The First American Jet (1942)

[Nickdfresh]

Jack Northrop's XP-79B Jet Fighter
Jack Northrop's XP-79B jet fighter looked unusual, but its method of attack was even more bizarre.

By Jon Guttman

In the late stages of World War II, American bomber formations over Germany were occasionally attacked by a small, rocket-powered interceptor, the Messerschmitt Me-163 Komet. Fast as the Me-163s were, however, they were usually more spectacular than effective. Nevertheless, American aircrews must have marveled at the technology behind such an advanced-looking weapon--unaware that since 1942, something similar had been secretly under development in their own country.

The fighter that eventually became the Northrop XP-79B had an astonishing parallel development to the Me-163. It began in 1942 as a rocket-powered flying wing, but, in contrast to the Me-163, the American design was later adapted for jet power. Another difference between the XP-79B and its distant German cousin lay in their methods of attack. The Me-163 was meant to defend a faltering Third Reich with wing-mounted 30mm cannons or unguided rockets. The XP-79B's main means of downing its adversaries is best expressed in its nickname--Flying Ram.

John K. ("Jack") Northrop designed numerous advanced aircraft of conventional configuration, but he was fascinated by the flying-wing concept. He believed that such a pure airfoil surface would have the most efficient lifting capabilities. Also, the absence of a fuselage and tail unit would mean less drag to affect overall performance--as well as lower production costs. Shortly after designing Lockheed's famed Vega series of monoplanes, Northrop formed a small company of his own, the Avion Corporation in Burbank, Calif. His first Flying Wing made a successful maiden flight from Burbank Airport in 1929. It was originally powered by a single tractor-mounted engine, and tail surfaces mounted on twin booms aft of the wing increased controllability. Northrop's creation was modified to pusher-engine configuration before undergoing further flight testing at Muroc Dry Lake, Calif. Avion was renamed the Northrop Aircraft Corporation that same year and became part of United Aircraft and Transport Corporation, an early superconglomerate that also included Boeing.

The Rest Here

[Nickdfresh]

"...The MX-334 took to the air in October 1943 for some unpowered testing while the Aerojet Corporation completed its XCAL-200 rocket engine, which was to be powered by monoethyaniline fuel, oxidized by red fuming nitric acid. The MX-334 made its first flight with the new engine on June 23, 1944, and fulfilled Northrop's promise to the USAAF. Although capable of only 3.5 minutes of powered flight, it was the first American rocket-powered aircraft to fly.

Despite the effort put into the secret project, the USAAF ultimately concluded that the rocket-powered MX-334 was a dead end. Much research data had been culled from it, however, and Northrop had a spinoff of Project 12 in the offing that the USAAF regarded as being militarily far more feasible--the XP-79.

Essentially, the XP-79 was an interceptor that would bring down its opponents by ramming them in flight. During the early months of the German invasion of Russia in 1941 and 1942, Russian fighter pilots had frequently resorted to various taran, or midair ramming techniques. There was no real need for American fighter pilots to resort to such tactics, however, and the USAAF officer who came up with the idea for the ram fighter may be grateful that his identity is lost to history. In any case, in January 1943, Northrop was awarded a contract to build three XP-79 Flying Ram prototypes, each of which was to be powered by an Aerojet rocket engine with 2,000 pounds of thrust.

A plague of developmental problems with the proposed Aerojet engine, and the unlikelihood of its being able to keep the plane airborne for more than 30 minutes, led the USAAF to cancel its order for the rockets and for two of the XP-79s that were to be powered by them. The Army did, however, consent to completion of the third prototype, which used two Westinghouse 19B axial-flow jet engines with 1,345 pounds of thrust each. The jet-engine revision, designated the XP-79B, weighed 5,840 pounds empty and 8,669 pounds with a full operational load.

Like its rocket-powered precursor, the jet-powered XP-79B was essentially a wing, with the pilot lying on his stomach between the two jet engines. His head protruded into an acrylic-plastic windshield fitted with an armor glass section. An overhead hatch gave him entry to and, if necessary, a hasty exit from the cabin.

As radical as the XP-79's all-wing configuration looked, its structure was equally unusual. The airframe was made of heavy-gauge magnesium. The leading-edge skin was three-fourths of an inch thick; reinforcing steel armor plate of one-fourth-inch thickness was heliarc-welded at a 45-degree angle just inside the wing's leading edge. The wingspan was 38 feet, with a wing area of 278 square feet. Overall, the XP-79 was 14 feet long and 7 feet high.

