Bell XP-59 (Model 20)

History of Bell XP-59 (Model 20)

Bell offered his XP-52 design as a contender for the need for a new United States Army Air Corps (USAAC) fighter jet that emerged in the late 1930s. Bell already gained a reputation in aviation for more forward-looking designs, such as the YFM-1 "Airacuda" fighter-bomber and the P-39 "Airacobra". The 1940 Airacuda was a very ambitious attack platform designed to directly engage enemy bombers, but only 13 were eventually built and the production line was discontinued as early as 1942.

On the other hand, the P-39 was more successful during World War II (1939-1945), when more than 9,500 units were produced, and was particularly successful with the Soviet Union through Lend-Lease.

With that in mind, the XP-52 is another of the company's longstanding unique wartime entries. It used a dual-arm configuration not unlike the Lockheed P-38 Lightning heavy fighter, and likewise housed its pilot in a central fuselage nacelle. The engine was placed at the rear of this nacelle, driving a pair of propeller units in counter-rotation in a "thrust" configuration. The engine will be sucked in through the air intake in the nose.

The wing main aircraft is slightly swept back, located aft of the fuselage nacelles, and from their trailing edges extend tail booms - each surrounded by a vertical tail and connected by a common horizontal plane. Like other Bell aircraft products, the design will feature a tricycle landing gear.

Power shall come from a Continental XIV-1430-3 V-12 inverted liquid-cooled piston engine. The same engine was chosen for the experimental prototypes Curtiss XP-55, Lockheed XP-49 and McDonnell XP-67 (detailed elsewhere on this site), but eventually ran into problems as it exceeded expectations.

Twenty-three have just been produced.

The XP-52 never materialized outside of some preliminary work, and production was officially discontinued on 25 November 1941 (the U.S. entered WWII only a month later). Instead, it was decided to use an enlarged version of the same aircraft as the "XP-59", with a dual-arm configuration and a propulsion propeller setup.

Power will come from a 2,000-horsepower Pratt & Whitney R-2800-23 engine.

In the end, even this Bell product did not progress beyond the previous work (a wind tunnel model was completed, providing the approximate shape of the aircraft). Attention now turned to the jet fighter, which Bell was chosen to design and build. GE has contracted to manufacture a local copy of the British Whittle turbojet for the new design, now serving the United States Army Air Force (USAAF).

The aircraft received the same designation "XP-59" (effectively canceling the original XP-59 Bell Initiative) and became the in-service P-59 "Aircomet" - America's first jet fighter.

The performance figures on this page are estimates by the author based on similar designs at the time.

Specification

Basic

Production

Roles

Dimensions

Weight

Performance

Performance

Armor

Changes