Savageduck <savageduck1@{REMOVESPAM}me.com> wrote in
news:0001HW.1F9A7162017BA74A70000EA332CF@news.giganews.com:
> On Oct 20, 2017, Miloch wrote
> (in article <osd0i50130j@drn.newsguy.com>):
>
>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_P-59_Airacomet
>>
>> The Bell P-59 Airacomet was a twin jet-engined fighter aircraft, the
>> first of the United States, designed and built by Bell Aircraft
>> during World War II.
>
> <<Snip>>
>>
>> Chuck Yeager flew the aircraft and was dissatisfied with its speed,
>> but was amazed at its smooth flying characteristics. Nevertheless,
>> even before delivery
> of the YP-59As in June 1943, the USAAF ordered 80 production machines,
> designated "P-59A Airacomet".
>
> When did Chuck Yeager fly the YP-59A, P-59A, or P-59B?
>
> He graduated from class 43C in March 1943, and was shipped overseas in
> November 1943. He completed his European tour in February 1945. I
> seriously doubt that he was at Muroc during the war time test period.
> He might have had the opportunity to fly one after the war, but he
> only became a test pilot after the transition from USAAF to USAF, and
> graduation from the Air Materiel Command Flight Performance School
> (class 46C) in 1947. Then he was part of the X-1 team.
>
By the end of 1945 Bob Hoover was a test pilot at Wright Field in
Flying a P-38, he met another hotshot in a new Bell P-59 jet: Captain
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