Venomous Royalty

摘要

The P-63 Kingcobra was the last large-scale production aircraft type designed and built by the Bell Aircraft Corporation. It has often been claimed in many published sources that it was simply a development of the P-39 Airacobra, being little more than a larger, more advanced version with less rounded lines and potentially better performance. However, the Kingcobra's story is much more than just that, because the type was, to a considerable extent, a standalone project. While having layout characteristics echoing the P-39, it was created to meet different design criteria and mission needs.