GregP
3rd February 2009, 06:52
Hi Everyone,
Thought I'd update you on the progress of the Planes of Fame YP-59A Airacomet.
This past Saturday, we hit a major milestone, we got both engines installed in the engine bays. We still have to finish the stainless air-fuel-air lines, but this is the first time in Museum History that it has had both engines installed.
The original engines were General Electric GE I-1s of 1,400 pounds thrust, but we have installed GE I-16s (later the J31) of 1,650 pounds thrust. We still have to install the jetpipes to route the thrust out the back, and we still have to remove the left one to complete the fire supression system that was not installed on the original, but this is a great milestone. Hey, it's almost an airplane!
The main tasks, at least to my immediate team, are to complete the starboard aileron (a REAL pain) and to fabricate a new canopy; ours having been liberated (stolen in popular parlance) in 1957.
We have already jacked up the airframe and swung the landing gear; no problems.
So ... unless something gets really tough, we should have this thing running for the airshow this year (May 2009) at Chino. It might or might not be flying, but we SHOULD be able to at least start it up and taxi even if it isn't flyable at the time.
This will be the only FLYING early jet prototype in the world when it gets airborne. Ours first flew in early 1943 and is returning to a sky near you soon, very probably this year, if not by airshow time.
Me be happy!
GregP
5th February 2009, 03:50
Hi Wuxak,
Nice restoration. I wish they'd make it flyable, but it didn't exactly have a stellar reputation as an easy-to-fly aircraft when it was new, did it?
We at the Planes of Fame have thought about restoring ours, too. Maybe even to flyable status. But there are many things in front of it and one example in WWII had the plywood wings come apart in flight during a demonstration. Trusting the wood wings some 70 odd years later is not easy ...
In any case, seeing one run and taxi, even if it didn't fly, would be very cool, huh?
GregP
5th February 2009, 05:36
Hi Wuxak,
Interesting you should ask about the early jet engines.
Most of them were very unreliable due to fuel management technology at the time. If you look at the old film clips, they start up with a great big burst of flames.
The flames were the problem ... overtemp of the turbine blades.
Our engines are early General Electric GE-I16 units. They had the same issues, but these were in GREAT shape when overhauled. We simply hooked them up with the fuel management system from a C-85 jet engine of much later design. Presto, no more flames and the temperatures are very mangeable. When they were overhauled, we installed modern bearings, and we now expect them to have a normal TBO of about 1,500 hours.
Once running, and once past the initial infatuation with the aircraft and attendant photo sessions, the P-59 will probably clock up only 4 - 10 hours per year of use, so the engines are very probably a non-issue. Basically, it will fly once before our annual airshow )after annual inspection), and then during the airshow weekend on both days.
It MAY wander around locally to outings like the March AFB show and maybe as far as Nellis AFB, Nevada, Flabob, Hemet, or Reno ... not very far at 300 mph and above. So, low annual hours no matter what the venues flown. Outings like March or Flabob/Hemet would only see maybe 1 hour on the engines, counting the trip both ways.
As far as the manned pulsejet goes, we have overhauled the trailer, made a cowling for the intake, and have gotten everything ready for the airshow in mid-May 2009. There is only a bit of sheet metal left to fabricate, and we can DO that.
We will run it one more time before the airshow and then at the airshow. I could get pics at that time. I really didn't think the interest was there.
Whether or not the principle in the matter will spend the money for an airframe probably depends on our ability to create new valves and the U.S. economy. If we CAN make valves and don't tank economically, then maybe yes, if he wants to proceed.
if not, then then no.
Personally, I'd opt to build an RV-4 or RV-6 before a pulsejet airframe that could only be flown at airshows ... but, the principle already owns and flys a Yak-52 (M-14P engine, a Vedeneyev - runs GREAT) in airshows and personally. We'll see.
When the pulsejet is completed and ready for the airshow, I'll post pics.
We're CLOSE and it looks GOOD.
