Bell_P-63.htm

Bell P-63 Kingcobra

The Bell P-63 Kingcobra was an all-metal monoplane Pursuit aircraft with an inline engine mounted aft of the cockpit. It also had side opening doors into the cockpit, tricycle landing gear, a cannon firing through the propellor hub, with additional machiine guns, mounted in the nose and wing, similar to the P-39 Airacobra, and in general appeared similar to an enlarged version of that aircraft. Although not used operationally by the USAAC as a fighter, it was exported to the USSR and two airframes were provied to the UK for testing. It was also used by the France and Honduras after the war. Per reference [8] it took its first flight on 7 December 1942, and entered service in October 1943. The P-63 was built in a handful of variants, with the primary variants analyzed at this website being:

the XP-63A
the P-63A-10
the P-63C

Per reference [8] a total of 3,303 of this type aircraft of all variants were procured.

As shown in the images below distinguishing features of this aircraft including;

an inline engine, mounted aft of the cockpit
cannon firing through the propeller hub
side opening door into the cockpit
a low mounted wing
retractable tricycle landing gear

[Image Sources: Public Domain via Ref [8] - as annotated by this site]

[Source: Ref [8] - Public Domain]

In order to try and better develop weight estimating relationships an effort has been made to estimate the length of the fuselage aft of the firewall, and the length of the engine section forward of the firewall based off scaled drawings. Together these two distances add to a term called the "structural length" and do not consider any portion of the engine or propeller shaft the extend foward of the fuselage/cowling, or any empennage that extends aft of the fuselage structure. The drawing below shows the current best estimate of these dimensions obtained from available drawings of the airplane and will be updated with any real world data that becomes available. For any aircraft with an inclined firewall, an attempt has been made to locate an approximate center of this location.

P63 Dims

Source References [1] [3] & [16]

In the above images, dimensions in Black come from the source material while dimesions in Red have been approximated from the data available.

The table below summarizes the current data collected on this type aircraft, identifying sources for the data

		XP-63A	P-63A-10	P-63C	Secondary Source	Notes
Primary Source		1	1	1
No of Crew		1	1	1
Engine:
Qty		1	1	1
Model		V-1710-93	V-1710-93	V-1710-117	5
Displacement	(cu in)	1710	1710	1710	5
Power
Military	(HP)	1150	1150	1100	5
War Emergency	(HP)	1825	1825	1800	5
Normal	(HP)
Take Off	(HP)	1325	1325	1325	5
Eng Dims
Length	(ft)
Width/Dia	(ft)
Height	(ft)
Base Engine Wt	(lb)	1613	1613	1660	5
Propeller
# Blades		4	4	4
Dia	(ft)	11	12.17	12.67
Manufacturer
Type			Const Speed	Const Speed
Wing
Span	(ft)
Root Thickness	(%)
	(in)
Total Area	(sq ft)	248	248	248
Wing (less Ailerons & Flaps)	(sq ft)
Ailerons	(sq ft)
Flaps	(sq ft)
Tail Area	(sq ft)	69.49	69.49	70.26	3
V Tail Area	(sq ft)	25.48	25.48	23.73	3
Fin	(sq ft)
Rudder	(sq ft)
H Tail Area	(sq ft)	44.01	44.01	46.53	3
Stabilizer	(sq ft)
Elevator	(sq ft)
Total Control Surf Area	(sq ft)
Length
Overall	(ft)	31.33	31.33	31.33
Fuselage	(ft)
Body	(ft)	31.6	31.6	31.6
Body Depth	(ft)
Body Width	(ft)
Fuel Tank Volume	(gal)
Wing Tanks	(gal)
FuselageTanks	(gal)
Oil Tank Volume	(gal)
Water Injection Fluid Tank Volume	(gal)
Wetted Area (sqf)	(sq ft)
Pwr Ldng	(lb/HP)
Wing Ldng	(lb/sq ft)
Struct. Des. GW	(lb)
Ultimate Load Factor	(G's)
Design Speed	(mph)
Not to Exceed Speed	(mph)

Total Struct Weight		2411	2547.4	2613
Total Wing		1027	1139.6	1152
Wing
Ailerons
Flaps
Fuselage Carry-Through
Tail		141	159.9	178
H Tail
Stabilizer
Elevator
V Tail
Fin
Rudder
Body + Eng Section + LG
Body + LG		1243	1247.9	1283
Body		602	628.7	676
Fuselage		598	628.7	676
Engine Section		4
Landing Gear		641	619.2	607
Mn Landing Gr
Tail/Nose Aux LG
Tail Hook
Booms
Nacelles
Total Propulsion Weight		3038	3158.6	3207
Engine w/ Accessories		1681	1725.3	1824
Engine(s) as Installed			1620	1710
Accessories			105.3	114
Turbocharger(s)
Controls		40	40.7	41
Propeller(s)		475	460	460
2-Blade
3-Blade
4-Blade		475	460	460
Starting System		58	57.6	58
Water Injection System		-	50	-
Tanks
Piping Etc
Cooling System		349	347.4	346
Lube System		137	134.9	135
Tanks
Piping Etc
Fuel System		298	342.7	343
Tanks
Piping Etc
Total Sys. & Eqpmt.		739	987.7	1036
Instruments		46	46.5	46
Surface Controls		116	140.8	141
Hydraulics
Electrical Equip		170	200.1	202
Electronics (Purple means incl in Furn/Gray in Useful Ld)		124	144.4	146
Arm Prov/Equipment & Armor		206	333.5	378
Furnishings		62	86.5	93
Anti-Ice (If not in Furn)			5.9
Other /Misc		15	30	30
Hoisting Gear
Floatation Gear
Armor Plate

Empty Wt		6188	6693.7	6856
Basic Mission Useful Load
Crew
Equipment
Oil
Fuel
Fuel & Oil Trapped in Systems
Water Solution for Engine Injection
Bombs/Torp Etc
Radio (if Not Included in Empty Wt)
Nav Equipment
Oxygen System
Armament		-		-
Guns & Ammo
Guns		-
Ammo
Pyrotechnics
Camera
Other
Other Useful Load
Basic Mission GW

Notes: This website has been developed with a number of low cost or free programs including Hot Metal Pro, KompoZer, MicroSoft Designer and Da Button Factory.com

Rev 4-12-26

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