42-68941 P-63AQ-6-BE King Cobra Photo Up-date

[Shay]

Thanks gary!! I've always been a big fan of the 39 and 63. It's great to see one getting this level of attention.

Shay
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Semper Fortis

[Enemy Ace]

Does anybody know if the Soko is still for sale? what are they asking?

[pbeegle1]

It is on a trailer heading west and hopefully be in the air a few years.

[Speedy]

The CAF has had four different P-63's in the collection. The first P-63 had the inflight engine fire and I believe was named "Tumbleweed". She currently is/was in the group of P-63 airframes/parts out in Arizona. Danny Chvatal owned a big, big cache of P-63 parts for many years and had acquired the "Cobra after the fire. The second was N-191H and was in the Free French markings for many, many years till being grounded..... This bird had many different units start/stop the rebuild process, but generally it did not make it past the point of taking more parts off the aircraft..... The Missouri Wing got the bird, but when the mighty Mississippi flooded, well, they had much worse problems to deal with..... so the "Cobra went southeast to Dixie! Where she is now....
The third was the P-63F, and the fourth was the P-63 known as "Pretty Polly". Anything close to being the truth is purely coincidental. Alan

Hey Beagley, Beagley..... when are you guys going to have the P-63 pages updated on the website????????? Tell Jake and Pop hello for me...

The 'inflight engine fire'...wasn't that because the pilot was flying inverted longer than the manual said was allowable? I believe that accident was N9004R. Anyone remember WHEN that happened?

[Robbie Stuart]

NTSB Identification: Unknown
14 CFR Part 91 General Aviation
Event occurred Friday, March 06, 1964 in MERCEDES, TX
Aircraft: BELL P63, registration: N9004R

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FILE DATE LOCATION AIRCRAFT DATA INJURIES FLIGHT PILOT DATA
F S M/N PURPOSE
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3-0552 64/3/6 MERCEDES TEX BELL P63 CR- 0 0 1 NONCOMMERCIAL AIRLINE TRANSPORT, AGE
TIME - 1545 N9004R PX- 0 0 0 PLEASURE/PERSONAL TRANSP 50, 25000 TOTAL HOURS, 35
DAMAGE-DESTROYED OT- 0 0 0 IN TYPE, NOT INSTRUMENT
RATED.
TYPE OF ACCIDENT PHASE OF OPERATION
ENGINE FAILURE OR MALFUNCTION LANDING: TRAFFIC PATTERN-CIRCLING
FIRE OR EXPLOSION: IN FLIGHT LANDING: TRAFFIC PATTERN-CIRCLING
PROBABLE CAUSE(S)
POWERPLANT - ENGINE STRUCTURE: BLOWER,IMPELLER ASSEMBLY
MISCELLANEOUS ACTS,CONDITIONS - MATERIAL FAILURE

[Ztex]

This is N191H right? Good to see they are making some progress!

1978


1984

[Speedy]

This is N191H right? Good to see they are making some progress!

1978


1984

I know that this is just me hanging on to the past...but Tumbleweed was actually one of my favorite CAF planes from that era--even though it was hardly ever flown. After it was grounded it was a hanger queen that made its one and only annual appearance parked static on the ramp at Airsho while it was still at Harlingen.

I love the semi-gloss 'pseudo' Free-French paint job, and I love the metal-covered 'rear window'.

I know...the '70's were a time of wildly erratic and inaccurate paint jobs and restorations...but there was a certain amount of 'personality' to see planes like Tumbleweed, or Diamond Lil masquerading in the desert camo with that big 'cargo' nose, no turrets, etc. In the times where a new Mustang restoration is going for $2.2 MILLION for something that is so completely over-restored to the point of being better than new, there was just a feeling of innocense I feel for the planes as they were back then--no matter how un-p.c. or aplogetic it all was.