INTRODUCTION;
ENTER THE JET AGE.
In the USA the
General Electric Company, which had wide experience of the design, development
and construction of industrial turbines, dating back to before the start of the
20th century, was chosen initially to proceed with the development of national
aircraft gas turbines based on the British Whittle engine (Sir Frank Whittle).
Because of the Bell Aircraft Corporation's geographical location, in relation to
the GE plant, this company was chosen to design and build a fighter aircraft to
be powered by the first American-built gas turbine.
Realising that early
engines would develop only limited thrust, Bell elected for a twin engine
arrangement the rest of the aircraft was a conventional midwing monoplane, and
wide track main landing gear outboard of the engines, the nose wheel unit
retracting aft into the nose, with attention given to a high tailplane as to
clear the efflux from the turbojets.
Click on
images below to see larger images
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HISTORY;
The first XP-59A was flown on October 1st 1942 from Murdoc Dry Lake in
California, only 15 flight hours were logged in the first five months, two more
XP-59A's were built, followed by 13 more for testing and evaluation. the
majority of these latter aircraft, delivered during 1944, a couple were
evaluated in mock combat against a P-47 and a P-38J. The new jet was,
disappointingly outclassed by the planes it was supposed to replaced.
DATA
-
max
speed...409mph / 658kmh
-
cruise
..........375mph / 604kmh
-
ceiling..........46,200
ft / 14080m
-
range............400
miles / 644km
CONSTRUCTION;
The Hobbycraft kit comes in a very sturdy cardboard box that opens from
the ends with three painting options on the back side, the contents are crisp
clean flash free styrene, typical sparse information on the instruction sheet (
just a note that some information concerning the gear doors are backward so
double check these parts) the parts fit pretty well and need only minor
attention with sanding and putty, I used some aftermarket items to enhance the
Airacomets weak points.
First Item needed was
a nose weight so my kit made a detour to Mr Terry Dean of TD Castings who made a
plug to cast weights for the kit (Thanx Terry), The wheels were then replaced by
True Details set, the kit supplies rubber tires and I'm just not a fan of that
media. Finally the cockpit was replaced by the Cutting Edge Modelworks CEC48438,
Super Detailed Cockpit, that really set the kit off. The great feature about
this kit is that the flight control are position able except for the rudder.
PAINTING;
Aircraft Depicted was the eighth Bell YP-59A Airacomet as painted for
evaluation by the US Navy in late 1943 at Naval Air Station Patuxent River.
(notice no tail hook, don't ask me why) Standard 3-tone scheme, I used Testors
Model Masters Enamels, First the panel lines were preshaded but don't come
across well in the photos, some panels were shot lighter/darker shades, the
cockpit was finished out in bell green the canopy after masked was sprayed green
then black followed by the exterior blue the decals went down nicely and needed
only a little micro sol to help them along. The over all finish was sprayed with
a mix of Testor Dullcoat 70% and Glosscoat 30% thinned with a little lacquer
thinner.
CONCLUSION;
This is a nice kit!!! I got mine from
Steve at North American Hobbies plus the cockpit set at a very good
price. Hobbycraft has come along
way from the first kit I bought from them, they have some pretty decent
offerings out on the market these days.
References
from ,
P.S.
This bird sits
nice next to my Meteor and Me262.
Greg
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