(I reproduce this here because it is such a memorable bit of American flight
history):
Subject: Bell Airacuda (YFM-1)
Date: 24 Jul 1996 19:09:25 GMT
"Another airplane I flew was the YFM-1 Airacuda, made by Bell Aircraft Corporation in
Buffalo, New York. It was a pusher built around two exhaustdriven
turbo-charged Allison engines of 1040 horsepower each. It was new in type
and concept. The design's hypothesis was that it would be used as a
bomber-destroyer. It had two thirty-seven millimeter cannons, one in the nose
of each nacelle, but little in the way of defensive weapons. Several other
innovations were being explored on the Airacuda that were not used on any previous
military airplanes. Because some of the innovations were impractical, they
haven't been used since.
Flying the Bell Airacuda was a new experience for me, since it was the first pusher
aircraft I'd ever flown. Its handling characteristics were foreign to anything I
had ever had my hands on. Under power it was unstable in pitch, but stable
with power off. While flying straight and level, if a correction in pitch was
required, a forward push on the control resulted in the airplane wanting to pitch over
even more. Pitch control became a matter of continually jockeying the controls,
however slightly, even when the aircraft was in proper trim. The same applied
if pulling back on the control. It would tend to continue pitching up, requiring
an immediate corrective response. The same happened in a turn. With
power off, the Bell became stable in pitch. This was fortunate because during
approach and landing, it was very stable, and a nice flying airplane.
It was built around several new ideas never tried before, and was unlike any other
fighters up to that time. First, it wasn't designed to be a fighter plane,
although many had the mistaken idea that it was. It could be better described
as a bomber destroyer. The tactics suggested by its designer were based
upon the machine being used as a flying antiaircraft platform. It was a
defensive weapon to be used only against incoming bombers that were beyond the
range of escorting fighters. Although it had some defensive weapons, I think
they were more psychological in nature, for the benefit of the YFM-1 crew, than
practical.
The tactics envisioned were that the Airacuda would fly in trail, just out of range of
the enemy bomber formation's guns. Up to that time bombers had 30 and 50
caliber weapons. It is important for the reader to keep in mind that the Bell
would be used only against enemy bomber formations that were out of range of
protective fighter escort. The YFM-1 had little or no effective firepower for its
defense, and as a consequence, would be a sitting duck against agile fighters.
The front of each engine nacelle housed a 37 mm, gyro-stabilized cannon. With the
longer range of the 37 mm guns, they could pluck the enemy bombers off, one by one.
In other words, it was a mobile antiaircraft gun platform.
The primary function of the men in the nacelles was loading the guns, although they
could be fired by the gun crew in an emergency. Initially, the pilot of the plane
aimed the airplane in the general direction of the formation. Further correction in aim
would then be made by the gun control officer, and fired by him. His station
was directly behind the pilot, using an inverted periscope that came out through the
belly of the ship to aim the guns. The fire control officer would clutch the guns
into the gyros, which stabilized them. From that moment on they would stay
on target. The person operating the guns could then make any further
correction and fire away until the bomber was brought down. His position had
swingout flight controls, and in an emergency he could fly the airplane. If it was
necessary to abandon the aircraft, the pilot would have to feather both engines to
prevent the propellers from chewing the men to pieces, especially those in the
nacelles. The flight manual said they would feather in six seconds; that's a
long time in my book.
In addition to being a pusher airplane, the YFM-1 also had other unusual features.
It had only one engine-driven accessory, an emergency fifty-ampere generator on the
left engine. The Bell Airacuda was an electrical nightmare. All normally
driven engine accessories, such as fuel pumps, hydraulic pumps, vacuum pump, and
the gyros stabilizing the guns were electrically driven. Because of all the
electrical energy required, the ship had to have a full-time auxiliary power unit.
The auxiliary power unit was driven by a powerful four-cylinder gasoline engine which
ran all the equipment. Since the aircraft was required to operate at high
altitudes, the APU also had to be turbo-supercharged. To do this, a dual bleed
came from the same exhaust turbo-chargers that super-charged the Allison engines.
The power unit was the weak link in the system.
Changing fuel tanks was simple. There was no fuel selector as we normally
think of one. Each fuel tank had its own fuel pump. Tanks were changed
by flipping the switch on for the electric fuel pump of the desired tank. The
gear and flap selector was similar in appearance to the C-47's fuel selector.
Gear and flaps were activated by rotating this control to the appropriate position.
It only had three positions--takeoff, fly and land--and could be turned only in a
clockwise direction. In the takeoff position, the flaps were retracted. In
the fly position, the gear was retracted, and in the land position, both gear and flaps
came down. The flaps immediately followed the gear. Unfortunately the
two were not isolated from each other, and that posed a minor problem.
To get gear only, such as on downwind, the pilot would watch the gear as it extended.
