Sep 212008
The *other* XP-59, the project for a pusher-prop fighter that was cancelled in 1941, not the jet fighter. Most of these photos show a full-scale wooden mockup of the XP-59 as pitched as a US Navy fighter, along witha display model showing the plane in Navy colors.
Photos from Bell archive via Jay Miller.
3 Responses to “Navalized Bel XP-59”
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It aways looked like a workable concept to me, although engine cooling might have presented teething problems, and the pilot’s view astern is nothing to get excited about….just like on the jet powered one that actually got built.
Still, I’d hate to get in front of it, with all those guns pointing at me (six 20mm cannons and two .50 caliber machine guns it looks from the photo?)
Was it supposed to be equipped with a ejection seat?
Pusher aircraft always looked pretty neat to me, but somehow most of those concepts never got built and practically none actually >flew<, let alone saw combat. Always wondered about that…
The Swedish did get one into service with the Saab J-21: http://www.canit.se:8088/~griffon/aviation/text/21saab.htm
… and later successfully converted it into a jet version (its layout made it ideal for this conversion).
Looking at the P-59 models, I note that it has the big bugaboo of American aircraft design…the counter-rotating prop. The British and Soviets got this to work, but we had terrible luck with the concept, sort of hitting a apex with the one on the Douglas XA2D Skyshark coming clean off the aircraft in flight, much to the surprise of its pilot. 🙂