{"id":10847383,"date":"2026-08-09T17:40:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-09T15:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/?p=10847383"},"modified":"2026-08-24T16:56:51","modified_gmt":"2026-08-24T14:56:51","slug":"p-63-pinball-fighter-built-to-be-shot-at","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/p-63-pinball-fighter-built-to-be-shot-at\/","title":{"rendered":"The Fighter America Built to Be Shot At"},"content":{"rendered":"<style>.et_pb_title_container h1.entry-title { padding-top: 40px !important; }<\/style>\r\n<p>Imagine strapping into a fighter, climbing to altitude, and then flying straight at a bomber whose gunners have been ordered to open fire on you. Not blanks. Not a camera. Real bullets, aimed at your aircraft, on purpose. Now imagine doing it two or three times a day and coming down grinning.<\/p>\r\n<p>That was the job of the <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/aircraft\/p-63-kingcobra\/\">Bell P-63 Kingcobra<\/a> in one of the strangest training programs of the Second World War. Stripped of its guns, wrapped in armour, and painted a lurid orange, the P-63 became a flying target &mdash; a machine designed, from the propeller back, to be shot at. The airmen called it the Flying Pinball Machine. The idea was almost insane. It also worked.<\/p>\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">A very expensive problem<\/h2>\r\n<p>In 1943, American heavy bombers were dying over Europe. On 14 October 1943 &mdash; a day the crews called Black Thursday &mdash; sixty B-17s went down on a single raid against the ball-bearing plants at Schweinfurt. Deep raids into Germany were suspended until long-range escort fighters could arrive.<\/p>\r\n<p>Part of the problem was the gunners. Defending a bomber meant hitting a fighter that was closing at a combined speed of several hundred miles an hour, from a bucking, freezing turret, while being shot at yourself. The training for it was feeble: gunners fired shotguns at clay pigeons, blazed away at targets on wheels, and hosed tow-banners trailed behind other aircraft. None of it felt anything like the real thing.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid #1565c0;padding:20px 22px;margin:18px 0 24px;border-radius:0 8px 8px 0;font-size:16px;line-height:1.7\"><em>&ldquo;I thought to myself that I was deliberately setting myself up as a perfect target for some eagle-eyed kid aspiring to be a top-notch gunner at my expense. I felt I was the world&rsquo;s greatest idiot.&rdquo;<\/em><div style=\"margin-top:10px;font-size:14px;color:#555\"><strong>John Aranyos<\/strong> &mdash; P-63 Pinball pilot and P-47 combat veteran (82 missions), quoted in Air &amp; Space\/Smithsonian<\/div><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f5f5f5;padding:20px;border-radius:8px;margin:24px 0\"><strong>Quick Facts<\/strong><br>\r\n<strong>Aircraft:<\/strong> Bell RP-63 Kingcobra (\"Pinball\")<br>\r\n<strong>Role:<\/strong> Manned, armoured aerial gunnery target<br>\r\n<strong>Converted:<\/strong> Around 300 P-63s (RP-63A \/ RP-63C \/ RP-63G)<br>\r\n<strong>Ammunition:<\/strong> Frangible .30-cal round (Bakelite and powdered lead) &mdash; the M22<br>\r\n<strong>Hit sensing:<\/strong> 100-plus microphones under the armour; a cockpit counter and a red light in the nose<br>\r\n<strong>Service:<\/strong> Early 1945 to 1947; over 11,000 bomber missions, roughly 12 million rounds fired<\/div>\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">The bullet that broke on impact<\/h2>\r\n<p>The breakthrough came from an Army Air Forces major named Cameron Fairchild, a gunnery trainer at Harlingen, Texas. Fairchild wondered whether you could build a bullet that flew like a real one but shattered harmlessly on impact &mdash; letting students fire live rounds at an actual, manoeuvring fighter.<\/p>\r\n<p>It took the better part of a year. Researchers at Duke University and the University of Michigan, working with the Bakelite Corporation, produced a plastic-and-lead round that fed through a .30-calibre machine gun, flew true, and disintegrated when it struck armour. Powdered lead from DuPont gave it the right weight. Officially it was the \"Cartridge, Caliber .30, Frangible, Ball, M22.\" Everyone else just called them frangibles.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/yRyKys89QeE\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0;border-radius:8px\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\r\n<p style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;font-style:italic;text-align:center;margin-top:-12px\">The P-63's whole story &mdash; the outcast American fighter that found its strangest job at home.<\/p>\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">Building an aircraft that wanted to be hit<\/h2>\r\n<p>Now they needed a target that could survive being shot. The Army chose the P-63 &mdash; a fighter it had otherwise ignored in favour of the P-51 and P-47, and shipped abroad to the Soviet Union and France in large numbers. Its lines were also judged a reasonable stand-in for a German Messerschmitt.<\/p>\r\n<p>The conversion was drastic. Out came the guns and standard armour. In went more than a ton of special armour plate across the wings and forward fuselage, plus cockpit glazing over an inch thick. Beneath the skin, more than a hundred microphones listened for the smack of a frangible round. Each hit ticked a counter in the cockpit and, most famously, flashed a big red light in the nose where the 37 mm cannon used to be. A fighter lighting up every time it was struck &mdash; hence Pinball.