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The Jet Fighter That Might Have Been

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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, probably at Muroc Army Airfield in California, now Edwards Air Force Base. The prototype’s 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.

18-CS-7316 shotcardDownload

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!

Crawling From the Wreckage!

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Today’s reel offers a rare sound-on-film interview of a pilot that crawled from the wreckage of a captured Japanese aircraft. The pilot, Lt. Bernard D. Dyrlands, was apparently ferrying a captured Japanese Army “Nate” fighter for analysis by Technical Air Intelligence personnel. The plane developed fuel system problems and had to land immediately. He crashed upside down near an Army Air Forces (USAAF) airfield in Burma and emerged without a scratch! The second half of the film shows the crash site. The plane has seen better days!

The AAF cataloguers described the film as follows:

Clearly, the AAF cataloguers, probably working after the war, without access to the photographers “dope sheets” totally missed the context. Almost certainly, they never listened to the recorded audio!

18-CS-250ADownload

Don’t depend on an intern to fully identify archival media content. A professional media researcher adds impact to your production or presentation!

America’s First Production Jet Fighter

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Meet the Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star, America’s first production jet fighter! The plane was designed and built in 143 days in 1943 and entered regular service in February 1945. Powered by a single British built Halford power plant, the plane could reach 503mph in level flight.

The US Army Air Forces chose to keep the fighter under wraps. It never combat in the second World War It saw limited service patrolling in Italy after that country surrendered. The aircraft was used extensively in Korea, where it was overmatched by the Soviet Mig-15. Later in the conflict it was supplanted by North American F-86 Sabre, a design with swept wings that offered superior performance.

This film was shot by the USAAF in 1944, depicting the pre-production YP-80A model. The reel is not available digitally at the National Archives (NARA) and was only minimally described in NARA’S On-line Catalog. Footage like this is discoverable only by on-site researchers with enough experience to plumb the legacy finding aids. Add impact to your next production! Hire a professional archival media researcher!

Moving Image from D-Day Found

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This World War II US Navy footage found at the National Archives and Records Administration shows combat footage from a minesweeping operation off of New Guinea. Unremarked for decades, a short segment of film at the end of this reel is unrelated footage from a camera affixed to a landing craft, LCI(L), off the coast of Normandy, France for the D-Day seaborne assault on Europe.

The National Archives on-line catalog entry contains the text of the US Navy’s shot descriptions. The last segment, starting at about 9:44, is undescribed. My sharp-eyed colleague, Tom Hogan, identified the footage. Based on unique physical characteristics of the boat, he has identified this as LCI(L)-88. That particular boat was one of several landing craft selected by the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) for the installation of a fixed motion picture film camera of the unloading operations.

A team from the OSS’s “Field Photographic Division”, commanded by John Ford, spearheaded a crash program to install the cameras in April and May of 1944. Below is a screenshot of the prepared title that appears in this segment.

On-line descriptive material is sometimes incomplete, misleading or just plain wrong. A professional media researcher lends a critical eye to material available on-line. Add value to your project, presentation or publication!

Rediscovering WWII’s Forgotten Films: A Unique GI Adventure

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Happy 2026 to all!

Today’s film is a forgotten piece of fluff found in the “Combat Subjects” series of the US Army Air Forces in WWII. Basically, a few GI’s find a derelict Kubelwagen (aka “German Jeep”) and decide to get it running again! Volkswagen resurrected the design in the late 60’s as “The Thing”.

The story was a welcome diversion from the grim tales of war. The fact that it has sound makes it stand out. Only a handful of films with composite sound are found in this series. There were a few ways to record sound optically but field recording was a different thing from commercial film. In this case the recording was likely made on transcription discs, later converted to an optical sound track in a lab.

Films like this are under-described in the National Archives on-line catalog, and are usually unavailable digitally. This particular film was recorded off the flatbed film viewers in NARA’s research room, no other digital copy exists. A professional media researcher can navigate the resources available in the research room and add value to your next production!

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  • The Jet Fighter That Might Have Been

    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, probably at Muroc Army Airfield in California, now Edwards Air Force Base. The prototype’s first flight was in October 1942. The XP-59 was frequently disguised on the tarmac by the ruse…

  • Crawling From the Wreckage!

    Today’s reel offers a rare sound-on-film interview of a pilot that crawled from the wreckage of a captured Japanese aircraft. The pilot, Lt. Bernard D. Dyrlands, was apparently ferrying a captured Japanese Army “Nate” fighter for analysis by Technical Air Intelligence personnel. The plane developed fuel system problems and had to land immediately. He crashed…

  • America’s First Production Jet Fighter

    Meet the Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star, America’s first production jet fighter! The plane was designed and built in 143 days in 1943 and entered regular service in February 1945. Powered by a single British built Halford power plant, the plane could reach 503mph in level flight. The US Army Air Forces chose to keep the…

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