Bell Aircraft RP-63 used in Operation Pinball Special ammunition made for Operation Pinball.
бакелитовые пули
For this purpose the .30 in T-44 frangible bullet had been developed, manufactured from a mixture of lead and Bakelite.
Flying Guns: The Development of Aircraft Guns, Ammunition and Installations, 1933-45
Emmanuel Gustin, Anthony G. Williams
Airlife, Feb 1, 2003 - History - 352 pages
KINGCOBRA
One more American single-engined, single-seat, land- based day-fighter entered production during WWII: the Bell P-63 Kingcobra. Similar in concept and layout to the P-39 Airacobra, it was larger, and had laminar-flow wings and a V- 1 7 1 0 engine with a two-stage mechanical supercharger. Armament was initially identical to that of the last P-39s, with one 37 mm M4 cannon, two .50 in guns in the nose, and two under the wings. The M 1 0, a belt-fed development of the M4 with a higher ammunition capacity and slightly increased rate of fire, was installed from the P-63A-9 onward. Pilots who flew it praised the P-63 for its performance and manoeuvrability, but its qualities as a gun platform left something to be desired. The USAAF did not need another fighter, and its short range further handicapped the P-63. Most of the production nm was Lease-Lend to the USSR, which reserved the P-63 for home defence units because of its good high-altitude performance; therefore the type saw little combat during WWII. The single P-63D-1 became, as far as is known, the only US fighter ever to carry the powerful 37 mm M9 cannon. This gun is often confused with the T9 precursor of the far less powerful M4, and quite often included in tables of American aircraft guns as if it were standard armament; in fact it seems to have seen combat service only at sea, and not in the air. The M9 was never installed in the P-38 or P-39, despite the claims of some authors to the contrary.
Derived from an anti-aircraft gun, the M9 had an about 50 per cent higher muzzle velocity than the M4, but was less suitable for fighters because it weighed almost twice as much: 184 kg vs. 96 kg.
The P-63 did take centre stage in a quite interesting experiment: it was used as a live, manned, target for trainee bomber gunners! For this purpose the .30 in T-44 frangible bullet had been developed, manufactured from a mixture of lead and Bakelite. This bullet weighed 6.95 grams and was to be fired at a muzzle velocity of 41 5 m/s, considerably lower than the standard ammunition. To make the .30 in Browning M2 machine-gun operate with this ammunition, it had to be modified, and to compensate for the difference between the training gun and the .50 in actually carried by most bombers, special sights were fitted. The RP-63 target aircraft were covered, depending on the model, by between 650 and 950 kg of light alloy armour plate and armour glass. The aluminium plate was 1/8 to 1/4 inch (3.2 to 6.4 mm) thick, but of course it could not cover all areas. The carburettor inlet and the inlets of the coolant radiators remained especially vulnerable spots, although trainee gunners were instructed to stop firing when the RP-63 banked away - they did not always do so. Under its armoured skin the RP-63 carried 109 detectors to register hits, and a light in the propeller hub was supposed to flash whenever the aircraft was hit. This system was not very reliable but earned the RP-63 the nickname 'Pinball'. At the end of the war, about 300 were in service, but the programme did not survive the end of WWII. Opinions as to the effectiveness of this form of training were divided. Extensive use was already being made of combat simulators and camera guns, and such an expensive, complicated and inherently dangerous device as the RP-63 seemed superfluous to many. On the other hand none of these methods was as realistic as the 'Pinball', although on many occasions pilots got rather closer to their targets than was normal, to allow the gunners to score more hits (and to graduate). The low rate of hits, about 15 to 20 per 1,000 rounds fired, seems to have caused contention as some regarded it as proof that there was something wrong with the system. In fact this compares rather favourably to the number of hits that could be expected in combat. A weakness of the system was that for reasons of safety it was restricted to pursuit curves from the rear; no head-on passes could be made.
Night-fighters.
One of the most precious gifts from Britain to the USA was the cavity magnetron, the core ...