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px;width:100%\"><img data-opt-id=1403154911  fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/ml5psubhxdln.i.optimole.com\/cb:0e0_.b970\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/ig:avif\/https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/08\/b-17-waist-gunner-1943.jpg\" alt=\"B-17 waist gunner, 1943\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;max-width:100%;display:block;border-radius:6px\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\">A B-17 waist gunner. Trainees like these fired live frangible rounds at the orange Pinballs &mdash; twelve gunners to a bomber, 2,000 rounds each. Photo: US Air Force \/ Wikimedia Commons.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">Playing war games, like kids<\/h2>\r\n<p>From early 1945, Pinballs flew out of bases in Florida, Texas, Arizona and Nevada. A pilot would climb up, meet a formation of B-17s or B-24s, and then roll into curving firing passes exactly as a German fighter would. In the bomber's waist stood a dozen student gunners, 2,000 rounds apiece, taking turns to track the orange fighter as it dived through. Over the life of the programme, gunners flew more than 11,000 such missions and fired something like 12 million frangible rounds.<\/p>\r\n<p>The pilots, remarkably, loved it. Many were combat veterans who found being shot at by their own side deeply unnerving at first &mdash; and then oddly addictive. One of them, Horace Ashenfelter, flew Pinballs in 1945 and went on to win Olympic steeplechase gold in 1952.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid #d32f2f;padding:20px 22px;margin:18px 0 24px;border-radius:0 8px 8px 0;font-size:16px;line-height:1.7\"><em>&ldquo;We were playing war games, like kids!&rdquo;<\/em><div style=\"margin-top:10px;font-size:14px;color:#555\"><strong>Horace Ashenfelter<\/strong> &mdash; P-63 Pinball pilot, 1945 (later 1952 Olympic steeplechase champion)<\/div><\/div>\r\n<p>It was not entirely safe. The frangible rounds usually broke apart as designed, but at close range they could punch through. The RP-63's real weak spot was the air ducts in the wing roots that fed the engine's cooling system; a lucky hit there could send fragments into the coolant, overheat the Allison V-1710 engine, and force the pilot into a bailout or a dead-stick landing on a desert lake bed. It happened more than once.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/4LzHB4sXtZ8\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0;border-radius:8px\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\r\n<p style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;font-style:italic;text-align:center;margin-top:-12px\">Inside the cockpit of a surviving P-63 Kingcobra.<\/p>\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">The training device of the future<\/h2>\r\n<p>Ivan Hickman, a Pinball pilot who later wrote the definitive book on the programme, recorded that most of the pilots he knew believed the Pinball was \"the training device of the future.\" They were half right. The war ended, a handful of Pinballs stayed on to train B-29 gunners, and by the end of 1947 the whole fleet had been mothballed.<\/p>\r\n<p>The future they imagined arrived, just not in the shape they expected. Remote-controlled turrets, then target drones, then guided missiles made the manned flying target obsolete. But for two years, the surest way to teach a teenager to defend a bomber was to send up a real fighter, paint it orange, and dare him to hit it.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px;width:100%\"><img data-opt-id=1685742998  fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/ml5psubhxdln.i.optimole.com\/cb:0e0_.b970\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/ig:avif\/https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/08\/p-63-kingcobra-museum.jpg\" alt=\"Bell P-63 Kingcobra preserved\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;max-width:100%;display:block;border-radius:6px\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\">A preserved P-63 Kingcobra. Most surviving airframes went east or into museums; the orange Pinballs were scrapped after 1947. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/y08Y3FmzDts\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0;border-radius:8px\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\r\n<p style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;font-style:italic;text-align:center;margin-top:-12px\">A P-63 in target-plane markings &mdash; the Flying Pinball Machine.<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;font-style:italic\">Sources: \"Just Shoot Me,\" Air &amp; Space\/Smithsonian (James Dunaway, 2010); Ivan L. Hickman, Operation Pinball (1990); Wings Museum \"Operation Pinball\" archive; National Museum of the U.S. Air Force.