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Old October 20th 17, 09:39 PM posted to alt.binaries.pictures.aviation
john szalay
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Default Bell P-59 Airacomet

Savageduck wrote in
news.com:

On Oct 20, 2017, Miloch wrote
(in article ):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_P-59_Airacomet

The Bell P-59 Airacomet was a twin jet-engined fighter aircraft, the
first of the United States, designed and built by Bell Aircraft
during World War II.


Snip

Chuck Yeager flew the aircraft and was dissatisfied with its speed,
but was amazed at its smooth flying characteristics. Nevertheless,
even before delivery

of the YP-59As in June 1943, the USAAF ordered 80 production machines,
designated "P-59A Airacomet".

When did Chuck Yeager fly the YP-59A, P-59A, or P-59B?

He graduated from class 43C in March 1943, and was shipped overseas in
November 1943. He completed his European tour in February 1945. I
seriously doubt that he was at Muroc during the war time test period.
He might have had the opportunity to fly one after the war, but he
only became a test pilot after the transition from USAAF to USAF, and
graduation from the Air Materiel Command Flight Performance School
(class 46C) in 1947. Then he was part of the X-1 team.


By the end of 1945 Bob Hoover was a test pilot at Wright Field in
Dayton, Ohio. “Flying experimental aircraft is addictive,” he learned.
“Once it gets in the blood, there’s no way to describe the rush of
excitement that keeps a pilot going up day after day.”

Flying a P-38, he met another hotshot in a new Bell P-59 jet: Captain
Chuck Yeager. They “fought” to a draw. Hoover claimed, “Yeager was the
only person I had ever encountered that I couldn’t get in my gunsights.”