Into Friendly Fire: the RP-63 "Pinball"
Heavily armoured as they were, the Pinballs were not invulnerable. On occasions, the air scoops would ingest bullet fragments, or even entire bullets. This would damage the oil and coolant radiators and in such case, the engine would rapidly overheat. The pilot would then have to make an emergency landing as soon as possible.
 Another view of 42-69654 showing the red light located in the propeller hub. Notice the "Pin Ball" marking, completed by a "Do Not Tilt" indication. (Photo: USAF). |
William Wilsterman flew the RP-63 as an instructor at the Las Vegas flexible gunnery school. During one mission, a frangible round hit his aircraft at the base of his windscreen, right at the spot where the armoured glass met the aluminium armour. The bullet found its way inside the cockpit and hit his oxygen mask. Fortunately, most of its energy had already dissipated and Wilsterman was unhurt.
Most accidents were due to “trigger-happy” students. As only the forward surfaces of the RP-63 were armoured, students were told to cease fire when the RP-63 broke off its attack. As he banked away to avoid collision, the RP-63 pilot would expose his aircraft's unarmoured surfaces. If the student kept firing at this point, the frangible bullets could cause damage. Wilsterman recalls that on one such occasion, bullets hit his left aileron and yanked the control stick out of his hands. He landed with several bullet holes in the unarmoured sections of his airplane.
Some accident were more serious. It seems that live and frangible rounds were similar-looking, and according to some reports live rounds were fired at RP-63s. One Pinball pilot returned with his 38 mm thick armoured windscreen cracked, which should not have been caused by frangible bullets.
A new RP-63 version was introduced, the RP-63C. This was similar to the RP-63A but carried a V-1710-117 engine and had other minor refinements incorporated. The most notable difference was the air scoop, which was that of the standard-production P-63C. A total of two hundred RP-63C were built. Their designation was RP-63C-2 and their serial numbers were 43-10933 to 43-1132.
The Pinballs made for good training, but their introduction was too late to make a real difference in the air war. By 1945, German and Japanese interceptors were becoming increasingly rare, and the fighter escorts were usually strong enough to cope with these. Nonetheless, the program went on.
During a typical mission, twelve students would take turns at firing at the Pinball aircraft, each firing 2,000 frangible rounds. The bright orange aircraft was typically hit by only a dozen or so bullets per mission. Rodrique remembers he never was hit more than 30 times in one mission. On a single day, Pinball pilots would fly up to three training missions.
The success of the program was such that Bell engineers began work on a dedicated version of the RP-63. The RP-63A and C had been standard production fighters modified on the production line. The new variant, the RP-63G, was to be put into production as a target plane from the start.
Two P-63C (serials 43-11723 and 43-11724) had previously been taken off the production lines and modified as RP-63G prototypes. Additional lights had been added to the fuselage sides and back, and on the outer wing uppersurfaces. These indicated hits more clearly to gunnery students. A flush air scoop was fitted and the 1,200 hp V-1710-135 was selected as powerplant. Armour plating was extended towards the rear of the fuselage, bringing the total weight of the armour to 2,164.9 lbs. Following successful testing of the two prototypes, an order for 450 RP-63G was placed. The designation of this new version was RP-63G-1.
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