Best regards, - Greg
GregP
18th February 2009, 04:59
Hi Trexx,
You're welcone anytime. The P-59 is doing well, and my friend and I are working on the canopy mechanism now. No one will fly it unless the canopy works easily EVERY TIME. If you can't get out of an early prototype jet quickly, why take off?
Anyway, you are welcome anytime to come down and attend a work day or do some various museum tours.
Not too long ago, Romantic Technofreak and I did Palm Springs, Chino, Lyon Museum, and some things at San Diego. We had a great time. C'mon down anytime!
I just need maybe a week's notice or so.
- Greg
GregP
18th February 2009, 08:08
Unfortunately, ejection seats are not allowed in civilian aircraft.
The thinking is as follows ... if you can abaondon your airplane to fall and kill others without injury, you might do that rather than try to set it down without injury to yourself.
So, civilian jet pilots are forced to "ride it out," except for jets that are leased to the department of defense. So if there is a civilian F-104 out there that is flying chase for an F-35, the pilot can eject. If he is flying it not for the military, he's on his own ... no ejection seat.
If the same pilot is flying an airshow, he rides it down or jumps without the ejection seat.
GregP
27th February 2009, 08:43
I wrote an article for the Planes of Fame website and thought I'd share it with this forum ...
The Continuing and Ongoing Saga of the Planes of Fame Bell YP-59A Airacomet by Greg Pascal
The editorial “we” in the narrative below does not mean “me,” it means a large variety of Planes of Fame volunteers over many years of dedicated effort. People who have helped out on the project include John Benjamin, Bruce Ritchie, Dick Horst, Greg Shackel, Guy Hill, Bob Velker, Chris Hill, Bob Poteet, Fran Pieri, Mark DeLaurel, Chris McCleod, Bill Buchannan, Ken Barber, John Zink, Greg Pascal, Cubby the dog, and assorted other wild and tame animals. Some were calico; others were not.
The P-59 Airacomet is America’s first jet aircraft. Ours is a production prototype YP-59A, serial number 42-108777. It was the 10th Airacomet and 7th YP-59A (the first three were XP-59A’s). The 1st YP-59A was delivered to Muroc Dry Lake in June 1943 and the last YP-59A was delivered by June 1944, so ours first flew sometime in that timeframe. The 8th and 9th YP-59A’s (42-108778 and 42-108779) were given to the U.S. Navy and one P-59A (42-22611) went to Great Britain in exchange for a Gloster Meteor I. End of serial number memorization routine. There will be a short quiz later.
When our YP-95A was built, they were still being hand fabricated without production tooling. What that means to us in practical terms is that just because something is installed on both sides, it doesn’t mean that the starboard side is a mirror image of the port side. It was hand made and sometimes they just made it fit even if it wasn’t exactly symmetric. To our chagrin, we have verified this as a true fact. Think of it as a “custom” airplane. Our YP 59A was acquired by the Planes of Fame Museum in the mid-1950s. Thanks, Ed Maloney! Great acquisition! Though they thought at the time they’d display it only statically, it was later decided to restore it to flight status. This single decision was to provide volunteer career paths, including both father and son participation, for many people over the years. Heck, from the time this project was started until now spans a length of time almost as long as the entire period known as “the development of the jet airplane.” The United States started from scratch and landed a man on the Moon in a shorter time than this restoration has taken. When this project started, 8-track tapes were years into the future. It hasn’t flown yet and now 8-track tapes are a forgotten relic of ancient history. Ask any teenager if they have ever even HEARD of 8-track tapes. They’ll look at you like you’re stupid or something. They might do that anyway; it’s a toss-up.