When almost all the way down, he tripped the circuit breaker. Then on final,
when the flaps were required, the breaker was turned back on. At the
completion of the landing roll, the pilot would select fly position, retracting the flaps.
The engines had no cooling fans, so in summer the airplanes had to be towed to the
takeoff position before starting. As soon as there was an indication of an oil
temperature rise, the pilot immediately started the takeoff run. When landing,
if the oil temperature was on the high side, the pilot would have to shut the engines
down and have the ship towed to the parking area. If the airplane had only a
short distance to taxi, it could continue to its parking place under its own power.
One recurring problem experienced by pilots flying the Airacudas was that the
auxiliary power unit would all too frequently stall or quit. The reverse current
relay would stick and motorized the generator. Since this would drain most of
the current from the battery, all electrical systems became inoperative: NO
fuel pressure, NO vacuum, NO hydraulic pressure, NO gear,
NO flaps and NO ENGINES. The first time I lost both engines,
I was in the landing pattern on base leg just about to turn final when the APU quit,
then a second later so did both Allison engines.
Fortunately, it occurred right after the gear locked down, and I was able to make the
runway without power. Although the airplane had a wobble pump, the handle
was only four inches long. It was impossible to supply two Allison engines with
the wobble pump, since they consumed over three hundred gallons of fuel per hour
at full power. Its only purpose was to start the engines.
The second time the problem occurred, I was flying on instruments, but again I was
fortunate. They both quit not too long after I had started into the overcast.
I knew there was a couple thousand foot ceiling under the cloud base, so I dove out
of the cloud before the gyros tumbled. All the while, the crew chief was trying
to restart the APU, which started with room to spare. With the APU going, the
fuel pumps came on and both Allison engines began producing power. The
remainder of the trip to Langley was uneventful and I made a safe landing there."
Erik Shilling was a Flight Leader in the 3rd Squadron, AVG
(Flying Tigers), and is the author of "Destiny: A
Flying Tiger's Rendezvous with Fate".
The Aerofiles site noted under "
Berliner and Aviation" on Continuation Page 2, is one of the most
amazing amassments of aircraft information I have ever seen; I heartily
recommend it to you.
Their page on Bell has some info. on
the Airacuda.
I ran across another aviation site with an Airacuda photo and new text: Walter J.
Boyne's "Walt’s Web Hangar, with
Walt's Aircraft Picks:
"The Bell Airacuda was a brilliant attempt by Bell to break into the airplane business
by building something different -- a long range multi-place interceptor. The
great Ben Kelsey was behind the airplane, and did the first test flights, just as he did
with the P-38. He was a Lieutenant at the time, but had more authority than
many generals do today. The Airacuda looked good, but it had too much drag,
the engines were almost impossible to keep cool, and escape in an emergency would
be problematical. Most went out of service with a handful of hours logged. Ben
was a good friend of mine later in life, and a fund of information."
(Quoted verbatim from, and © 2002, Walter J. Boyne, by specific
written permission - all rights reserved)
(Photo from, and © 2002, Walter J. Boyne, by specific written
permission - all rights reserved)
Notice the differences from the CAF YFM-1 photo above; the 37mm guns are not
emplaced and there are greenhouses but no air scoops and no waist-gun blisters.
Might one safely assume that that's the inverted periscope sticking out in the
airstream under the cockpit?
Walt confirmed that nacelle crewmen could wriggle through the wing roots* to and
from the main fuselage and my reaction was that that must have been an
uncomfortable moment if the APU and those electricals were all cutting out!
Walt added that, if he recalled his interviews with Strickler and Kelsey correctly, "they
had difficulty getting people to ride in the nacelles, because obviously you were not
going to get out in any sort of out-of-control situation" (not to mention the props, if
one DID manage to get out and they were still milling!).
* - see thick roots at Stratosphere Jim
on my next aviation page.
[Link 
(28 Jan 08)]
An e-mail message brought these pictures of a 1934 so-called Curtiss Hawk biplane
pedal car:
(cropped from Oct 2006 photo courtesy of owner - all rights reserved)
[Thumbnailed image; click on picture for larger image]
(cropped from Oct 2006 photos courtesy of owner - all rights reserved)
[Thumbnailed images; click on pictures for larger images]
(cropped from Oct 2006 photos courtesy of owner - all rights reserved)
[Thumbnailed images; click on pictures for larger images]
No Hawk of which I'm aware was a trimotor but the outboard engines don't match the
center engine and may have been add-ons. The owner (and I) would like to
know more about this golden oldie.
Because of page size limitations, this page is a continuation of the
Aviation page, et seq.; visit it and the subsequent continuation pages.
THUMBS UP!
THUMBS UP! - Support your local police, fire, and emergency personnel!
S. Berliner, III
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