FIREBALL: A Piston Engined Carrier Fighter With A Jet In Its Tail

From the cockpit forward, the Ryan Fireball is a late war piston engined fighter. The back half, however, is that of an early post war jet. Designed by a small company who'd never built a combat aircraft, you might think that it would be confined to the test bench, but in fact it entered production and saw some squadron service. You might also think that a plane like this would be useless. It wasn't. In many ways it was the best performing piston engined fighter that the US Navy ever deployed. But it was also a technological dead end that did little for the long term fortunes of the Ryan Corporation. Rounding off my series on the first batch of US Navy jet fighters, here is the story of the unheralded Ryan Fireball. I hope you enjoy it. Not the easiest one to research, but I got there in the end.