A survey of the airframe found that the wing spar caps, along with a few other parts, were corroded. In the true tradition of Bob Vila of “This Old House” fame, the wings were removed and set aside to be reused again later. “Later” turned out to be years later, but later it was. Anyway, the skin rivets were drilled out, new spar caps were fabricated and replaced, and the wings were riveted back together again, looking relatively the same but with many new internal components including attach points for drop tanks. These were added so the YP-59A could be flown farther away than Corona and back. It is calculated that, with drops tanks fitted, we might be able to make it as far as Flabob International Airport, maybe even for an approach from the OTHER SIDE of Flabob, as long as we don’t waste fuel climbing too far. Many parts had to be made new and some invented to fit. Then we had to figure out how to mount the new “old wings” back onto the aircraft. This turned into a science project but it, too, was completed. Not without several rolls of napkin calculations together with an original Euclidian Geometry book, signed by Euclid himself. We also had pictures with circles and arrows on the back of each explaining what each one was to be used as evidence against us. These tasks took years of combined effort and something like 40,000 volunteer hours of effort. You’d think that in 40,000 hours, someone would have cleaned the cockpit, wouldn’t you? Hasn’t happened yet! That task isn’t scheduled until late this summer. Last week I found a Nehi Cream Soda bottle cap stuck in the rudder pedals. That stuff hasn’t been made since 1960!
When our aircraft was in service use, it was modified with a second canopy in the forward fuselage to give jet familiarization rides to VIP’s. Today, most VIP’s have been laid off and we have an actual 2-seat jet for that task anyway. So the second canopy has been removed and the front fuselage has been returned to the stock, single-seat configuration. No “member-sponsored orientation rides” in THIS baby! Again, we are talking a major effort here over years. Additionally, mock armament was installed and can be seen by all. At least they SAY it's mock armament, and the BATF thinks so, too.
The original engines were General Electric GE 1-A units of 1,400 pounds static thrust each. Some years back, the Museum acquired some General Electric GE I-16 engines of 1,650 pounds static thrust each and had them overhauled with modern bearings back in the 1990’s. These were later called J31-GE-3's and they were adopted for use in the P-59A. The P-59B production aircraft mostly used J31-GE-5 engines upgraded to 2,000 pounds static thrust each. The short life span of early jet engines was primarily due to poor fuel control. Flames out the jetpipes at startup would damage the turbine blade mounts. Actually, flames out the jetpipe ANYTIME are bad news for the turbine blades, assuming you don’t have an afterburner, or “reheat” as the Brits call it. If you have not done so, you should look at the turbine blade mounts in the cutaway engine we have; amazing. The metal is mounted in what looks like cleverly-fitted polymer material jigsaw puzzle invented by a deranged software engineer who was kicked out of Microsoft for inventing something that was actually useful. Direct flames tend to char this material and cause turbine blade failure. Not a good thing, especially if you happen to be the pilot.
Anyway, the GE I-16 engines in our YP-59A are mated to J-85 fuel controllers. The J-85 was used in the Navy T-2 Buckeye and Cessna A-37 as well as in civilian Learjets and other early bizjets. So, the GE I-16’s will now start and run with no flames at startup or any other time. Accordingly, more or less normal jet engine life is expected from them going forward. Since the annual flight hours will be low, plenty of flying time is expected with the engines we have. The engine team includes Bruce Ritchie and Guy Hill.
The YP-59A was a service prototype … and the military knew their pilots had parachutes. At the time, there was a war on and safety concerns were not given as great a weight as they are now. As a result, there were no firewalls in the engine bays. In fact, there were lightening holes going between the engine bays! So, a fire in one side would quickly spread to the other side right through the holes! I’m sure the service test pilots were less than enthusiastic supporters of this particular design feature. Since our pilots actually run the Museum and are particularly fond of their own safety, it was decided to install stainless steel firewalls between the two engine bays so an engine fire in one bay didn’t automatically propagate per the original design philosophy. New firewalls were fabricated and installed. Thanks Bob Velker! Next, our pilots, thinking of safety again as pilots tend to do, decided to plumb in a fire suppression system that was never in the original airplane. Clever, these pilots. Safe, too.
