P-59 Airacomet
Encyclopedia
The Bell P-59 Airacomet was the first American jet fighter aircraft
, designed and built during World War II
. The United States Army Air Forces
was not impressed by its performance and cancelled the contract when fewer than half of the aircraft ordered had been produced. Although no P-59s went into combat, it paved the way for another design generation of U.S. turbojet-powered aircraft and was the first turbojet fighter to have its turbojet engine and inlet nacelle
s integrated within the main fuselage
.
became aware of the United Kingdom
's jet program when he attended a demonstration of the Gloster E.28/39
in April 1941. The subject had been mentioned, but not in depth, as part of the Tizard Mission
the previous year. He requested, and was given, the plans for the aircraft's powerplant, the Power Jets W.1
, which he took back to the U.S. On 4 September, he offered the U.S. company General Electric
a contract to produce an American version of the engine. On the following day, he approached Lawrence Dale Bell, head of Bell Aircraft Corporation, 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 "XP-59" fighter project that had been canceled. The design was finalized on 9 January 1942, and construction began. In March, long before the prototypes were completed, an order for 13 "YP-59A" pre-production machines was added to the contract.
On 12 September 1942, the first XP-59A was sent to Muroc Army Air Field (today, Edwards Air Force Base
) in California by train for testing, taking seven days to reach Muroc. 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 1 October with Bell test pilot Robert Stanley at the controls, although the first official flight was made by Col Laurence Craigie the next day. A handful of the first Airacomets had open-air flight observer stations later cut into the nose a'la biplanes; over the following months, tests on the three XP-59As revealed a multitude of problems including poor engine response and reliability (common shortcomings of all early turbojets), insufficient lateral stability
, i.e., in the roll axis, and performance that was far below expectations. Chuck Yeager
flew the aircraft and was dissatisfied with the speed, but was amazed at the smooth flying. Nevertheless, even before delivery of the YP-59As in June 1943, the USAAF ordered 80 production machines, designated "P-59A Airacomet".
) was supplied to the Royal Air Force
(RAF), becoming RG362/G
, in exchange for the first production Gloster Meteor I
, EE210/G. British pilots found that the aircraft compared very unfavorably with the jets that they were already flying. (The YP-59A also compared unfavorably to the propeller-driven P-51 Mustang
.) Two YP-59A Airacomets (42-108778 and 42-100779) were also delivered to the U.S. Navy where they were evaluated as the "YF2L-1" but quickly found completely unsuitable for carrier operations
.
Faced with their own ongoing difficulties, eventually, Bell completed 50 production Airacomets, 20 P-59As and 30 P-59Bs. Each was armed with one 37 mm M4 cannon
and 44 rounds of ammunition and three .50 cal. machine guns with 200 rounds per gun. The P-59Bs were assigned to the 412th Fighter Group to familiarize AAF pilots with the handling and performance characteristics of jet aircraft. By 1950 all examples of the Airacomet were no longer airworthy. Over time, disposal of the aircraft included use as static displays, instructional aids in military training and use as static targets. 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.
XP-59
XP-59A
YP-59A
P-59A
P-59B
United States
Fighter aircraft
A fighter aircraft is a military aircraft designed primarily for air-to-air combat with other aircraft, as opposed to a bomber, which is designed primarily to attack ground targets...
, designed and built during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. The United States Army Air Forces
United States Army Air Forces
The United States Army Air Forces was the military aviation arm of the United States of America during and immediately after World War II, and the direct predecessor of the United States Air Force....
was not impressed by its performance and cancelled the contract when fewer than half of the aircraft ordered had been produced. Although no P-59s went into combat, it paved the way for another design generation of U.S. turbojet-powered aircraft and was the first turbojet fighter to have its turbojet engine and inlet nacelle
Nacelle
The nacelle is a cover housing that holds engines, fuel, or equipment on an aircraft. In some cases—for instance in the typical "Farman" type "pusher" aircraft, or the World War II-era P-38 Lightning—an aircraft's cockpit may also be housed in a nacelle, which essentially fills the...
s integrated within the main fuselage
Fuselage
The fuselage is an aircraft's main body section that holds crew and passengers or cargo. In single-engine aircraft it will usually contain an engine, although in some amphibious aircraft the single engine is mounted on a pylon attached to the fuselage which in turn is used as a floating hull...
