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Unorthodox XP-55 fighter failed to fulfill its promise

Last year, workers at the Kalamazoo Aviation History Museum finished restoring the only surviving Curtiss XP-55 Ascender. While it was being tested during World War II, the experimental fighter looked, and sometimes behaved, like the most advanced thing in the sky.

“They were trying to make a breakthrough in a design for a better fighter,” said Greg Ward, senior curator for aircraft at the Michigan museum, which is also called the Air Zoo. “The engineers wanted good visibility, high performance and good flight characteristics. They achieved some of that, but the XP-55 also had flaws.”

Its unconventional features included a swept wing, an engine that pushed rather than pulled, and canard elevators, meaning its horizontal tail was in front of the wing.

These innovations gave the XP-55 a futuristic look, but invited criticism because it didn’t have a performance to match. One engineer on the program said the XP-55 “was a very stable aircraft, but only if it was flying upside down.” Irreverent troops looked at the propeller at the rear of the Ascender and inevitably nicknamed it the “Ass-ender.”

The first of three full-scale XP-55s made its initial flight July 19, 1943, at Scott Field, Ill., not far from the Curtiss-Wright plant in St. Louis.

Civilian test pilot J. Harvey Gray found that the Ascender didn’t ascend well: It needed an excessively long takeoff run. To help the plane get aloft more quickly, engineers redesigned and increased the size of the nose elevator and introduced other changes.

Still, the first XP-55 crashed during spin tests near St. Louis on Nov. 15, 1943. The pilot parachuted to safety.

The second XP-55 completed its maiden flight in St. Louis on Jan. 9, 1944, and the third followed April 25. A week later, long-range P-51 Mustangs were over Berlin, escorting Allied bombers. Putting the XP-55 into production didn’t seem necessary, but the third XP-55 was taken to Wright Field, Ohio, for further tests.

The war with Germany had ended by May 27, 1945, when a Wright Field air show and war bond rally attracted a crowd of 100,000. The third XP-55 took off to give a flying display. Capt. William C. Glascow made one roll before the crowd, began another, and abruptly dived into the ground inverted. The XP-55 crashed into a car that was leaving the air show, killing one man and leaving others with serious burns. Glascow was thrown from the wreckage and later died.

The crash ended the military’s infatuation with the unorthodox fighter. The second XP-55 was stored for many years by what is now the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum and is on long-term loan to the Kalamazoo facility, where the five-year restoration effort was carried out.

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Robert F. Dorr, an Air Force veteran, lives in Oakton, Va. He is co-author of “Hell Hawks,” a history of an American fighter group. His e-mail address is robert.f.dorr@cox.net. Fred L. Borch retired from the Army after 25 years and is the regimental historian for the Army Judge Advocate General’s Corps. He is the author of “The Silver Star,” a history of America’s third-highest award for combat heroism. His e-mail address is borchfj@aol.com.