P-59 Airacomet

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P-59 Airacomet
USAAF XP-59A
Type	Fighter
Manufacturer	Bell Aircraft Corporation
Maiden flight	1942-10-01
Status	Retired after brief service
Primary user	United States Army Air Force
Number built	30

The Bell P-59A was a fighter aircraft built in the United States during World War II. Its prototype, the XP-59A became the first jet-powered aircraft to fly in the US on October 1, 1942. The type was produced in small numbers and its performance was so unremarkable that the USAAF cancelled the contract when fewer than half of the aircraft ordered had been produced. No P-59s went into combat, the aircraft considered to have deficient performance.

[edit] History

USAAF Major General Henry H. Arnold became aware of the United Kingdom's jet program when he attended a demonstration of the Gloster E.28/39 in April 1941. He requested, and was given, the plans for the aircraft's powerplant, which he took back to the US. On September 4, he offered General Electric a contract to produce American version of the engine. On the following day, he approached Lawrence Bell to build a fighter to utilize it. Bell agreed and set to work on producing three prototypes. As a disinformation tactic, the USAAF gave the project the designation P-59A, to suggest it was a development of a completely unrelated Bell fighter project that had been cancelled. The design was finalized on January 9, 1942, and construction began. In March, long before the prototypes were completed, an order for thirteen YP-59 pre-production machines was added to the contract.

On September 12, 1942, the first XP-59 arrived at Muroc Army Air Field (today, Edwards Air Force Base) in California for testing. While being handled on the ground, the aircraft was fitted with a dummy propeller to disguise its true nature. The aircraft first became airborne during high-speed taxiing tests on October 1 with Bell test pilot Robert Stanley at the controls, although the first official flight was made by Col Laurence Craigie the next day. Over the following months, tests on the three XP-59s revealed a multitude of problems including poor engine response and reliability (common shortcomings of all early turbojets) and performance that was far below expectations. Nevertheless, even before delivery of the YP-59s in June 1943, the USAAF ordered 80 production machines, designated P-59A Airacomet.

The YP-59 had a more powerful engine than its predecessor, but the improvement in its performance was negligible. One of these aircraft was supplied to the RAF in exchange for a Gloster Meteor. British pilots found that the aircraft compared very unfavourably to the locally produced jets that they were already flying. (They also compared unfavorably to P-51 Mustangs.) Three were also delivered to the USN where they were evaluated as the YF2L-1 but quickly found completely unsuitable for carrier operations.

Faced with their own ongoing difficulties, the USAAF cancelled the P-59A after only thirty aircraft had been completed. While the P-59 was not a great success, the type did give the USAAF experience with the operation of jet aircraft in preparation for the more advanced types that would shortly become available.

The original XP-59A prototype is preserved in the Milestones of Flight Gallery of the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC, along with the Wright Flyer and the Apollo 11 command module Columbia. A P-59A resides in the March Field Air Museum in Riverside, California, while an example of the P-59B model is on display at the National Museum of the United States Air Force at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio. In 1991 the Planes of Fame Museum located in Chino, California acquired a P-59A and has been in the process of slowly restoring it to flying condition. The restoration is nearly complete, and the aircraft is expected to begin appearing at air shows in the summer of 2006.

[edit] Operators

• United Kingdom (one in exchange for a Gloster Meteor Mk I), United States (US Army Air Force, US Navy).

[edit] Specifications (P-59A)

General characteristics

• Crew: 1
• Length: 38 ft 2 in (11.63 m)
• Wingspan: 45 ft 6 in (13.87 m)
• Height: 12 ft 4 in (3.76 m)
• Wing area: 386 ft² (35.9 m²)
• Empty weight: 7,940 lb (3,600 kg)
• Max takeoff weight: 12,700 lb (5,760 kg)
• Powerplant: 2× General Electric I-A turbojets, 2,800 lbf (12.5 kN) each

Performance

• Maximum speed: 413 mph (664 km/h)
• Range: 240 mi (386 km)
• Service ceiling: 46,200 ft (14,080 m)
• Rate of climb: 3,200 ft/min (16,26 m/s)

Armament

• 1x 37 mm cannon
• 3x .50 cal (12.7 mm) machine guns

[edit] References

• William Green (1961). War Planes of the Second World War - Fighters, (Vol 4). London: MacDonald

[edit] External links

• An article on the P-59 Airacomet
• P-59 Airacomet specifications
• Photographs of various P-59s
• A few photographs of surviving P-59s
• Original XP-59A prototype at National Air and Space Museum
• The P-59A at March Field Air Museum
• The P-59B at the National Museum of the USAF

[edit] Related content

 

Comparable aircraft

• Messerschmitt Me 262 - The world's first operational jet-fighter aircraft.
• Gloster Meteor - The first Allied operational jet-fighter aircraft.
• Nakajima Kikka
• Sukhoi Su-9

Designation sequence

XP-56 - XP-57 - XP-58 - P-59 - P-60 - P-61 - XP-62

Related lists

• List of military aircraft of the United States
• List of fighter aircraft
• List of World War II jet aircraft

See also

• Heinkel He 178 - The world's first aircraft to fly under turbojet power.
• Heinkel He 280 - The first turbojet-powered fighter aircraft built in the world.