified by Soviet records is that the Kingcobra was indeed used in combat against Japan in the waning days of the Second World War; the Red pilots made good use of the combination of low ceilings, short missions, good radios, a sealed and warm cockpit, and all-around ruggedness, using their "Flying Snakes" for escort, close air support (CAS) and ground attack missions. The Kingcobra bagged her first air-to-air kill August 15,1945, when Leytenant (Lieutenant) I. FP-63s . Miroshnichenko from 17th IAP/190 IAD, shot down an Imperial Japanese Army Air Service (IJAAS) Nakajima Ki-43 Hayabusa (隼, "Peregrine falcon;" Allied reporting name "Oscar") fighter off the coast of North Korea.

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Meanwhile, 114 P-63s were sent to the French Air Force (Armée de l'Air) in 1945; though they arrived too late to see WWII combat, they did see action in the First Indochina War until they were replaced by the Grumman F8F Bearcat in 1951.

Where are they now?

After the end of WWII, the Soviets kept their P-63s in service as late as 1950, long enough to earn the NATO reporting name "Fred," thus becoming one of the few American-made aircraft to earn both a homegrown sobriquet *and* a NATO adversarial moniker. Meanwhile, the French retired their Kincobras in circa September 1951. Honduras was the last nation to retire the Kingcobra from official service, though I haven't been able to ascertain the year.

Meanwhile. Stateside Kingcobras found a new postwar lease on life via the air racing circuit.

Out of 3,303 P-63s built between 1943 and 1945, roughly 14 survive today, and of those fanged fourteen, four of them (three P-63As and one P-63C) are airworthy:

  • Registration No. 42-68864 Pretty Polly: Palm Springs Air Museum in Palm Springs, California.]
  • Reg. No. 42-68941 TEST: Commemorative Air Force (CAF) (previously Dixie Wing; after 2020, Airbase Georgia) in Peachtree City, Georgia.
  • Reg. No. 42-69080 Fatal Fang: Yanks Air Museum in Chino, California.
  • Reg. No. 43-11223: Legacy Flight Museum in Rexburg, Idaho. (Painted as P-63A-6/42-69021)

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Sadly, one of the surviving airworthy Kingcobras Reg. No. 43-11719, owned by CAF and piloted by Craig Hutain, collided with Boeing B-17G Flying Fortress "Texas Raiders" at a Wings Over Dallas airshow in Texas on November 12, 2022. The tragic crash resulted in the death of Mr. Hutain and five people aboard the B-17. That particular Kingcobra was the only surviving P-63F out of the two specimens of that variant that were built.

Was The WW2 Bell P-63 Kingcobra A Good Fighter? (2025)
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