Pacific Jet Painting - US Navy P-59?

Kind of surreal, but a stunning image. The artist is Alexander Leydenfrost, a fine illustrator and industrial designer.
 
The U.S. Navy evaluated Bell P-59s and used them for jet pilot training and transition aircraft. This beautiful illustration closely resembles a P-59. -SP
 
Hi,

of course it was Bell P-59.
 

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The P-59 Airacomet was only as fast as the Thunderbolt and Mustang, so if the Japanese had deployed the Karyu, Shusui, Kikka, and jet-powered variant of the Shinden, and the USAAF had used the Airacomet in the Pacific theater, the P-59 would probably have been outpaced by the Ki-201, J8M, Kikka, and J7W2 because those aircraft were faster than the Airacomet.
 
What was the real hold up for the Airacomet? What would it have taken to have made it a world beater? More powerful engines? Different airfoil for the wing - i.e. what Bell selected was too drag inducing? Different air intakes to make them less drag inducing? What was it about the P-59 that kept it back in comparison to the P-80 and the Gloster Meteor or the Me-262?
 
It was nothing more than a test aircraft, unsuited aerodynamics for transonic speed and powerplant still in its infancy. Once knowledge adquired, it was obvious to develop better designs.

So, no chance for whatiffery because, while waiting for the P-80, the P-51 was the choice.
 
History of the development of the P-59 here, including problems encountered by the USN. By Oct 1943 it was clear it wasn’t worth pursuing performance wise so production contract cut from 100 to 50 aircraft delivered through to mid 1945 for training and trials.

By that time Lockheed had been invited to design a jet fighter with much better performance. The Lockheed XP-80 flew in Jan 1944. Production P-80A rolled off the production line from Feb 1945 and were expected to be operational in time for Operation Olympic, the invasion of Kyushu in Nov 1945.
 
Knowing the poor results obtained by the Curtiss XP-55 during flying tests the USAAF decided not to accept any other canard design and the L-133 configuration was dropped in favour of the L-140 project, with conventional airframe and the laminar-flow wings of the L-133, under the designation XP-80.

The only turbojet available at the time was the British Halford H.1B, with 2,460 lbs static thrust. The large diameter of their centrifugal compressor made it necessary to install it inside the fuselage.

In the original XP-80 design, published in Flying Magazine-August 1945, the aircraft was fitted with one circular nose intake, but after criticism received by the nose air intake of the L-133, the designers also decided to use lateral air intakes, with the armament installed in the nose.

On 17 June 1943 the USAAF signed a contract for the XP-80 prototype.

The mock-up was ready by 20 July and the prototype s/n 44-83020 was flown on 8 January 1944.

The aircraft was painted in non-reflective Dark Green/Light Gull Grey scheme and nicknamed Lulu-Belle.

During flying tests the XP-80 attained 502 mph top speed, but was found to have bad stalling characteristics.

On 10 February 1944, the USAAF signed a new contract for two L-141 prototypes, under the designation XP-80A, a larger and faster version powered by one General Electric I-40 centrifugal turbojet with 3,700 lbs static thrust.

The first plane (44-83021) nicknamed Gray Ghost was flown on 10 June 1944 reaching 550 mph top speed and 3,550 ft/minute rate of climb.

During the flying tests the prototype suffered snaking instability and compressibility problems at 0.8 Mach.

On July 1944, the appearance in combat of the German swept-wing fighters Messerschmitt Me 163 and Me 262 taking the Allies by surprise.

The Me 262 A-1a jet fighter surpassed by 146 mph the top speed of the North American P-51C-10-NT and by 812 ft/min his climb rate.

The Me 163 B-1 rocket fighter surpassed by 201 mph the top speed of the Mustang and quintuple his climb rate.

In addition, both German fighters were armed with 30 mm heavy cannons and 55 mm air-to-air rockets.

The second XP-80A (44-83022) nicknamed Silver Ghost, was flown on 1 August 1944.

Late in 1944 Lulu-Belle and Gray Ghost were tested in mock combat against the P-38, P-47 and P-51 fighters. The jets performance was significantly better than all existing piston-engine fighters, the USAAF was sufficiently impressed and issued a contract for thirteen YP-80A pre-production service test airplanes and a first production batch of 500 P-80A operational fighters, powered by one General Electric J33-GE-9 centrifugal turbojet with 3,850 lbs static thrust.

In September 1944, during the ‘Operation Extraversion’, the first YP-80As available were used for developing combat tactics against the Me 262.

On December 1944 two YP-80A pre-production planes (44-83028 and 44-83029) were shipped to the 1st F.G. based at Lesina-Italy, where they flew a small number of operational sorties (possibly attempting to intercept the Arado Ar 234 B-2 reconnaissance jet planes of the Kommando Sommer operating from Udine and Lonate airfields in the northeast Italy) but none took combat.

Two others YP-80A (44-83025 and 44-83026) were shipped to Britain for operational evaluation against the V-1 flying bombs, but both were destroyed in accidents.

The P-80s suffered a high rate of attrition, with seven aircraft destroyed, six damaged and six pilots killed. The Gray Ghost crashed on 20 March 1945 and the USAAF grounded all the airplanes for evaluation on 7 August.

Lockheed XP-80 (Model L-140) technical data

Power plant: one Halford H.1B centrifugal turbojet with 2,460 lbs (1,114 kgf) static thrust, wingspan: 37 ft (11.29 m), length: 32.8 ft (10 m), height: 10.17 ft (3.10 m), wing area: 240 sq. ft (21.6 sq. m), maximum speed: 502 mph (808 kph), maximum weight: 8,859 lbs (4,019 kg), climb rate: 3,000 ft/min (915 m/min), service ceiling: 41,000 ft (12,497 m), armament: six 0.50 cal nose mounted M3 machine guns, with 200 rounds per gun.



Lockheed P-80A Shooting Star technical data

Power plant: one General Electric J33-GE-9 centrifugal turbojet with 3,850 lbs (1,774 kgf) static thrust, wingspan: 38.8 ft (11.83 m), length: 34.5 ft (10.52 m), height: 11.3 ft (3.44 m), wing area: 237.5 sq. ft (21.4 sq. m), maximum speed: 558 mph (898 kph), maximum weight: 11,700 lbs (5,300 kg), climb rate: 4,580 ft/min (1,396 m/min), service ceiling: 45,000 ft (13,720 m), armament: six 0.50 cal nose mounted M3 machine guns, with 300 rounds per gun.
 

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Hi all, I know I am late in joining this party, but better a bit late than never. if you need any information from a resident, I am from Lesina (FG) Italy, I did research and discuss with my elderly that survived the war ( back sometime ago ) on the two YP-80A pre-production planes (44-83028 and 44-83029).
Ciao
 

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