The 'Absurd' American Fighter Built to Destroy Entire Bomber Formations Alone

On September 1, 1937, test pilot Lieutenant Benjamin Kelsey lifted a machine off the field at Buffalo, New York, that looked less like a fighter than a science-fiction illustration. The Bell XFM-1 Airacuda carried two engines mounted backwards as pushers, and in the nose of each engine nacelle sat a gunner with a 37mm cannon. It was the first American aircraft to carry the 37mm cannon into the air, the largest fighter flying anywhere in the world by 1940, and the most heavily armed interceptor the United States had ever built. Its mission was radical. Climb above an enemy bomber formation and destroy it with cannon fire from beyond the range of the bombers' own guns — one aircraft, an entire formation, alone. The Army's leadership was captivated. Chief of the Air Corps Major General Oscar Westover called it "probably the most formidable fighting weapon of its type yet developed." His successor, General Hap Arnold, called it the most striking example of aircraft development anywhere in the world. Then reality arrived. At 277 mph the Airacuda could not catch the very bombers it was built to kill. A single fragile auxiliary power unit could shut down every system and both engines at once — one pilot who flew it called the machine "an electrical nightmare." Only 13 were built. Not one fired a shot in combat, and all were scrapped by early 1942. Yet the ideas Bell tested on the Airacuda — the heavy nose cannon, the Allison engine driving the propeller through a long extension shaft, the tricycle landing gear — lived on in the Bell P-39 Airacobra, one of the most-produced American fighters of the war and a top-scoring killer in Soviet hands. This is the story of how a fighter mocked as absurd pioneered the weapons that armed a war-winner, and then vanished without firing a shot in anger. — BELL YFM-1 AIRACUDA SPECIFICATIONS Engine: 2 x Allison V-1710 liquid-cooled V-12 (1,150 hp each), pusher configuration Max Speed: 277 mph (446 km/h) Cruise Speed: 244 mph (393 km/h) Service Ceiling: 30,500 ft Range: 2,600 miles Rate of Climb: 1,480 ft/min Armament: 2 x 37mm M4 cannon (one per nacelle, 110 rounds each), plus .50 and .30 caliber Browning machine guns Crew: 5 (pilot, co-pilot/fire-control officer, radioman/gunner, two nacelle cannoneers) Wingspan: 69 ft 10 in / Length: 44 ft 10 in / Height: 13 ft 7 in Empty Weight: 13,376 lb / Loaded: 17,333 lb Construction: All-metal stressed-skin monocoque Total Built: 13 (1 XFM-1, 9 YFM-1, 3 YFM-1A; 2 converted to YFM-1B) CURTISS P-36 HAWK (SINGLE-SEAT RIVAL COMPARISON) Engine: 1 x Pratt & Whitney R-1830 radial (~1,050 hp) Max Speed: ~313 mph Crew: 1 Armament: rifle- and .50-caliber machine guns Verdict: faster, cheaper, and vastly more maneuverable — the conventional interceptor the Airacuda could never out-fight KEY OPERATIONAL DATA First flight: September 1, 1937, Buffalo, NY — test pilot Lt. Benjamin Kelsey Designer: Robert J. Woods, Bell Aircraft Corporation (founded July 1935 by Lawrence "Larry" Bell) Only operator: 27th Pursuit Squadron — the sole unit to fly the type Combat missions flown: 0 — the Airacuda never fired on an enemy aircraft First American aircraft to mount the 37mm cannon; largest fighter flying as of 1940 Fatal accident: January 22, 1942 (YFM-1A) — the only man killed flying the type Fate: all 13 scrapped by March 1942; not a single example survives in any museum Doctrinal parallel — Germany's twin-engine Messerschmitt Bf 110 "bomber destroyer" began the Battle of Britain with 237 aircraft and lost 223, proving the heavy destroyer concept failed everywhere it met modern single-seat fighters Legacy: the Airacuda's nose cannon, extension-shaft Allison engine, and tricycle gear passed directly into the P-39 Airacobra (roughly 9,500 built) — SOURCES AND HISTORICAL NOTES This video draws on published aviation histories, official U.S. Army Air Corps records, and first-hand pilot testimony. Key references include Bill Norton's "U.S. Experimental & Prototype Aircraft Projects: Fighters 1939–1945," Donald J. Norton's "Larry: A Biography of Lawrence D. Bell" (1981), Enzo Angelucci's "The American Fighter," and Major Alexander P. de Seversky's "Victory Through Air Power" (1942). Pilot testimony is drawn from Erik Shilling's memoir "Destiny: A Flying Tiger's Rendezvous with Fate." Specifications cross-referenced with standard type databases. Note: sources vary on the exact production total (13 to 15) and the first-flight date (September 1, 1937 is best documented; one account gives August 28). No reliable primary figure exists for the unit cost. Viewer corrections welcome — accuracy matters. #WWII #Airacuda #BellAircraft #AviationHistory #MilitaryHistory #WW2 #Warplanes #Aircraft #P39 #WWIIhistory #FighterPlane #AviationNerd