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The blue might be a tad on the light side, but not outrageously so.
As for racing the thing, the XP-55's performance was underwhelming at best. The airframe was intended to take a much more powerful (2,000 HP+) engine, which never materialized. Curtiss ended up using a standard Allison V-1710 (1,200 HP or so) just to get the thing flying.
The plane also had some wicked stabililty problems. The first prototype was lost when it went into an unrecoverable inverted flat spin (pilot bailed out safely.) The third and final prototype was lost when the pilot lost control during an airshow at Wright Field, and crashed on a highway, killing a family in a car.
With a better engine, and a full-blown development program, the Ascender might have been turned into a decent aicraft. But as it is, it's mostly just an interesting concept design.
It'd be cool to have the J7W Shinden (the Japanese canard figher) displayed beside it for comparison. There was some talk of that at the Air Zoo, but I think it was just some idle speculation. BTW, the Shinden was intended to have a jet engine..like the XP-55, it was equipped with whatever was available just to prove it would fly.
SN
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