8|FLIGHTPATH
News
Bell P-63C Kingcobra rebirth
TheWingsMuseum,basedinSussex,is
embarkingonPhaseTwoofitsBellP-63C
Kingcobra restoration. The long-term plan
istorestoretheaircraftasastaticground
running exhibit. It is likely it will be the
onlycompleteexampleofitstypeintheUK
(se eFlightpathVol. 28, No.4) T wo broth-
ers,DanielandKevinHunt,arethepas-
sionatefoundersofthemuseumthatdis-
playsaneclecticarrayofitems.Thejewels
inthecrownaretheaircraftthatmakeup
the ‘Ghosts of the Tundra’ exhibition. The
KingcobraisoneofsixP-63fuselagesand
four wing sets recovered from the Russian
KurilIslands,justtothenortheastofJa-
pan,in2001bytheHuntbrothers.They
also retrieved a Nakajima B5N2 ‘Kate’ fuse-
lageandwingsection,a‘Zero’nowunder
restorationinJapan,twoNakajimaKi-
‘Oscar’cockpitandwingsections,thesub-
stantial remains of an Eleventh Air Force
B-25Mitchellfuselageandanapproxi-
mately75%completeDouglasBoston.
The rebuild of the Kingcobra (serial 43-11137) began in 2010 with Phase One, the res-
toration of the cockpit. This decision was
madebecauseofthewaytheaircraftwere
constructedbyBell.Thecockpitswerebuilt
separately and mated to the fuselages on the
production line. Constructing the aircraft in
this fashion meant that the cockpits were
loosely interchangeable. The cockpit chosen
comesfromanairframetheRussianscutjust
infrontofthecockpitsection.Thismeantno
other airframe was disturbed while the resto-
ration was undertaken.
Therestorationtodatehasbeenparticu-
larlychallengingasalotofpartsaremiss-
ing, damaged and/or corroded. Two of the
Kingcobra’s most distinguishing features,
thelargecockpitdoors,areamongthemiss-
ingcomponents.Thishasnotfazedthe
team,however,asthemuseumholdsasetof
original engineering drawings on CD and
doorsarebeingbuiltfromthose.Thedraw-
ingsareanincredibleassetandtheskilled
volunteers, coupled with the well-equipped
workshop, have been able to overcome any