The first system was completed in the port engine bay. Then we found we could not install the engine because the nifty new fire system was taking up some of the very space the engine needed to occupy. Lacking the ability to remove material from the engines and still have them run, we removed the fire system, installed the engine, and then re-engineered the fire system to use the available space not taken up by the engine. Bruce was overjoyed at this development since he loves to make up custom stainless tubing in his free time. His extra tubing collection is growing comfortably. Soon, he’ll have enough to start a 3/8-inch stainless oil pipeline from Alaska to Chino airport, avoiding the San Andreas fault entirely. All this took time as you might expect. The starboard system is done and the port engine fire system should be done within a couple of weeks. Then we’ll have both engines back in the airframe! Pretty neat!
After the engines are installed and do not have to be removed again, and after the fire suppression systems are complete, we need to attach the jetpipes that route the hot exhaust to the exhaust openings. Then we need to do some repair work on the fairings that cover the jet engines. We have to make holes for the non-stock engine igniters and fabricate some covers to allow access to the igniters without removing the cowlings. The sheet metal air inlet cones have already been completed and are ready for installation.
Bruce and Guy also discovered that when the engines were overhauled, the people who did the overhaul installed the engine accessories, mounted to the front of the engine, in the direction most convenient for them. Unsurprisingly, these accessories have clocked mounts and can be installed in two directions, 180° apart from each other. Naturally, ALL the accessories had to be removed and turned around such that they were more difficult to deal with, but occupied a smaller space, didn’t hit the engine mounts, and fit into the intake sheet metal cones, all simultaneously. I’d hesitate to call them shock cones since the YP-59A probably cannot create a shock wave unless it is going straight down. Maybe not even then. Naturally, all the existing stainless steel tubing had to be replaced since all the ports were now on the opposite sides from where they were plumbed. Another good job Bruce, and more tubing for the collection!
The ailerons are interesting. There are four mounts per aileron. They all had to line up perfectly and the mounts had to shimmed (left/right, up/down, and in/out) … AFTER the wings had been disassembled and then reassembled without perfect final aileron alignment and shimming. But the mounts could no longer be removed from the aircraft because the wings had been re-skinned. Since we didn’t want to drill out the rear wing skins yet again, we had to work in very small, inconvenient spaces to reach the shims. We also worked up inside the wings by reaching up into small, rectangular openings and working blindly with sockets and wrenches by feel. This was great practice for later in life when you lose your eyesight. I’m thinking of asking my insurance company for a seeing eye dog. Maybe he could find those bolt holes; I know I can’t. We invented several new curse words during that timeframe.
We got the port aileron completed except for the gap seals … 3 of 4 have been fabricated, and I need to make one more after I’m done procrastinating, but that can wait. To give a notion of the effort involved, it took a team of 2 to 3 of us, depending on the task at the time, a bit more than five months to get the port aileron done; some of this time was head-scratching time. Thanks Bob Velker and Fran Pieri! Fran unfailingly smiles and tells us how uncoordinated we look when we’re trying to be useful. The truth always hurts. We can’t figure out if Fran is smiling at us or laughing at us. Either way, he's jolly about it.
The starboard aileron is from another airplane and does not fit very well on “Old 777”. When we installed it and lined up the hinges, the aileron body was tilted at 5° - 7° or so from the natural angle of the wing … remember, this aileron is from a DIFFERENT airplane. What I want to know is who stole ours? What can you use a YP-59A aileron for anyway, a coffee table? It still must either be fixed it or a new aileron fabricated. It will probably take longer than the port aileron if our experience on the port side is any indicator. We face this effort with a plan. The plan is simple, like my friend Jim. Unlike Jim, however, this plan might just work … we’ll see.
For safety, the cockpit canopy must be able to be easily operated by one hand, both by the pilot from inside the cockpit and by a rescuer … errrr … crew member, from outside in case the pilot must put the plane down in an emergency. The original canopy went missing before we owned the airframe. What can you DO with a YP-59A canopy, huh? I mean, it doesn’t fit a ’59 Buick, for crying out loud! So we have to make one from scratch. Fortunately, we had the original canopy rails. Also, the March AFB Museum has a P 59A, and we went over to take a close look at their canopy, and we even arranged it so we could remove it and look at the mechanism; it helped. Their canopy is double-pane since it was pressurized. Fortunately, ours will be operated in and around Museum airspace at low altitude, and we don’t need to pressurize it for high-altitude flight test work now that planes like the F-22 Raptor are in service. Heck, the F-22 development effort only took 30 years! This project could take longer, especially if we work on it.
