#p-59

U.S. Army Air Forces Bell P-59 Airacomet at the Naval Air Test Center Patuxent River, Maryland on 26 January 1944

Norfolk Public Library: smc_mss0000187_f000080_001

Flight testing of the Bell P-59A Airacomet.

A pair of YP-59As in flight

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In 1942, Bell Aircrafts secretly built America's first jet, the P-59 Airacomet. Up until this point, a propeller was as important to a plane as tires were to a car. To keep this new project top secret, the P-59 was fitted with a fake propeller that it wore everywhere but in the air. One of the test pilots for the P-59 was a man named Jack Woolams. Jack didn't care one bit about this secrecy and made a hobby out of flying his jet as close to other planes as possible. To make these sighting even more special, he would dress up for the occasion. When men would go to the Air Force psychologist saying that they had seen a “loud, fast propellerless plane piloted by a gorilla in a derby hat, waving a stogie!” the psychologists would tell them, “That is impossible! How can a plane fly without a propeller?”

Bell P-59 Airacomet. America's first jet made its maiden flight in 1942. Pictured with P-39 (top) and P-63 (mid) escorts

Designed and built in great secrecy during World War II, the P-59 was America's first jet aircraft, the Airacomet never saw combat. Bell built 50 P-59A and P-59B production aircraft, some of which were flown by the 412th Fighter Group, the U.S.’s first jet fighter unit. The P-59B on display was obtained from Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M., in February 1956.