The Airacomet was the first American-designed and built turbojet fighter. It first flew in prototype form on 1 October 1942. One later aircraft was subsequently exchanged for a British Gloster Meteor I fighter so that comparisons could be made between the types. Indeed the Airacomet's engines were developed from the British Whittle.

The Bell Aircraft Corporation was requested in September 1941 to design a fighter to be equipped with thermal jet propulsion units of British Whittle design, and before the end of the month preliminary drawings had been submitted to and approved by the USAAF. To maintain secrecy, this project was given the designation XP-59A - the XP-59 being a totally different fighter project with a pusher radial engine and twin tail-booms. Following trials with the prototype and two other XP-59A (with General Electric Type I-A engines) 13 YP-59A were produced for service trials, deliveries beginning in 1943. Twenty production P-59A with 8.9kN General Electric J31-GE-3 engines and 30 P-59B with similarly rated J31-GE-5 engines were delivered in 1944 and were used mainly as single-seat trainers.

3-View

A three-view drawing (1655 x 1223)