Having gone to these extraordinary lengths to keep the XP-59A secret, it was clear the plane could not be test flown from the Bell plant in Buffalo. An isolated site would be needed to ensure secrecy during the highly visible test flights. In early 1942, Lt. Col. Benjamin W. Chidlaw and Maj.
Ralph R. Swofford Jr. made a tour of possible sites. They selected the Muroc Bombing and Gunnery Range on Rogers Dry Lake, in the Mojave Desert of California.
Rogers Dry Lake is a flat expanse some sixty-five square miles in area.
The site was originally settled by Clifford and Effie Corum in 1910. The little desert community that soon grew on the edge of the lake bed was named Muroc (Corum spelled backward). In September 1933, the army air corps set up a gunnery range on the lake bed. With the attack on Pearl Harbor, a base was built at the south end of the lake bed to train B-24, B-25, and P-38 crews. Out on the lake bed the "Muroc Maru" was built — a false-front mock-up of a Japanese Mogam/n'-class heavy cruiser — to act as a bombing target."The site was isolated, far from any major city.
In mid-May 1942, Bell was told Muroc would be the test site. The flight test facility was constructed on the north end of the lake bed, about five miles from Muroc Field. In later years, the two areas would become known as "North Base" and "South Base." North Base consisted of a large portable hangar (which had lost many parts in its travels), a two-story barracks, and a mess hall. Water came from a two-hundred-foot-deep well and was stored in a wooden tank. The ground control for the test flights was a two-way radio and an old recorder set up on the ramp. Transport was provided by two Bell-owned station wagons.[11]
Larry Bell told Robert M. Stanley, Bell Aircraft's chief test pilot, that the company was building a jet aircraft and that he would fly it. This was the first time Stanley had heard of the project. Stanley arrived at North Base on August 20, 1942. He found that progress on the buildings had been slow, and the contractor said there was little chance of completing the work by mid-September. As it turned out, the barracks was completed by the deadline, while the hangar lacked only the floor and electrical wiring. With the prototype aircraft about to arrive, the civilian contractors were sent away, and Stanley and the Bell crew finished the work. They built to last — a half century later, the original XP-59A hangar is still in use at North Base, and is still used for Black airplanes.
The prototype XP-59A was ready to ship in September 1942. It was decided to send the fuselage to Muroc with the two I-A engines in place. This meant there would be no time lost removing the engines, then reinstalling them at Muroc. The problem was that jolts during the long train trip could damage the engines' bearings. It was decided to slowly spin the engines for the whole trip.
The fuselage and wings were wrapped in fabric for the journey. A hole was knocked through the second-story wall, and the packages were lowered by a crane. They were then loaded in two boxcars at 2:00 A.M. on September 12, while army guards patrolled the rail yard. The train set out with three General Electric engineers and five army guards to watch over the plane. A gasoline-powered air compressor was used to keep the engines turning. The compressor's gasoline tank had to be refilled constantly — a difficult job on a moving railroad car. On the second night out, the compressor repeatedly failed due to contaminated gasoline, but the General Electric engineers were able to keep restarting it before the jet engines spun down.
Finally, at 8:00 A.M., September 19, a full six days after leaving Buffalo, the XP-59A arrived at Muroc.
The next week was spent getting the aircraft ready for its planned first flight on October 2. The first engine ground test runs were made on September 26. Both engines made three five-minute runs. The plane was judged ready for taxi tests. On September 30, Stanley made several high-speed taxi runs to check out the handling of the aircraft. Several times, the XP-59A lifted off the lake bed. Based on this, Stanley wanted to press on and make the first flight. It was late in the afternoon, however, and Larry Bell said it would be better to wait until the next morning.
On October 1, 1942, a year to the day after the nonflyable W.1X engine and an incomplete set of drawings were sent to the United States, the XP-59A stood ready to try its wings. Given the technological unknowns, this was a remarkable achievement. It was also an indication of what Black development procedures could accomplish.
