During World War II, the US rushed to develop its first jet-powered fighter, the Bell P-59 Airacomet, in an effort to counter Germany’s Me 262. Despite its historic significance, the aircraft never ...

The first jet aircraft flown by the U.S. Army Air Forces, predecessor to the Air Force, was the Bell XP-59 Airacomet, which never entered combat. Immediately following the war, the development of ...

Elsewhere at the Bell Aircraft Corporation, top men had been working concurrently on the Airacomet, which was the first American jet-powered plane ever to take to the skies. In the name of ...