Today’s film concerns the US Army Air Forces first jet fighter prototype, the XP-59 Bell Airacomet. The film shows four prototypes under active evaluation, possibly at Muroc Army Airfield in California, now Edwards Air Force Base. The prototypes first flight was in October 1942. The XP-59 was frequently disguised on the tarmac by the ruse of attaching a fake propeller! The plane was under powered, floundering in head-to-head testing with contemporary Allied fighters, so no combat match ups with Axis fighters ever occurred. The prototype was never accepted for active service or full-production. It remained as a test bed and trainer for several years after the war. In total, 66 planes in 7 variants were produced. Six air frames survive today.
This reel, a film work print has not been digitized by the National Archives, so this look at the Airacomet prototype is not widely available. I digitized from the work print using a camera pointed to the flatbed film viewer in the National Archives Research Room. The only detailed description of this film is also only available in the Research Room. Content like this is accessible only by the efforts of professional media researchers such as myself. Hire a professional researcher for your next project, publication, or production!
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