Bell P-59 Airacomet

The Bell P -59 Airacomet was the first U.S. jet aircraft.

History

After the construction drawings of Whittle turbine reached the USA, General Electric was contracted to build the engine; Bell applied for the construction of the cell. The whole was under the utmost secrecy - the prototype was even provided with a dummy propeller made of balsa wood, as long as he was on the ground; so casual observers should be led astray. Even the term "P- 59" constituted a part of the secrecy efforts - was originally the "XP -59 " a piston fighter project.

However, this secrecy had the disadvantage that could be resorted to only on limited resources; so you could not use the wind tunnel of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics ( NACA ), for example. The performance of the pattern ranged then not come close to those of the competition pattern of Germany and the United Kingdom also by far. The U.S. Army ordered only 100 copies, but there were only 20 P - 59A and P- 59B 30 built; with the P -80 Lockheed was already a much better aircraft available.

The first flight of the XP - 59A was powered by two General Electric Type 1A jet engines, was held in Muroc Dry Lake on October 1, 1942. Here are two more machines of the same type. Deliveries of production aircraft began in the fall of 1944.

1942 the aircraft by the crew of a Lockheed P-38 was observed in flight; as they reported after returning from an " airplane without a propeller ," nobody believed the story.

2006 was presented to the public a P -59 in the U.S. after ten years of restoration.

Specifications

Frank Whittle Bell Helicopter Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star Lockheed Corporation Integrated Authority File United States Army Air Service United States Army Air Corps Curtiss P-1 Hawk Curtiss P-6 Hawk Boeing P-12 Seversky P-35 Lockheed XP-49 Vultee XP-54 Curtiss-Wright XP-55 Ascender Northrop XP-56 Black Bullet Curtiss P-60 Northrop P-61 Black Widow Bell P-63 Kingcobra Vultee P-66 Vanguard McDonnell XP-67 Douglas A-20 Havoc Fisher P-75 Eagle Bell XP-77 Northrop XP-79 North American F-82 Twin Mustang Bell XP-83 Bell 30 Bell 47 Bell 205 Bell 214 Bell 214ST Bell 222 Bell 407 Bell 427 Bell 429 Bell 430 Bell 505 Jet Ranger X Bell 525 Relentless Bell OH-58 Kiowa Tiltrotor Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey Bell-Boeing Quad TiltRotor Bell V-280 Valor Bell YFM-1 Airacuda Experimental aircraft Bell X-1 Bell X-2 Bell X-5 Bell X-9 Shrike Bell X-14 Bell X-16 Bell X-22 Bell XV-3 Bell XV-15

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