An ignominious aircraft that sits somewhere between the far more famous P-39 Airacobra
and the P-63 Kingcobra
the Bell XYP-39AGX was hastily developed as an aerial tank-buster for the close support role in response to the German Blitzkrieg rolling across Poland.
The new attack plane eliminated the 'car doors' the original P-39 is known for in favor of armor plate and replaced the canopy with a more standard sliding type that had the heaviest armored glass yet seen in the U.S. Army Air Corps. The decking under the rear of the canopy was modified to provide enhanced updraft airflow to the dorsal intake scoop.
The aircraft featured two .50 caliber synchronized machine guns in the nose along with a 20 mm cannon firing through the propeller hub.
The Augmented Gunnery Experimental designation is due the XYP-39AGX's extra heavy armament of two 35 mm Hotchkiss rapid-fire automatic cannon in under-wing pods along with something straight out of the science fiction of the day: two Goddard GAR-10X unguided rockets which were slung on pylons next to the cannon fairings.
A quick-witted crew chief quipped that the AG part of that AGX designation really meant 'Aero Gunner' and the nick-name stuck for the XYP-39AGX's brief time in service. However, this soon changed from the rough-and-tumble sounding 'Aero Gunner' to the less competent 'Error Gunner' when those Hotchkiss cannon suffered misfires due to icing issues at altitude.
The Bell XYP-39AGX successfully completed flight tests and was sent to to the U.S. Army Air Corps. Materiel Div. for additional testing. It was then posted temporarily to Plane Field near Plainfield, New Jersey since one of the best gunnery ranges on the eastern seaboard is in the Pine Barrens and this was an ideal location to put the
Aero err Error Gunner's heavy weapons through their paces.
The timing was a quirk of fate as the aircraft had been armed with live ammo, including the Goddard GAR-10X unguided rockets which usually carried inert warheads. This gave New Jersey its only locked-and-loaded air defense as the sun went down on October 30, 1939 - Devil's Night.
The Night Operations Officer had just settled in for his shift when he turned on the radio and heard that an enemy was attacking New Jersey. In a panic, he ordered the prototype Bell XYP-39AGX scrambled to intercept the amorphous foe.
The pilot thought he heard the engines of the enemy squadron and then saw a metallic reflection. He fire-walled the throttle and pushed his plane's top-secret 10 cylinder Allison vanadium sleeve-valved high-compression engine hard under extra, boosted emergency power.
The next thing that poor pilot heard was a muffled explosion as one of those vanadium-encased sleeve-valves blew out. He felt lucky to bring the aircraft to a safe, dead-stick landing in a bean field. Despite his best efforts at defending New Jersey, the unknown enemy would score one success that night, scaring the entire nation.
On the very anniversary of his famous
'War of the Worlds' drama, Orson Welles was part-way through a more faithful version of H.G. Well's story as a sort of contrite apologia when his radio show was suddenly pre-empted by imminent air attack warnings.
The next day, the public demanded immediate action because it seemed clear the axis was behind the attempted sneak night attack on the Garden State. President Roosevelt was quick to seize the moment.
Thus the United States entered what would be a long and grueling war. In which the Bell XYP-39AGX Aero Gunner would play no part at all, being quickly superseded by more capable types.
Despite the serial number 36912, only one 'Error Gunner' was ever built and after its disastrous debut, it finished life being abused to destruction by the Air Corp.'s 2379th Remedial Technicians' School and Reformatory near Roswell, New Mexico.
One could say this is because the Army Air Corps. always gave the CAS mission short-shift, but in reality it's because the large U.S. ARMY text couldn't fit under the wings among all the pylons.
Orson Welles fared little better and his fame declined to the point that when he finally retired, he was making cheap travelogue-type films just to pay the bills.
No one ever figured out who the mystery aerial invaders were that night. The axis denied any responsibility and there was a theory that all this was caused by the off-course Canadian airliner
'City of Lost Souls' but this is impossible as that clipper was in Alberta at the time. Conspiracies abounded and then some old gun-camera footage was discovered when the Bell Aircraft Co. moved to new offices.
This only fueled things and the story was fodder for years on Art Bell's
Coast to Coast AM late-night radio show. To this day the government remains tight-lipped and evidence is hard to come by, even if it seems obvious who was probably responsible.
Here is old 36912 built as it appeared after landing, using a mercifully 'one-off' conversion set. The aircraft is shown on the ground, where it spent most of its service life. It wears prototype P markings along with checkerboard test panels used for photographic tracking. Note that this Aero Gunner is accurately depicted, even down to the unique exhaust staining on the port side caused by the sleeve-valve failure.
Unfortunately, despite such commitment to accuracy, the model failed to garner even a mention at the recent Grover's Mill New Jersey Swap Meet, Show and Extraterrestrial UFO Conference. Sadly, the model no longer exists as it briefly became an Unexplained Flying Object when tossed at the wall in disgust.
Brian da Basher