.
Design and development
Major General Henry H. "Hap" ArnoldHenry H. Arnold
Henry Harley "Hap" Arnold was an American general officer holding the grades of General of the Army and later General of the Air Force. Arnold was an aviation pioneer, Chief of the Air Corps , Commanding General of the U.S...
became aware of the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
's jet program when he attended a demonstration of the Gloster E.28/39
Gloster E.28/39
|-See also:-References:NotesBibliography* James, Derek N. Gloster Aircraft since 1917. London: Putnam, 1987. ISBN 0-85177-807-0.* Mondey, David. The Hamlyn Concise Guide to British Aircraft of World War II. London: Chancellor Press, 1994. ISBN 1-85152-668-4.* Morgan, Eric B. "A New Concept of...
in April 1941. The subject had been mentioned, but not in depth, as part of the Tizard Mission
Tizard Mission
The Tizard Mission officially the British Technical and Scientific Mission was a British delegation that visited the United States during the Second World War in order to obtain the industrial resources to exploit the military potential of the research and development work completed by the UK up...
the previous year. He requested, and was given, the plans for the aircraft's powerplant, the Power Jets W.1
Power Jets W.1
|-See also:-Bibliography:*Gunston, Bill. World Encyclopedia of Aero Engines. Cambridge, England. Patrick Stephens Limited, 1989. ISBN 1-85260-163-9*Jane's Fighting Aircraft of World War II. London. Studio Editions Ltd, 1998...
, which he took back to the U.S. On 4 September, he offered the U.S. company General Electric
General Electric
General Electric Company , or GE, is an American multinational conglomerate corporation incorporated in Schenectady, New York and headquartered in Fairfield, Connecticut, United States...
a contract to produce an American version of the engine. On the following day, he approached Lawrence Dale Bell, head of Bell Aircraft Corporation, to build a fighter to utilize it. Bell agreed and set to work on producing three prototypes. As a disinformation
Disinformation
Disinformation is intentionally false or inaccurate information that is spread deliberately. For this reason, it is synonymous with and sometimes called black propaganda. It is an act of deception and false statements to convince someone of untruth...
tactic, the USAAF gave the project the designation "P-59A", to suggest it was a development of a completely unrelated Bell "XP-59" fighter project that had been canceled. The design was finalized on 9 January 1942, and construction began. In March, long before the prototypes were completed, an order for 13 "YP-59A" pre-production machines was added to the contract.
Edwards Air Force Base
Edwards Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base located on the border of Kern County, Los Angeles County, and San Bernardino County, California, in the Antelope Valley. It is southwest of the central business district of North Edwards, California and due east of Rosamond.It is named in...
) in California by train for testing, taking seven days to reach Muroc. While being handled on the ground, the aircraft was fitted with a dummy propeller
Propeller (aircraft)
Aircraft propellers or airscrews convert rotary motion from piston engines or turboprops to provide propulsive force. They may be fixed or variable pitch. Early aircraft propellers were carved by hand from solid or laminated wood with later propellers being constructed from metal...
to disguise its true nature. The aircraft first became airborne during high-speed taxiing
Taxiing
Taxiing refers to the movement of an aircraft on the ground, under its own power, in contrast to towing or push-back where the aircraft is moved by a tug...
tests on 1 October with Bell test pilot Robert Stanley at the controls, although the first official flight was made by Col Laurence Craigie the next day. A handful of the first Airacomets had open-air flight observer stations later cut into the nose a'la biplanes; over the following months, tests on the three XP-59As revealed a multitude of problems including poor engine response and reliability (common shortcomings of all early turbojets), insufficient lateral stability
Flight dynamics
Flight dynamics is the science of air vehicle orientation and control in three dimensions. The three critical flight dynamics parameters are the angles of rotation in three dimensions about the vehicle's center of mass, known as pitch, roll and yaw .Aerospace engineers develop control systems for...
