fighter fm-1

Founded in 1935, bell Aircraft Corporation began its career as a subcontractor for other companies, but moved into design with a project for an unusual long range escort fighter. In structural terms this was a conventional stressed skin monoplane, but the two 1,150 hp (858-kW) V-1710-13 engine were located in over wing nacelles with extension shafts to drive pusher propellers, and the front of each nacelle was extended forward of the wings to provide accommodation for two trainable cannon, which thus had good field of fire. The AIRACUDA lacked the power for high performance, and was in any event too large and cumbersome to have made an affective escort fighter. The US Army Air Corps evaluated the XFM-1 prototype after its first flight in September 1937, and then order 12 examples of the AMF-1 AIRACUDA for service trials. All the aircraft had been delivered by the end of 1940, but no production contract was issued.

Description	Specifications
Manufacturer: Bell Aircraft	Length: 45 ft. 11.5 in.
First Flight: September 19, 1937	Height: 12 ft. 5 in.
Model: YFM-1B	Wing Span: 70 ft. 0 in.
Crew: Five	Wing Area: 600.0 sq. ft.
Nickname: AIRACUDA	Empty Weight: 13,674 lb.
Basic Role: Experimental Escort Fighter	Max. Weight: 19,000 lb.
Other Versions: YFM-1As, YFM -1s	Armament: Two 37-mm cannon in the nacelles, two 0.5-in (12.7-mm) machine guns in the beam positions, two 0.3-in (7.62-mm machine guns in the dorsal and ventral positions, and provision for 30-lb bombs.
Principal User: United States	Propulsion
Performance	Power Plant: Allison V-1710-41 inline piston engine.
Range: 1,670 miles.	Horsepower: 1,090-hp.
Max. Speed: 268 mph.	No. Of Engines: Two
Ceiling: 29,900 ft.
Climb Rate: ----------