Mystery civil P-63

[L. Thompson]

I have been working on a Bell Cobra scrapbook the last couple of days.

One of my clippings is a photo from page 49 of the March/April 1993 Warbirds International. It shows a left side rear three-quarter view of a dark painted P-63 in a weed field with a big canvas lying loose over the canopy and mid-fuselage. The wings are unclipped and a drop tank possibly from a P-80 is under the left wing. There are many fuselage panels missing and most notably no tail feathers except for a "bolted on" vertical tail fin and rudder from a BT-13 that has the registration N64486. There's a portion of an unidentified Fairchild PT in the immediate background but the caption says the mystery Kingcobra was phtographed at an unknown time and place. No photo credit given.

Anyone know the identity and fate? I could scan and E-mail the photo.


On another note, I'm looking for the a decent photo for the scrapbook of the Walter Soplata P-63 partial fuselage.

[bax101]

can you put the pic on the page??? its not in the FAA registry.

[L. Thompson]

Bax,

I sent you a PM. I can E-mail you the picture.

The photo is likely 1946-1950's vintage. I don't find that BT registration either going all the way back to my July 1964 Civil Register.

I do find BT-13's with these close N#'s:

N64480 Wichita falls, TX

N64497 Ft. Benton, MT

N64498 Wichita, KS