The Bell XP-52 and subsequent XP-59 were World War II

fighter aircraft Fighter aircraft are fixed-wing military aircraft designed primarily for air-to-air combat. In military conflict, the role of fighter aircraft is to establish air superiority of the battlespace. Domination of the airspace above a battlefield ...

design projects by the American

Bell Aircraft Corporation The Bell Aircraft Corporation was an American aircraft manufacturer, a builder of several types of fighter aircraft for World War II but most famous for the Bell X-1, the first supersonic aircraft, and for the development and production of man ...

. Both projects featured a

twin-boom A twin-boom aircraft is characterised by two longitudinal booms (extended nacelle-like bodies). The booms may contain ancillary items such as fuel tanks and/or provide a supporting structure for other items. Typically, twin tailbooms support ...

layout with a rear-mounted engine driving pusher

contra-rotating propellers Aircraft equipped with contra-rotating propellers, also referred to as CRP, coaxial contra-rotating propellers, or high-speed propellers, apply the maximum power of usually a single piston or turboprop engine to drive a pair of coaxial propell ...

. When the XP-59 project was canceled the designation XP-59A was used as a cover for a secret jet fighter prototype, which would enter production as the

P-59 Airacomet The Bell P-59 Airacomet was a single-seat, twin jet-engine fighter aircraft that was designed and built by Bell Aircraft during World War II, the first produced in the United States. As the British were further along in jet engine develop ...

XP-52

The XP-52 design was begun by the Bell Company in 1940, separate from the R-40C competition, under the Air Material Command designator MX-3. The short

fuselage The fuselage (; from the French ''fuselé'' "spindle-shaped") is an aircraft's main body section. It holds crew, passengers, or cargo. In single-engine aircraft, it will usually contain an engine as well, although in some amphibious aircraft t ...

carried a

piston engine A reciprocating engine, also often known as a piston engine, is typically a heat engine that uses one or more reciprocating pistons to convert high temperature and high pressure into a rotating motion. This article describes the common featu ...

in the rear, driving a pair of contra-rotating

propeller A propeller (colloquially often called a screw if on a ship or an airscrew if on an aircraft) is a device with a rotating hub and radiating blades that are set at a pitch to form a helical spiral which, when rotated, exerts linear thrust upon ...

s in a

pusher configuration In an aircraft with a pusher configuration (as opposed to a tractor configuration), the propeller(s) are mounted behind their respective engine(s). Since a pusher propeller is mounted behind the engine, the drive shaft is in compression in nor ...

. The wings were swept back at an angle of 20 degrees, with a

horizontal stabilizer A tailplane, also known as a horizontal stabiliser, is a small lifting surface located on the tail (empennage) behind the main lifting surfaces of a fixed-wing aircraft as well as other non-fixed-wing aircraft such as helicopters and gyroplan ...

mounted behind the propeller on twin booms running back from the wings. The fuselage was unusually streamlined, being round and barrel-shaped, with the forward-located pilot's cockpit fully faired-in to its lines and the nose ending in a round air intake which was ducted back internally to the engine.Jones, L.; ''US Fighters'', Aero, 1975. The undercarriage was a tricycle arrangement, with the main wheels retracting into the tailbooms. Propulsion was to be provided by the experimental Continental XIV-1430-3 inverted V-12 engine.Jenkins, Dennis R. and Tony R. Landis. Experimental & Prototype U.S. Air Force Jet Fighters. North Branch, Minnesota, USA: Specialty Press, 2008. . The XP-52 was canceled in October 1940 because the XIV-1430 engine ran into technical difficulties. Bell submitted a similar design to the US Navy as the Model 19, but this too was never built.Buttler, Tony, and Griffith, Alan, 2015. American Secret Projects: Fighters, Bombers, and Attack Aircraft, 1937–1945. Manchester: Crecy Publishing. .

XP-59

Although generally similar in layout to the XP-52, the XP-59 was slightly larger and heavier, and was to be powered by a Pratt and Whitney R-2800-23 engine of . Two prototypes were ordered in February 1941. On 3 October 1941 the contract for Bell's first jet fighter was signed. The prototype was designated the XP-59A and it would enter production as the

. The original XP-59 was canceled on November 25, 1941 because Bell itself was pre-occupied with development of the Bell P-63 Kingcobra.

References

External links

Bell XP-52
{{USAF fighters P-052 Cancelled military aircraft projects of the United States Twin-boom aircraft Single-engined pusher aircraft Aircraft with contra-rotating propellers

XP-52

XP-59

See also

References

External links