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f0f4ff;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:16px 20px;margin:32px 0 8px;border-radius:0 8px 8px 0\">\r\n<p style=\"margin:0 0 8px;font-weight:600;color:#333\">Related Posts<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/the-memphis-belle-and-the-odds-she-beat\/\">The Memphis Belle and the Odds She Beat<\/a><\/p>\r\n<p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/the-fork-tailed-devil-the-p-38-lightning\/\">The Fork-Tailed Devil: The P-38 Lightning<\/a><\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Imagine strapping into a fighter, climbing to altitude, and then flying straight at a bomber whose gunners have been ordered to open fire on you. Not blanks. Not a camera. Real bullets, aimed at your aircraft, on purpose. Now imagine doing it two or three times a day and coming down grinning. That was the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":10847031,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"editor_notices":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[666,664],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10847383","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-history-and-legends","category-military-aviation"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>P-63 Pinball: The Fighter Built to Be Shot At<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The P-63 Pinball was an armoured, orange WWII fighter built as a manned flying target, so gunners could fire live frangible bullets at a real aircraft.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/p-63-pinball-fighter-built-to-be-shot-at\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"P-63 Pinball: The Fighter Built to Be Shot At\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The P-63 Pinball was an armoured, orange WWII fighter built as a manned flying target, so gunners could fire live frangible bullets at a real aircraft.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/p-63-pinball-fighter-built-to-be-shot-at\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Afterburner - MiGFlug&#039;s Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/MiGFlug\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-08-09T15:40:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-08-24T14:56:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/ml5psubhxdln.i.optimole.com\/cb:0e0_.b970\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/ig:avif\/https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/08\/bell-p-63-kingcobra.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Connor Kerr\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@migflug\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@migflug\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Connor Kerr\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"7 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/migflug.com\\\/afterburner\\\/fr\\\/p-63-pinball-fighter-built-to-be-shot-at\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/migflug.com\\\/afterburner\\\/fr\\\/p-63-pinball-fighter-built-to-be-shot-at\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Connor Kerr\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/migflug.com\\\/afterburner\\\/it\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/bc7f2d09b1d7111c45fdb1335b8f2cf9\"},\"headline\":\"The Fighter America Built to Be Shot At\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-08-09T15:40:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-08-24T14:56:51+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/migflug.com\\\/afterburner\\\/fr\\\/p-63-pinball-fighter-built-to-be-shot-at\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":1114,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/migflug.com\\\/afterburner\\\/it\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/migflug.com\\\/afterburner\\\/fr\\\/p-63-pinball-fighter-built-to-be-shot-at\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\/\\/migflug.com\\/afterburner\\/wp-content\\/uploads\\/sites\\/4\\/2026\\/08\\/bell-p-63-kingcobra.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"History &amp; Legends\",\"Military Aviation\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/migflug.com\\\/afterburner\\\/fr\\\/p-63-pinball-fighter-built-to-be-shot-at\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/migflug.com\\\/afterburner\\\/fr\\\/p-63-pinball-fighter-built-to-be-shot-at\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/migflug.com\\\/afterburner\\\/fr\\\/p-63-pinball-fighter-built-to-be-shot-at\\\/\",\"name\":\"P-63 Pinball: The Fighter Built to Be Shot At\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/migflug.com\\\/afterburner\\\/it\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/migflug.com\\\/afterburner\\\/fr\\\/p-63-pinball-fighter-built-to-be-shot-at\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/migflug.com\\\/afterburner\\\/fr\\\/p-63-pinball-fighter-built-to-be-shot-at\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\/\\/migflug.com\\/afterburner\\/wp-content\\/uploads\\/sites\\/4\\/2026\\/08\\/bell-p-63-kingcobra.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-08-09T15:40:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-08-24T14:56:51+00:00\",\"description\":\"The P-63 Pinball was an armoured, orange WWII fighter built as a manned flying target, so gunners could fire live frangible bullets at a real aircraft.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/migflug.com\\\/afterburner\\\/fr\\\/p-63-pinball-fighter-built-to-be-shot-at\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/migflug.com\\\/afterburner\\\/fr\\\/p-63-pinball-fighter-built-to-be-shot-at\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/migflug.com\\\/afterburner\\\/fr\\\/p-63-pinball-fighter-built-to-be-shot-at\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\/\\/migflug.com\\/afterburner\\/wp-content\\/uploads\\/sites\\/4\\/2026\\/08\\/bell-p-63-kingcobra.