The rule's wording in the category's rules was incorrectly stated, and that was an error on my part. Unless there's any major reasons why I should reconsider, effective immediately, the wording "you only have three lives!" has been replaced with "you cannot game over or it doesn't count!"

(At 50,000 points, you receive an extra life. This is an intended mechanic of the game).

As a heads up, I think I have gotten another bonus life somewhere, I'm guessing at 100k points or maybe 150k during a "destroy everything I can" longplay. Maybe there was a special 1up plane or something, or maybe a bonus for landing on the carrier right, or...? Anyhow, just wanted to throw that out there! I tried to pick up that 2nd bonus life yesterday at times but was unsuccessful.

There's surprisingly little information out there about this. I am almost tempted to put a Game Genie code in where I cannot die or something, and just kill all the things with save states and no pressure to see what happens. It would be nice to determine where, exactly, these extra lives occur.