Our canopy rails slid relatively easily without the canopy frame installed, but were quite difficult to work when the canopy frame was mounted. Some troubleshooting revealed three areas of concern. First, the gear that turns to open the canopy was grinding on the canopy rail wheels and they had to be narrowed for clearance. Second, the wheels that ran in the C-tracks were 0.010” larger than the track opening they were running in, creating an interesting interference fit. So, they had to be machined down in diameter to fit the track. Thanks Bud Fine for both items! That helped a LOT. Third, the canopy slid on two sections of track that were supposed to be flat relative to each other but were, in fact, humped in the middle. Since the canopy slides on four sets of wheels on each side, this created a levering interference fit as they slid over the hump in the middle. We fabricated some shims to make the section flat and we hope that solves the canopy operation issue … we’ll see soon, probably within two weeks. One set is complete and the second set will be done this coming weekend. If the shims work as expected, we’re in like Flint and we can get started on the canopy enclosure itself. If not, it’s back to the drawing board. Naturally, since we thought up the fix, we hope it IS a fix and not an “opportunity for improvement.”
Once that is completed, we must find a method such that the canopy can be operated from both inside and outside the cockpit. This was never part of the original canopy system, but must be going forward. Otherwise, no pilot wants to fly it … and you can understand why. This is, after all, a VERY EARLY jet prototype, and was never known for reliability. We have addressed that, at least in the engine area, but both the pilot and his would-be rescuer must be able to reach and operate the canopy enclosure easily in the event of an emergency. Unfortunately, it will be operable from the starboard side only, and there is nothing we can do about that without a complete canopy system redesign. In the end, we might have to do just that; maybe not. It depends on how the final canopy system looks to Steve (Hinton) and John (Maloney).
The canopy is a puzzle of its own magnitude. As the sliding part of the canopy moves back, it folds the “fixed” rear canopy panels down and in so they get out of the way of the sliding part as it moves aft. You should see this thing operate. Rube Goldberg has nothing on this canopy setup, believe me. I think it could double as a mousetrap or maybe a cat snare; all it needs is a trigger and some bait. We are in the middle of repairing the rear section hinges as they were damaged in several areas. Many of the Dzus fasteners were in need of replacement, too. Got some done already; more to come. How did they ever come up with the name “Dzus” anyway? It doesn’t seem like a regular American word, does it? Sounds like Swahili and Sanskrit combined with a virus spoken through a mouthful of Peanut Butter. Maybe it’s French.
We still need some rivets in the nosewheel well area, and then we need to take a look at the flight control cables and pulleys. The instrument panel looks pretty good, but must be mounted and plumbed to work. Bruce? Are you listening? Need anymore tubing? After all this is done, it’ll be close to being an airplane … and then the people who will eventually FLY this aircraft must do a thorough once-over to ensure everything was done right before anyone attempts to start it or fly it.
Once it is running, first flight shouldn’t be too far away, assuming no major surprises. We THINK all the cats have been rooted out of THIS airframe. We relocated the ones we found to the B-17. They started a small enclave in one wing. Those B-17 guys needed something other than fund raising and signs to keep them occupied, and cats seemed appropriate. We think they’re now almost up to the status of “cat ranch.” They might have new careers as cat wranglers. Yippie-eye-O-kie-A …
At this time, it is anticipated this aircraft will be restored to it’s original paint scheme seen during its life at Muroc. There are a LOT of volunteers who have put a LOT of time into this project who are no doubt looking forward to the first engine runnup and first flight. Hopefully, as these events approach, we will be able to give the volunteers some advance notice for photo ops. Schedule-wise, we are shooting for this aircraft to fly in the 2010 airshow. We might just make it, too, assuming those B-17 guys don’t return the cats. We're on the lookout for cat food in the cockpit.
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