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\/\\/migflug.com\\/afterburner\\/wp-content\\/uploads\\/sites\\/4\\/2026\\/08\\/bell-p-63-kingcobra.jpg\",\"width\":1280,\"height\":720,\"caption\":\"Bell P-63 Kingcobra\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/migflug.com\\\/afterburner\\\/fr\\\/p-63-pinball-fighter-built-to-be-shot-at\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Startseite\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/migflug.com\\\/afterburner\\\/it\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Fighter America Built to Be Shot At\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/migflug.com\\\/afterburner\\\/it\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/migflug.com\\\/afterburner\\\/it\\\/\",\"name\":\"Afterburner - MiGFlug's Magazine\",\"description\":\"for those interested in flying military jets and aviation related  topics\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/migflug.com\\\/afterburner\\\/it\\\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/migflug.com\\\/afterburner\\\/it\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/migflug.com\\\/afterburner\\\/it\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"MiGFlug GmbH\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/migflug.com\\\/afterburner\\\/it\\\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/migflug.com\\\/afterburner\\\/it\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\/\\/ml5psubhxdln.i.optimole.com\\/cb:0e0_.b970\\/w:897\\/h:278\\/q:mauto\\/ig:avif\\/https:\\/\\/migflug.com\\/afterburner\\/wp-content\\/uploads\\/sites\\/4\\/2026\\/06\\/MIGFLUG_LOGO-no-background.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\/\\/ml5psubhxdln.i.optimole.com\\/cb:0e0_.b970\\/w:897\\/h:278\\/q:mauto\\/ig:avif\\/https:\\/\\/migflug.com\\/afterburner\\/wp-content\\/uploads\\/sites\\/4\\/2026\\/06\\/MIGFLUG_LOGO-no-background.png\",\"width\":897,\"height\":278,\"caption\":\"MiGFlug GmbH\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/migflug.com\\\/afterburner\\\/it\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.facebook.com\\\/MiGFlug\\\/\",\"https:\\\/\\\/x.com\\\/migflug\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.instagram.com\\\/migflug\\\/\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.youtube.com\\\/user\\\/MiGFlug\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.linkedin.com\\\/company\\\/migflug.com\\\/\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pinterest.ch\\\/migflug\\\/\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/migflug.com\\\/afterburner\\\/it\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/bc7f2d09b1d7111c45fdb1335b8f2cf9\",\"name\":\"Connor Kerr\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/ed6d7365eb237a1c91b800bf8dfeb14b8e30a3712ed7fec9e18a70088fc423a9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/ed6d7365eb237a1c91b800bf8dfeb14b8e30a3712ed7fec9e18a70088fc423a9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/ed6d7365eb237a1c91b800bf8dfeb14b8e30a3712ed7fec9e18a70088fc423a9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Connor Kerr\"},\"description\":\"Connor Kerr writes MiGFlug\u2019s long-form features \u2014 aviation history, how-it-works explainers and the stories behind the headlines.\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/migflug.com\\\/afterburner\\\/author\\\/connorkerr\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"P-63 Pinball: The Fighter Built to Be Shot At","description":"The P-63 Pinball was an armoured, orange WWII fighter built as a manned flying target, so gunners could fire live frangible bullets at a real aircraft.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/p-63-pinball-fighter-built-to-be-shot-at\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"P-63 Pinball: The Fighter Built to Be Shot At","og_description":"The P-63 Pinball was an armoured, orange WWII fighter built as a manned flying target, so gunners could fire live frangible bullets at a real aircraft.","og_url":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/p-63-pinball-fighter-built-to-be-shot-at\/","og_site_name":"Afterburner - MiGFlug's Magazine","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/MiGFlug\/","article_published_time":"2026-08-09T15:40:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-08-24T14:56:51+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1280,"height":720,"url":"https:\/\/ml5psubhxdln.i.optimole.com\/cb:0e0_.b970\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/ig:avif\/https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/08\/bell-p-63-kingcobra.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Connor Kerr","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@migflug","twitter_site":"@migflug","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Connor Kerr","Est. reading time":"7 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/fr\/p-63-pinball-fighter-built-to-be-shot-at\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/fr\/p-63-pinball-fighter-built-to-be-shot-at\/"},"author":{"name":"Connor Kerr","@id":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/it\/#\/schema\/person\/bc7f2d09b1d7111c45fdb1335b8f2cf9"},"headline":"The Fighter America Built to Be Shot