Upon receiving reports of approaching enemy bombers, the XP-79B was intended to take off with the aid of JATO (jet-assisted takeoff) packs at an estimated rate of 25,000 feet in 4.7 minutes. Reaching an altitude of 40,000 feet, the Flying Ram would then dive into the formation of enemy aircraft at an estimated speed of up to 547 mph and clip their wing or tail surfaces with its own reinforced wings. Even among the USAAF brass, someone must have recognized the absurdity of that idea, because the XP-79B order also stipulated that the fighter should accommodate four .50-caliber Browning machine guns outboard of the jet engines. Neither the guns nor the cockpit pressurization system (allowing the pilot to function at 40,000 feet) were destined to be installed in the plane.

Painted white overall, and given the serial number 43-32437, the prototype XP-79B was covered with canvas and trucked to the Muroc Dry Lake testing facility. Its first taxiing tests were conducted in June 1945--during which its tires burst on several occasions.

Finally, on September 12, 1945, Harry Crosby prepared to take the XP-79B up for its maiden flight--and almost ran into disaster before he got off the ground. As the plane accelerated down the runway, an Army firetruck pulled out directly in its path. Crosby chopped the throttle but then applied power again as the truck got out of his way.

Taking off without further incident, Crosby climbed to 10,000 feet. During the next 15 minutes, he flew back and forth over the field, testing the exotic plane's ability to turn. Things suddenly went wrong during one such turn, and degenerated into a nose-down spin. After a brave but futile effort, Crosby finally judged it impossible to regain control of the plane. Jettisoning the escape hatch, he tried to leap clear--only to be struck by the wildly gyrating wing. Crosby fell to his death, his parachute unopened. The XP-79B slammed into the desert floor and exploded in a white-hot flare of magnesium that consumed the entire plane.

Northrop's engineers determined that the control problem that had cost Harry Crosby his life could be corrected, but the USAAF decided to abandon the XP-79B project. World War II was over, the Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star was entering production, and other, more conventional jet designs were showing greater promise than the flying-ram concept.

The techniques involved in the production of the XP-79B would later help in the development and mass production of the ultimate realization of Jack Northrop's flying-wing dream--his giant B-35 and B-49 bombers. Judged on its own merits as a fighter, however, the Flying Ram was a preposterous idea from the outset--a waste of time, money and effort, as well as the life of one of America's finest test pilots."


This article was written by Jon Guttman and originally published in the January 1996 issue of "Aviation History."

[George Eller]

Hi George,

Thanks for that info, it was great. As for my claim that the P-80 was used in a mock dogfight with convential fighters, I was wrong. It was the Bell XP-59, not the P-80. Here's the info:

"The performance of these airplanes, which were representative of the projected production models, was disappointing. Overweight and underpowered, they achieved a top speed, for example, of only 409 mph which was no better than the best prop-driven fighters of the day. And, indeed, in operational suitability tests during which it was flown in mock combat against P-38s, P-47s, and P-51s, it was outclassed in virtually every category by the conventional fighters. Judged not suitable for combat, the 50 production model P-59A and -B aircraft that came off the Bell assembly line were used to train America's first cadre of jet pilots. Although the performance of the Airacomet proved to be disappointing, it nevertheless served as a useful test bed to explore the potential advantages of a radical new technology and it represented a start--the first of a long series of aircraft that would make Muroc (and later Edwards Air Force Base) synonymous with the turbojet revolution in America."
Source: http://www.edwards.af.mil/history/do...l_testing.html

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Thanks for the info ww2admin

I had a hunch it was the Bell XP-59 and not the P-80 when you mentioned the speed of the aircraft. It didn't sound like the P-80.

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Here is another early American jet from the WWII era - the U.S. Navy's first operational jet:



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[George Eller]

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Hi Nick,

Thanks for the interesting post on the Northrop XP-79B Jet Fighter.







It was still a cool looking plane even though the concept was flawed. Straight out of "Buck Rogers".



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[Nickdfresh]

Ahhhh, but there was American pre-War jet design that would have been far superior to anything that flew in WWII. I'm trying to track down info. on it. I think it never flew because the jet engine wasn't yet there, and the RD impetus wasn't yet a priority. But is was far more sophisticated than the XP-59...

[Nickdfresh]

I'm currently in the process of getting "Secret Allied Aircraft of WWII," for more info. We'll see how it goes...

[Nickdfresh]

Ha! Found it...It was the Lockheed L-133 Project.

From: http://tanks45.tripod.com/Jets45/His...-L133/L133.htm




Engine: 2x Lockheed L1000 J37 axial-flow turbojets

Wing Span: n/a

Length: n/a

Height: n/a

Weight: n/a

Maximum Speed: n/a

Ceiling: n/a

Range: n/a

Crew: 1

Armament: 4x 0.50'' machine guns

History:

The Lockheed company was the first in the USA to start work on a jet powered aircraft, the L-133 design started in 1939 as a number of "Paper Project" by engineers Clarence R "Kelly" Johnson and Hall J Hibbard. By 1940 preliminary work on a company financed jet fighter had been started, which progressed to several different versions on the drawing board. In the mean time Lockheed were working on a axial-flow turbojet of there own design L-1000, which was intended to power the culmination of the fighter project the Model L-133-02-01, this was a single seat, cannard design powered by two L-1000 engines.

