New to me! Bell XP-76

[Michel Lemieux]

New to me! Bell XP-76

Souped up P-39 with Mustang like wings and tail.

Like it as much as the swept wing P-63 test rig.

Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_P-76

[JohnB]

Neat.

They used Bells for a lot of testbeds...this wing, swept wing and V-tail (I think that was a NACA project unrelated to the Bonanza where Beech used a AT-10 testbed).

So, why P-39-63s?
Available?
Or was there something in their configuration (center cg, nosewheel) that lent the configuration to mods?

Any P-39 expert out there with an answer?

[marine air]

Apparently a lot of guys thought the Bell P-39 and P-63 were the fastest or potential fastest airframes after the war for air racing. Steve Whitman, Mira Slovak and many others bought them for racing and a couple of them did well. As aerodynamically slick as they appear, to me, the airfoil is very thick and limiting.

Last edited by marine air on Sat Feb 01, 2025 1:11 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[phil65]

They were usually tail end Charlie at Reno, but fun to watch...

Phil

[JohnB]

You have got to give Bell credit for trying an unusual configuration and making it work.

There were a lot of experiments in the late '30s, (XP-55, F5F, F5U, YFM-1, to name the obvious) but this saw production and use.