At","datePublished":"2026-08-09T15:40:00+00:00","dateModified":"2026-08-24T14:56:51+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/fr\/p-63-pinball-fighter-built-to-be-shot-at\/"},"wordCount":1114,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/it\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/fr\/p-63-pinball-fighter-built-to-be-shot-at\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/ml5psubhxdln.i.optimole.com\/cb:0e0_.b970\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/ig:avif\/https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/08\/bell-p-63-kingcobra.jpg","articleSection":["History &amp; Legends","Military Aviation"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/fr\/p-63-pinball-fighter-built-to-be-shot-at\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/fr\/p-63-pinball-fighter-built-to-be-shot-at\/","url":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/fr\/p-63-pinball-fighter-built-to-be-shot-at\/","name":"P-63 Pinball: The Fighter Built to Be Shot At","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/it\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/fr\/p-63-pinball-fighter-built-to-be-shot-at\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/fr\/p-63-pinball-fighter-built-to-be-shot-at\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/ml5psubhxdln.i.optimole.com\/cb:0e0_.b970\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/ig:avif\/https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/08\/bell-p-63-kingcobra.jpg","datePublished":"2026-08-09T15:40:00+00:00","dateModified":"2026-08-24T14:56:51+00:00","description":"The P-63 Pinball was an armoured, orange WWII fighter built as a manned flying target, so gunners could fire live frangible bullets at a real aircraft.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/fr\/p-63-pinball-fighter-built-to-be-shot-at\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/fr\/p-63-pinball-fighter-built-to-be-shot-at\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/fr\/p-63-pinball-fighter-built-to-be-shot-at\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/ml5psubhxdln.i.optimole.com\/cb:0e0_.b970\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/ig:avif\/https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/08\/bell-p-63-kingcobra.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/ml5psubhxdln.i.optimole.com\/cb:0e0_.b970\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/ig:avif\/https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/08\/bell-p-63-kingcobra.jpg","width":1280,"height":720,"caption":"Bell P-63 Kingcobra"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/fr\/p-63-pinball-fighter-built-to-be-shot-at\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Startseite","item":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/it\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Fighter America Built to Be Shot At"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/it\/#website","url":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/it\/","name":"Afterburner - MiGFlug's Magazine","description":"for those interested in flying military jets and aviation related  topics","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/it\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/it\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/it\/#organization","name":"MiGFlug GmbH","url":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/it\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/it\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/ml5psubhxdln.i.optimole.com\/cb:0e0_.b970\/w:897\/h:278\/q:mauto\/ig:avif\/https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/06\/MIGFLUG_LOGO-no-background.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/ml5psubhxdln.i.optimole.com\/cb:0e0_.b970\/w:897\/h:278\/q:mauto\/ig:avif\/https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/06\/MIGFLUG_LOGO-no-background.png","width":897,"height":278,"caption":"MiGFlug GmbH"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/it\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/MiGFlug\/","https:\/\/x.com\/migflug","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/migflug\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/MiGFlug","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/migflug.com\/","https:\/\/www.pinterest.ch\/migflug\/"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/it\/#\/schema\/person\/bc7f2d09b1d7111c45fdb1335b8f2cf9","name":"Connor Kerr","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ed6d7365eb237a1c91b800bf8dfeb14b8e30a3712ed7fec9e18a70088fc423a9?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ed6d7365eb237a1c91b800bf8dfeb14b8e30a3712ed7fec9e18a70088fc423a9?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ed6d7365eb237a1c91b800bf8dfeb14b8e30a3712ed7fec9e18a70088fc423a9?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Connor Kerr"},"description":"Connor Kerr writes MiGFlug\u2019s long-form features \u2014 aviation history, how-it-works explainers and the stories behind the headlines.","url":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/author\/connorkerr\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10847383","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10847383"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10847383\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10851425,"href":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10847383\/revisions\/10851425"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10847031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10847383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10847383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10847383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}