Test flights of the XP-59A continued at a slow pace, due, in part, to the maintenance and modifications required of all new aircraft. The main problem was the I-A engines. They needed constant inspection and trouble-shooting. This was aggravated by slow engine production at General Electric. Delays in engine deliveries were a constant problem. Because of the short lifetime of each engine, the shortage interfered with early flight operations. What test flights were made indicated the engine bearings were overheating.
The engine delivery problems also affected the second and third XP-59A prototypes. The second aircraft was sent to Muroc without engines. The wings arrived on December 27, 1942, with the fuselage following on January 4, 1943. Delays in the engine shipments pushed back the first flight until February 15. It was flown by Bell test pilot Frank H. "Bud" Kelly Jr., who had replaced Stanley in November. At takeoff, the cabin defroster failed, filling the cockpit with smoke. Kelly made a tight turn, cut the engines, and made a dead-stick landing.
The third XP-59A arrived at Muroc on February 21. Again, the engines were not ready, so it was shipped without them. Due to the lack of engines and the press of modifications on the first two aircraft, it was not assembled until April. Adding to the engine delivery problems was the weather. In late January 1943, heavy winter rains flooded Rogers "Dry" Lake. While waiting for the lake bed to dry, the Bell and General Electric engineers worked on the bearings problem. They found it was caused by excessive tolerances.
With more rain expected, it was decided to shift operations away from North Base temporarily. Hawes Field, near Victorville Field (later George Air Force Base) would be used. On March 10, the second XP-59A was towed thirty-five miles by road to the new site. The XP-59A was still classified Special Secret, however. The solution would create the most lasting image of the first Black airplane. To hide the telltale intakes and exhausts, the fuselage, from the nose to behind the wing's trailing edge, was covered in fabric during the move. Fitted to the nose was a four-bladed "prop" made by Joe Brown. Although crude, from a distance it would fool a witness. To make sure no one came close enough to see through the camouflage, the road was temporarily closed.
Only one flight was made from Hawes Field before it was decided that the facility had inadequate security. About March 15, the XP-59A was again moved, this time to Harpers Lake. The site was some forty-two miles from North Base, and it soon proved difficult to transport personnel, supplies, and food to the area. By April 7, Rogers Dry Lake was again usable. The plane was flown back to North Base.[17]
April 1943 marked a turning point in the XP-59A program. Up to April 11, the first aircraft had made only thirty flights for a total of fifteen hours fifteen minutes of flight time. The second aircraft totaled twenty-four flights and thirteen hours forty-five minutes in the air, while the third aircraft had yet to fly. During April and May, the pace of flight testing picked up. The third aircraft was flown, and the trio made sixty-seven flights to conduct glide tests, speed-power calibrations, landing gear tests, and performance checks.
All those who flew the XP-59A noted its smooth and quiet ride. In fact the instruments often stuck due to the lack of vibration. To solve that problem, a two-dollar doorbell ringer was mounted on the instrument panel to provide the necessary vibration.
The circle of those with jet flight experience was expanding. On April 21, Capt. Frederick M. Trapnell, chief of flight test for the Bureau of Aeronautics, became the first navy jet pilot. Trapnell, who retired as an admiral, had mixed feelings about his flight in the first XP-59A. Many years later he recalled:
In ground run-ups the jet was very impressive for its unusual nose and the "blow-torch" slipstream, but the aircraft was obviously a very gentle type of high-altitude fighter with low wing-loading. It was a great surprise to find that the thing was very quiet and smooth from the pilot's point of view. During takeoff the rattling of the landing gear was audible and the general impression was that of a glider. The XP-59A was comparatively low-powered and this was apparent from the shallow climb-out. Its performance was, at first, distinctly unimpressive — long takeoff and slow rate of climb.
The Bell test pilots also underwent changes — Kelly left North Base and was replaced by Jack Woolams as chief pilot. Woolams set an altitude record of 45,765 feet on July 14, 1943. He broke his own record on December 15, reaching 47,600 feet. In September 1943, Alvin M. "Tex" Johnston joined the program. Tex Johnston took over as chief pilot at the end of the year. Soon after, R. J. O'Gorman was added to the flight test effort. One famous pilot who did not get a chance to fly the plane was Howard Hughes.
He came to North Base to fly the XP-59A, but the crew faked an engine problem — they did not want him flying "their" plane just for fun.
The number of aircraft was also growing. On March 26, 1942, a contract had been approved to deliver thirteen YP-59A service test aircraft. These were preproduction aircraft, more similar to operational aircraft. Unlike the three XP-59As, these aircraft would be armed with either two 37mm cannons or one 37mm cannon and three.50-caliber machine guns. The first two YP-59As arrived at North Base in June 1943, but problems delayed their first flights until August and September. Initially, they had to use the original I-A engines, as the more powerful I-16 engines were delayed. By the end of the year, more YP-59As had been delivered, and the airplane had been given its official name of "Airacomet," which had been selected from crew suggestions.
To enter the world of Black airplanes is to embark on a strange adventure. Tex Johnston was asked only if he wanted to be project test pilot on a secret airplane. He drove from Buffalo to North Base, arriving at lunchtime.
He was about to sit down in the mess hall (called the "Desert Rat Hotel") when "there was a sudden swish and a roar overhead." He asked, "What the hell was that?" He went outside and, as he wrote later: "I spotted the plane coming in for another pass. As it swooshed by, I understood. No prop. I had just witnessed my first jet-propelled airplane."
The XP-59A personnel (and their counterparts on later Black airplanes) were doing things no others had the chance to do or would even dream possible. But they could not tell any one about it. Captain Trapnell later gave a firsthand example of this: "I found myself in a group discussing rumors then emanating from Europe, of a weird and wonderful means of propulsion — without a propeller. The discussion became quite intense and very inaccurate, to say the least. I was supposed to be the most knowledgeable of those present but I had to sit silent and act dumb. I couldn't say that I not only knew about it but had flown one. I was forbidden to say a word."
Life at North Base was rugged — the hours were long, living quarters spartan, and the weather ranged from extreme heat during the day to freezing cold at night. Such shared hardship creates a unity that people in nine to five jobs can never know. Such a brotherhood of experience finds expression in symbols. Woolams returned from a trip to Hollywood with several dozen black derby hats and some fake mustaches. He gave them out to the Bell personnel. The "Bell Bowlers" would wear the hats as symbols of jet service while drinking in bars such as Juanita's in nearby Rosamond. The army air forces personnel removed the propeller from their collar insignia. To those who were part of the group, the meaning was understood. To those outside the secret club, the symbols were meaningless.
17
Carpenter,