The WW2 Super Fighter That Was Built Backwards | Curtiss XP-55 Ascender [Aircraft Overview #76]

The fact he named it that makes me so happy love that he had humour about his design

I was such a dumb kid. Sitting at the back of the classroom, I espied this little gem in an encyclopedia and instantly thought it was the "best" fighter of WWII. No questions, nary a thought, it was the best. That age where if anything looked cool and different from any contemporaneous peers, it was superior in all aspects. Reality's a bummer.

How would more power have improved low speed handling? Why do you keep saying the Allison wasn't powerful enough? It was quite comparable to RR 1650s in power per pound, power per cu in, etc. The problem, as you should well know and should have explained to your viewers, was with the supercharging. The engine as used in this plane lacked power at high altitudes, which, of course, was a major reason why it did not deliver very high absolute speeds. It's a shame you are so shallow and snarky about an interesting might have been. Good choice of subject, deplorable treatment.

Awesome video both information on the topic I've been looking into. I've been wondering where the idea started. Ground effects and this design changes things for me. A 1/3 power model amphibious and 100 mph cruise over the water or flat ground,would be the efficient transition system we could use for now

"Drawerings" lol!

Crimson Skies music intensifies

Rex, if you need someone to meet with you at the Air Zoo, hit me up. It's in my town. :)

Isn't this a IJN design? I though they built and used it first, its called the Shniden

Great video about one crazy looking bird! One correction though. Scott Field, now Scott AFB, is in Illinois not Missouri. It is 23 miles East of St. Louis Mo. My dad was stationed there in the 1960’s.

i love it when people mention the air zoo. not only is it where the only existing xp55 is displayed, but its in the city where i went to school. ive been to the air zoo at least 4 times

The initial problem with this plane was that it was overall too small and too light, setting limits on it's range and engine choices. As with the P-40, limited space for cooling systems and supercharger options. Heavy fixed armament with consumable heavy ammo load located a mile from the CG. A radial engine is lighter, and more importantly, it's shorter length allows it to be mounted closer to the AC CG. I was always curious as to the fuel tankage on this plane, location and volume, and the effects on CG as fuel is depleted, and tests on high -speed power diving and compressibility.

"you know what, fuck you!"

Bullpups your plane

I've described a similar-looking aircraft for a story I'm writing - but it's on floats, for air racing.
Yes, it's a disaster on swept wings.

The design is reminiscent of Crimson Skies. - If anybody still remembers that.

Air Zoo is excellent as is the neaby Gilmor Auto Museum.

THIS WAS A GREAT DESIGN IT WAS AHEAD OF ITS TIME.. THE jAPANESE BUILT ONE LIKE THIS THE shinden

Unless I missed it, I heard no mention of one of the main features of
the XP55: the free-floating canard. The canard was free to pivot about a
spanwise axis, with its incidence aerodynamically set by some flaps. As
far as I remember, the first accident was said to be due to the canard
getting pushed against its stops following a stall manoeuver, with no
recovery possible. The aircraft then fell towards the ground nose up,
that is, ass under.

If anything it needed a total redesign.

On certain positions it looks like a hotwheels model of the Poison Arrow.

I wonder what inspired the swept wing design and if that stall characteristic is like that of the "Sabre Dance" of the F-100.

ありがとうございます！

Am curious about time frame, wondering if the propellers were inspired from the do 335. Might have to look later lol

Funny how the thumbnail is the XP-55 from Warthunder (I'm not being sarcastic it's actually kinda funny)

The Ass-Ender. I see what they did there.

Many years ago I built a Control Line model of this plane. At best, it could bunny hop…

They put the propeller pitch on the wrong way round.

The ass-ender . The engine in the ace end

The plane designed for godzilla

FWIW: I did not know an all-moving forward elevator was not considered a canard.

Imagine designing an entire plane just for a butt pun. What a lad

Sounds like they were flying it upside down

Normally canards are really idiot proof in any form of stall. Today we design them so that the front wing stalls first and then drops the nose and thereby avoiding the stall on the rear main wing. I very occasionally fly a Vari Eze designed by Burt Rutan. And that thing is not just blisteringly fast for a O-235 engine, but it is also very forgiving at slow speeds. I like it, it's a pleasure to fly.

If SNL Sean Connery were to name a plane, Ass-ender.

I named it after how your mother likes it Trebek.

There is an Anime film called Sky Crawlers about air combat in a fictional world with roughly WW2 era technology. This design plays a key role as one of the fighter planes.

This plane had so much unrealized potential.

I wonder how fly-by-wire would have benefited this aircraft.

You're telling me that a guy named "Bud" (butt) Flesh gave named a plane the "Ascender" (ass-ender)? He must have gotten bolder when he got away with his nickname.

If Burt Rutan designed a WW2 fighter, this is what it would look like.

At first glance, it’s obvious that this bird was completely unbalanced. It looks about as airworthy as my grandmother’s clothes iron. Had it been a true canard, it would probably have had fewer problems.

The final XP 55 was destroyed in the filming of Godzilla minus one🎉

The Japanese built an aircraft like this toward the end of WWII also if I remember correctly.

In just about every single picture of this thing, I feel that the elevator on the nose is seriously too small. Just a thought.

If you come in autumn remember, we call it fall

And now drones are exactly the same ,slow but reliable

technicalities, bleh. It's a ww2 pseuodo-delta pseudo-canard plane.

It is no more strange than the Donner Do 335, it had a propeller at both ends. Since then there have been aircraft built with this set up.

It probably would have been better off without the narrow-chord, swept wings. The stall characteristics would have been much more manageable with something closer to a hershey bar wing.

Canards usually go like fook
Some reflex In the wing chord might have sorted the low speed problem out ?

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