Curtiss_XP-55A_278846
ASCENDER
CFS3 - V4.00.169

This aircraft was built by Gregory "Sarge" Pierson using version 4.00.169 of the AvHistory 1% Assembly Line process.  It is based on the MS/CFS3 stock P-55 visual.  John BRAVO/4 Whelan painted it as the XP-55-CS in the Kalamazoo Aviation History Museum collection tail coded 42-78846.

Rene 'Greycap' of Steve's "O-1 Driver" effects team installed the lights & exhaust flames.

The Curtiss XP-55 Ascender was another response to Circular Proposal R-40C, which was issued on November 27, 1939. It called for a fighter that would be much more effective than any extant--with a top speed, rate of climb, maneuverability, armament, and pilot visibility, all of which would be far superior to those of any existing fighter. In addition, the fighter was required to have a low initial cost and had to be easy and inexpensive to maintain. The Army specifically mentioned in R-40C that they would consider aircraft with unconventional configurations.



The Curtiss entry, designated CW-24 by the company, was a swept-wing pusher aircraft with canard (tail-first) elevators. The low-mounted sweptback wings were equipped with ailerons and flaps on the trailing edge as well as directional fins and rudders mounted near the wing tips both above and below the airfoil. The elevators were located near the front of the nose in a horizontal surface.



A completely-retractable tricycle undercarriage was to be used, the first time such an undercarriage was to be employed in a Curtiss fighter. Curtiss proposed to use the new and untried Pratt & Whitney X-1800-A3G (H-2600) liquid-cooled engine, mounted behind the pilot's cockpit and driving a pusher propeller. Project maximum speed was no less than 507 mph!



The first XP-55 (42-78845) was completed on July 13, 1943. It made its first test flight on July 19, 1943 from the Army's Scott Field near the Curtiss-Wright St Louis plant. The pilot was J. Harvey Gray, Curtiss's test pilot. Initial flight testing revealed that the takeoff run was excessively long. In order to solve this problem, the nose elevator was increased in area and the aileron up trim was interconnected with the flaps so that it operated when the flaps were lowered.

The trials indicated that the XP-55 had satisfactory handling characteristics during level and climbing flight, but at low speeds and during landings there was a tendency on the part of the pilot to overcontrol on the elevators because of a lack of any useful "feel".



Only the 3rd & final XP-55 (42-78846) survived testing & was flown to Warner Robins Field in Georgia in May of 1945. It was later taken to Freeman Field to await transfer to the National Air Museum at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington.



For a long time, its fuselage was on display at the Paul Garber facility in Suitland, Maryland. In December of 2001, the aircraft was sent to the Kalamazoo Aviation History Museum for restoration. By 2007 the work was complete, and the plane is now on display at the Main Campus building of the Kalamazoo Airzoo.

BEAR
http://www.avhistory.org