Today’s film documents an oddball wartime fighter prototype, the Curtiss Ascender XP-55. The plane was developed in response to a 1939 US Army Air Forces (USAAF) proposal asking for prototype with improved performance, pilot visibility and armament. The Ascender was built at the Curtis plant in St. Louis, Missouri. It first flew in July of 1943.
One unique feature of the platform was a lever that ejected the rear propeller so that the pilot could eject safely. The plane had problems with stalling at high altitudes. Out of three prototypes produced, two crashed. The one pictured here crashed at an airshow at Wright Field in Ohio on May 27th of 1945, killing the pilot and four civilians. The project was cancelled at the flight test stage.
The pusher propeller/canard wing design seems to anticipate later aircraft, in particular the Rutan VarIeze, but no evidence indicates that it was a direct design inspiration for the later plane. Several other manufacturers and other air forces were experimenting with similar designs at the time.
The footage is described in the National Archives Catalog, but without the “back story” I’ve recounted. No digital copy exists at the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). This copy was produced by pointing a camera to the film viewers provided in NARA’s research room. A professional archival media researcher helps you leverage unique footage like this for your next publication, exhibit or production!
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