On this morning there were the usual last-minute problems. The ignition wires on both engines had to be changed before they could be started. Once they were running, Stanley taxied about three miles downwind onto the lake bed. He then turned the XP-59A and ran up the engines. The first flight reached an altitude of approximately 25 feet, and landing was made using partial power without flaps.
In all, four flights were made. In each case, the landing gear was left down and altitude did not exceed 100 feet.[12] For those who had worked on the project, who knew the secret and understood what had been accomplished, it was a remarkable experience. Ted Rogers, a General Electric engineer wrote, "What a strange feeling this seemingly giant bird gave us as it approached. There was dead silence as it passed overhead — then a low rumbling like a blowtorch — and it was gone, leaving a smell of kerosene in the air."[13]
The following day, a second series of test flights was made. Stanley made the first two flights, reaching 6,000 and 10,000 feet. The day's third flight was made by Col. Laurence C. Craigie, chief of the Aircraft Project Section at Wright Field. Stanley told Craigie that the engines had only about a half hour left before they would have to be overhauled, then asked if he would like to fly the plane. Craigie was a program manager and was not even a test pilot. He had come to North Base only as an observer, but Craigie did not have to be asked twice. Later, he recalled, "I didn't get very high. I didn't go very fast. The most vivid impression I received, after a very long takeoff run, occurred at the moment we broke contact with the ground — it was so quiet."
Thus, quite by chance, Craigie became the first U.S. military pilot to make a jet flight.[14] Stanley made the day's final flight.
The two days of flights indicated the igniter wires, landing gear, and oil pressure gauges all needed modification. The two I-A engines were also replaced. All early jet engines had very low operating lifetimes — in the case of the I-A, a mere five hours.[15]
The test procedures did not match XP-59A's sophistication. The test pilot would radio instrument readings to the ground or jot down notes on a knee board. Control stick forces were measured with a fish scale. The engine thrust was measured with an industrial spring scale attached to the landing gear and anchored to the ground. Testing the pressurized cockpit (the first on a U.S. fighter) was a constant problem. The cabin seals had to be checked and replaced frequently. To check them, Angus McEahem, a General Electric technician, would close the canopy, start up the engine, and pressurize the cockpit. He would then light up a cigar. The smoke would show any leaks.
It was clear from the start that the XP-59A required a new level of flight test data. As an interim solution, an observer's position was fitted into the nose section. A twenty-inch hole was cut in the upper fuselage, and a seat and instrument panel were fitted into the empty gun compartment. It resembled a World War I biplane cockpit. The XP-59A thus became the first two-seat jet (and the first open-cockpit jet aircraft). When test flights resumed on October 30, the observer's position proved highly successful. The first observer was E. P. Rhodes, Bell project engineer for the XP-59A.[16]
11
Young, "Turbojet," 254. At the time of the XP-59A test flights, North Base was known as the Materiel Command Flight Test Base or Muroc II.
Similarly, press accounts of the mid-1960s often refer to the "Skonk Works." Rachel, Nevada, was known until the 1980s as "Sand Springs." (It was renamed in memory of the first child born in the town, Rachel Jones.) To avoid confusion, the later names of North Base, the Skonk Works, and Rachel will be used throughout.
15
A. M. "Tex" Johnston and Charles Barton,
16
Young, "Turbojet," 254. The open cockpit did reduce the maximum speed and altitude the first XP-59A could reach. (The observer had only a plastic windshield for protection from the slipstream.) Later, Brown Recorders were installed and an instrument panel was fitted into the aft fuselage. This panel was photographed in flight to provide a continuous record.
The XP-59A did much to usher in the modern era of flight test instrumentation. Today, hundreds of separate readings are transmitted to the ground in real time. When the first XP-59Awas given to the Smithsonian, the observer's cockpit was removed and the aircraft was restored to its October 1–2, 1942, appearance.