The design was noticed by the USAAF, but at the time they showed no great interested in the idea of a jet powered fighter and missed the opportunity of giving the USA a lead in this new technology. With out the support (and money) of the USAAF work on the L-133 fighter and it's engine the L-1000 came to a halt.

How ever when the USAAF suddenly began to show interest in the idea of a jet powered combat aircraft in 1942, spurred on by intelligence reports of the advances in jet propulsion by the Germans and British, the USAAF would turn the Lockheed for it's fist jet powered fighter the Lockheed P-80 "Shooting Star"

[FW-190 Pilot]

did the US get the Nazi scientists to improve on their jets design?

[Nickdfresh]

Well, if the US, and the UK for that matter, had put forth the R&D, they may have come up with some superior designs to the fragmented German efforts into jet research. Jet powered aircraft were simply not a priority in the U.S. where it was difficult to fund conventional projects like the P-38 in the late 30's...

And quite frankly, the German designs were only superior to Allied Piston engined fighters, not their jets which lagged behind, but not by far...

[ww2admin]

Was searching National Archives and came upon this film title:

XP-59A--XFM-1 MULTI-SEATER FIGHTER, 1938

Is it possible it flew in 1938??????

Summary: Reel 1: 480'. Detailed views of XP-59A; scenes showing flight test and aerial views of plane in flight. 1) CS XP-59A being pulled out of hangar and standing on ramp. 2) CS air scoops, XP-59A, SV, nose section, exhaust. 3) PS and DS plane on rap. 4) CS mid-section, 3/4 right view, tail section, SV engine cowling being removed, engines, FV exhaust, cockpit. Pilot closes canopy. 5) INT cockpit showing instrument panel. 6) CS flames coming from exhaust. 7) PS plane moving down runway, taking off. 8) LS plane in air, maneuvering against clouds, diving, coming in for landing. 9) CS pilot and civilian personnel. 10) MS pilot entering cockpit, plane takes off, flies, ascends rapidly. 11) Good AV's of plane in flight and performing maneuvers. 12) Ground views of plane, CS RV, SV, flames shooting out ot exhaust. Reel 2: 414'. Ground views and aerial views of five-place fighter with two pusher type engines. Views of R.H. Woods, designer and Lt. W.W. Morgan. 1) CS & MCS XFM-1 showing cockpits in each nacelle. 2) MS pilot entering plane. 3) MS & CS of R.H. Woods, designer, and Lt. W.M. Morgan, pilot of plane. 4) PS plane taxiing in field, taking off, in flight. 5) AUS plane in flight, sideview. 6) CS three quarter side view. 7) CDS plane (good shot). 8) GS plane coming in for landing, passing camera.

[Dani]

Bell P-59 "Airacomet"
First prototype XP-59A flew on October 1, 1942. Top speed: 663 km/h at 9100 m.

http://www.nasm.si.edu/research/aero...aft/bellxp.htm

http://www.edwards.af.mil/history/do...l_testing.html


Bell YFM-1 "Airacuda"
First prototype XFM-1 flew on September 1, 1937. Top speed: 490 km/h.
http://us.geocities.com/da-peacemaker/bell.htm

So it must be XFM-1 prototype in 1938.

[ww2admin]

But that film reel summary says it's a jet and in 1938 it flew. What gives?

[Dani]

Bell YFM-1 "Airacuda"
First prototype XFM-1 flew on September 1, 1937.

So, in 1938 it must be XFM-1 prototype.

Edited: On the other hand, from personal geocities site cited:
Bell P-59 "Airacomet"
Fighter, 1941
Development:
P-59 was the first serious attempt to create a jet fighter in the United States. First prototype XP-59A flew on October 1, 1942. The experimental series YP-59A was built in 1944. A total of 66 P-59 were built.

[royal744]

the Bell XP-59A Airacomet never went into combat did it or was that the Northrop. i know that on June 5, 1948 the Northrop after being sent to the air force crashed killing its crew. did the Northrop ever make it to combat?

No. Neither one saw combat. The Airacomet was basically a "proof of concept" plane intended to shake down jet technology that had been transferred from the British to the Americans. The flying wing was ahead of its time - way ahead of its time - and quite dangerous and unstable. The British had the Gloster Meteor which was sent to mainland Europe before the end of the war and flew missions but which was never sent across the German frontier because the English didn't want their technology to fall into German hands. They were used to effect against V-1 pulse jets over England, however.

[royal744]

Don't forget the English Gloster Meteor which was considerably ahead in production to American jet fighters.