, i.e., in the roll axis, and performance that was far below expectations. Chuck Yeager
Chuck Yeager
Charles Elwood "Chuck" Yeager is a retired major general in the United States Air Force and noted test pilot. He was the first pilot to travel faster than sound...
flew the aircraft and was dissatisfied with the speed, but was amazed at the smooth flying. Nevertheless, even before delivery of the YP-59As in June 1943, the USAAF ordered 80 production machines, designated "P-59A Airacomet".
Operational service
The 13 service test YP-59As had a more powerful engine than its predecessor, but the improvement in performance was negligible with only a five mph increase in top speed and a decrease in service-before-overhaul time. One of these aircraft, the third YP-59A (S/n: 42-22611United States military aircraft serials
In the United States, all military aircraft display a serial number to identify individual aircraft. Because these numbers are located on the aircraft tail, they are sometimes referred to unofficially as "tail numbers"...
) was supplied to the Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...
(RAF), becoming RG362/G
United Kingdom military aircraft serials
In the United Kingdom to identify individual aircraft, all military aircraft are allocated and display a unique serial number. A unified serial number system, maintained by the Air Ministry , and its successor the Ministry of Defence , is used for aircraft operated by the Royal Air Force , Fleet...
, in exchange for the first production Gloster Meteor I
Gloster Meteor
The Gloster Meteor was the first British jet fighter and the Allies' first operational jet. It first flew in 1943 and commenced operations on 27 July 1944 with 616 Squadron of the Royal Air Force...
, EE210/G. British pilots found that the aircraft compared very unfavorably with the jets that they were already flying. (The YP-59A also compared unfavorably to the propeller-driven P-51 Mustang
P-51 Mustang
The North American Aviation P-51 Mustang was an American long-range, single-seat fighter and fighter-bomber used during World War II, the Korean War and in several other conflicts...
.) Two YP-59A Airacomets (42-108778 and 42-100779) were also delivered to the U.S. Navy where they were evaluated as the "YF2L-1" but quickly found completely unsuitable for carrier operations
Aircraft carrier
An aircraft carrier is a warship designed with a primary mission of deploying and recovering aircraft, acting as a seagoing airbase. Aircraft carriers thus allow a naval force to project air power worldwide without having to depend on local bases for staging aircraft operations...
.
Faced with their own ongoing difficulties, eventually, Bell completed 50 production Airacomets, 20 P-59As and 30 P-59Bs. Each was armed with one 37 mm M4 cannon
M4 cannon
The 37 mm Automatic Gun, M4, known as the T9 during development, was a 37 mm autocannon designed by John Browning and used in the Bell P-39 Airacobra and P-63 Kingcobra fighters, as well as experimentally on other designs. It provided interceptors with a weapon that could shoot down any...
and 44 rounds of ammunition and three .50 cal. machine guns with 200 rounds per gun. The P-59Bs were assigned to the 412th Fighter Group to familiarize AAF pilots with the handling and performance characteristics of jet aircraft. By 1950 all examples of the Airacomet were no longer airworthy. Over time, disposal of the aircraft included use as static displays, instructional aids in military training and use as static targets. 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.
Variants
- Unrelated piston engine powered pusher propeller design developed from the Bell XP-52Bell XP-52|-External links:*...
. Not built.
XP-59A
- Prototype of the jet engine powered version, 3 built, serial numbers 42-108784/108786.
YP-59A
- Series of test aircraft, 13 built, serial numbers 42-108771/108783.
- YF2L-1
- :Two YP-59A (42-108778/108779) delivered to the US Navy for carrier evaluation as Bu63960/63961
P-59A
- First production version, 20 built, serial numbers 44-22609/22628.
