{"id":11490368,"date":"2026-08-12T10:48:21","date_gmt":"2026-08-12T08:48:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/bell-p-59-airacomet-first-jet\/"},"modified":"2026-08-12T11:08:57","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T09:08:57","slug":"bell-p-59-airacomet-first-jet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/it\/bell-p-59-airacomet-first-jet\/","title":{"rendered":"Airacomet: America&#8217;s First Jet Fighter"},"content":{"rendered":"<style>.et_pb_title_container h1.entry-title { padding-top: 40px !important; }<\/style><p>In the autumn of 1942, the strangest fighter in America sat on a dry lakebed in the Mojave wearing a lie. Whenever the aircraft was parked in the open, ground crews bolted a dummy wooden propeller to its nose, because the machine hidden beneath the disguise had no propeller at all. It was a jet, and the United States was not ready to admit it existed.<\/p><p>The story began the year before, when Major General Henry Hap Arnold watched a British jet demonstration and came home with the plans for Frank Whittle's revolutionary engine. Arnold handed the powerplant to General Electric and the airframe to Lawrence Bell, and gave the project a deliberately misleading designation to suggest it was just another piston prototype.<\/p>\r\n<div style=\"background:#f5f5f5;padding:20px 24px;margin:24px 0;border-radius:8px\"><p style=\"margin:0 0 10px;font-weight:700;font-size:15px;letter-spacing:.04em;color:#5C91FF\">INFORMAZIONI RAPIDE<\/p><table style=\"width:100%;border-collapse:collapse;font-size:15px\"><tr><td style=\"padding:6px 14px 6px 0;font-weight:600;color:#333;vertical-align:top;white-space:nowrap\">Tipo<\/td><td style=\"padding:6px 0;color:#444\">Single-seat twin-jet fighter (became trainer)<\/td><\/tr><tr><td style=\"padding:6px 14px 6px 0;font-weight:600;color:#333;vertical-align:top;white-space:nowrap\">Primo volo<\/td><td style=\"padding:6px 0;color:#444\">1 October 1942<\/td><\/tr><tr><td style=\"padding:6px 14px 6px 0;font-weight:600;color:#333;vertical-align:top;white-space:nowrap\">centrale elettrica<\/td><td style=\"padding:6px 0;color:#444\">2 x General Electric J31 turbojets<\/td><\/tr><tr><td style=\"padding:6px 14px 6px 0;font-weight:600;color:#333;vertical-align:top;white-space:nowrap\">Velocit\u00e0 massima<\/td><td style=\"padding:6px 0;color:#444\">413 mph (665 km\/h)<\/td><\/tr><tr><td style=\"padding:6px 14px 6px 0;font-weight:600;color:#333;vertical-align:top;white-space:nowrap\">Numero costruito<\/td><td style=\"padding:6px 0;color:#444\">66 (incl. 50 production)<\/td><\/tr><tr><td style=\"padding:6px 14px 6px 0;font-weight:600;color:#333;vertical-align:top;white-space:nowrap\">Service ceiling<\/td><td style=\"padding:6px 0;color:#444\">46,200 ft<\/td><\/tr><tr><td style=\"padding:6px 14px 6px 0;font-weight:600;color:#333;vertical-align:top;white-space:nowrap\">Destino<\/td><td style=\"padding:6px 0;color:#444\">Never saw combat; six survive in museums<\/td><\/tr><\/table><\/div>\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">Born From a British Secret<\/h2><p>The P-59 that emerged was a clean, twin-engined design with two General Electric J31 turbojets tucked under the wing roots. On 1 October 1942, Bell test pilot Bob Stanley eased the XP-59A off the lakebed during high-speed taxi runs, and the following day made the first official flight. America had entered the jet age.<\/p>\r\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/0lwHMLG9moU\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0;border-radius:8px\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\r\n<p>The trouble was that the jet age did not feel very fast. Reaching only 413 mph, the Airacomet was no quicker than the best propeller fighters of the day, and it tended to snake through the sky at speed, making it a poor gun platform. When the Army Air Forces flew it against the P-38 Lightning and P-47 Thunderbolt in mock combat, the old piston fighters won.<\/p>\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px;width:100%\"><img data-opt-id=661895296  fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/ml5psubhxdln.i.optimole.com\/cb:nbOm.cc40\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/ig:avif\/https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/08\/bell-p-59-airacomet-first-jet-1.jpg\" alt=\"Bell XP-59A with a dummy wooden propeller fitted\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;max-width:100%;display:block;border-radius:6px\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\">On the ground, a dummy wooden propeller disguised America\u2019s first jet as an ordinary piston aircraft. Photo: U.S. Army Air Forces<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">A Trainer, Not a Warrior<\/h2><p>The verdict was blunt. An order for 100 fighters was halved, and the 50 that were built were handed to the 412th Fighter Group to teach pilots how to handle jets. The Navy tried two of them and found them hopeless for carrier work; the RAF took one in a swap for a Gloster Meteor and was distinctly underwhelmed.