P-59B
- Improved P-59A. 80 aircraft ordered but only 30 built, serial numbers 44-22629/22658, further 50 (44-2659/22708) canceled.
Operators
- Royal Air ForceRoyal Air ForceThe Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...
received one aircraft, becoming RG362/G, in exchange for a Gloster Meteor IGloster MeteorThe Gloster Meteor was the first British jet fighter and the Allies' first operational jet. It first flew in 1943 and commenced operations on 27 July 1944 with 616 Squadron of the Royal Air Force...
EE210/G.
United States
- United States Army Air ForcesUnited States Army Air ForcesThe United States Army Air Forces was the military aviation arm of the United States of America during and immediately after World War II, and the direct predecessor of the United States Air Force....
- 412th Fighter Group
- 445th Fighter Squadron
- 412th Fighter Group
- United States NavyUnited States NavyThe United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
Survivors
Six P-59s are known to survive today.- YP-59A Airacomet, s/n 42-108777 is undergoing restoration to flying condition Planes of Fame Museum in Chino, CaliforniaChino, CaliforniaChino is a city in San Bernardino County, California, United States. It is located in the western end of the Riverside-San Bernardino Area and it is easily accessible via the Chino Valley and Pomona freeways....
. - XP-59A Airacomet, s/n 42-108784 is on display at the National Air and Space MuseumNational Air and Space MuseumThe National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution holds the largest collection of historic aircraft and spacecraft in the world. It was established in 1976. Located in Washington, D.C., United States, it is a center for research into the history and science of aviation and...
in Washington, DC. - P-59A Airacomet, s/n 44-22614 is on display at the March Field Air MuseumMarch Field Air MuseumThe March Field Air Museum is an aviation museum near Moreno Valley and Riverside, California, adjacent to March Air Reserve Base.-Origins:The museum was founded in 1979 as March Air Force Base Museum. Originally operated by the Air Force, the museum's operation was transferred to a nonprofit...
in Riverside, CaliforniaRiverside, CaliforniaRiverside is a city in Riverside County, California, United States, and the county seat of the eponymous county. Named for its location beside the Santa Ana River, it is the largest city in the Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario metropolitan area of Southern California, 4th largest inland California...
. - P-59B Airacomet, s/n 44-22633 is on display at Edwards AFB.
- P-59B Airacomet, s/n 44-22656 is on display at the Pioneer Village (Nebraska)Pioneer Village (Nebraska)Pioneer Village is a museum and tourist attraction along U.S. Highway 6 in Minden, Nebraska. Pioneer Village was founded in 1953 by Harold Warp, a Chicago manufacturer from Minden. The museum, a complex of 28 buildings on with a total collection of over 50,000 items...
in Minden, NebraskaMinden, NebraskaMinden is a city in Kearney County, Nebraska, United States. The population was 2,964 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Kearney County...
. - P-59B Airacomet, s/n 44-22650 is on display at the National Museum of the United States Air ForceNational Museum of the United States Air ForceThe National Museum of the United States Air Force is the official museum of the United States Air Force located at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base northeast of Dayton, Ohio. The NMUSAF is the world's largest and oldest military aviation museum with more than 360 aircraft and missiles on display...
at Wright-Patterson Air Force BaseWright-Patterson Air Force BaseWright-Patterson Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base in Greene and Montgomery counties in the state of Ohio. It includes both Wright and Patterson Fields, which were originally Wilbur Wright Field and Fairfield Aviation General Supply Depot. Patterson Field is located approximately...
near Dayton, OhioDayton, OhioDayton is the 6th largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Montgomery County, the fifth most populous county in the state. The population was 141,527 at the 2010 census. The Dayton Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 841,502 in the 2010 census...
.
Specifications (P-59B)
See also
External links
- 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
- 1st flight video
- "How The First U.S. Jet Was Born" Popular Science, October 1962, illustrated article on the secret project behind the Bell XP-59 project