<\/p>\r\n<div style=\"background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:20px 22px;margin:18px 0 24px;border-radius:0 8px 8px 0;font-size:16px;line-height:1.7;display:flex;gap:20px;align-items:flex-start\"><div><em>&ldquo;The Bell P-59 Airacomet would indeed usher in a new era of American aviation.&rdquo;<\/em><div style=\"margin-top:10px;font-size:14px;color:#555\"><strong>Notizie sull&#039;aviazione d&#039;epoca<\/strong> &mdash; aviation-history publication<\/div><\/div><\/div>\r\n<p>Yet the Airacomet did exactly what history needed it to do. It never destroyed an enemy aircraft, but it gave America its first cadre of jet-trained pilots and mechanics, clearing the runway for the Lockheed P-80 that would follow it into real service.<\/p>\r\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/atGPYkaE1Po\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0;border-radius:8px\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\r\n<p>The P-59 is remembered not for what it shot down, but for being first. Sometimes the pioneer's job is simply to prove the road can be travelled at all.<\/p>\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px;width:100%\"><img data-opt-id=1427483727  fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/ml5psubhxdln.i.optimole.com\/cb:nbOm.cc40\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/ig:avif\/https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/08\/bell-p-59-airacomet-first-jet-2.jpg\" alt=\"Preserved Bell P-59 Airacomet\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;max-width:100%;display:block;border-radius:6px\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\">A preserved P-59 Airacomet. Sixty-six were built; none ever saw combat. Photo: U.S. Air Force<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid #1565c0;padding:20px 22px;margin:18px 0 24px;border-radius:0 8px 8px 0;font-size:16px;line-height:1.7;display:flex;gap:20px;align-items:flex-start\"><div><em>&ldquo;It compared very unfavorably with the jets they were already flying.&rdquo;<\/em><div style=\"margin-top:10px;font-size:14px;color:#555\"><strong>Royal Air Force evaluation, 1943<\/strong> &mdash; British pilots on the exchanged YP-59A (via Wikipedia)<\/div><\/div><\/div>\r\n<p>Dark Skies tells the fuller story of the aircraft that quietly opened America\u2019s jet age:<\/p>\r\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/E0FAPX99miE\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0;border-radius:8px\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\r\n<p><em>Sources: Wikipedia; National Air and Space Museum; Vintage Aviation News; U.S. Air Force.<\/em><\/p>\r\n<div style=\"background:#f0f4ff;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:16px 20px;margin:32px 0 8px;border-radius:0 8px 8px 0\"><p style=\"margin:0 0 8px;font-weight:600;color:#333\">Post correlati<\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/de-havilland-vampire-wooden-jet-of-firsts\/\">Vampire: il jet di legno britannico dei primati<\/a><\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/gloster-javelin-raf-first-delta-interceptor\/\">Flat Iron: il primo intercettore Delta della RAF<\/a><\/p><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the autumn of 1942, the strangest fighter in America sat on a dry lakebed in the Mojave wearing a lie. Whenever the aircraft was parked in the open, ground crews bolted a dummy wooden propeller to its nose, because the machine hidden beneath the disguise had no propeller at all. It was a jet, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":11490393,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"editor_notices":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[666,664],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11490368","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-history-and-legends","category-military-aviation"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>P-59 Airacomet: America&#039;s First Jet Fighter<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The P-59 Airacomet was America&#039;s first jet fighter, yet this underpowered twin-jet never fired a shot in anger and ended its days as a trainer.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/bell-p-59-airacomet-first-jet\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"it_IT\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"P-59 Airacomet: America&#039;s First Jet Fighter\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The P-59 Airacomet was America&#039;s first jet fighter, yet this underpowered twin-jet never fired a shot in anger and ended its days as a trainer.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/bell-p-59-airacomet-first-jet\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Afterburner - 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