Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1940-10-10
.Two-Room Factory
Of 1885 Becomes
j. ). Defense Giant
Larry Bell Turns Our
A 40O-M. P. n. Rocket
Of Destruction
BY JOSEPH S. EDGERTON,
Star Aviation Editor.

| leadership of a man who five years
ago was an unknown in the aviation
industry today is instituting ire
mendous expansion program to turn
out SOS 100000 worth of revolution
airy new pursuit airplanes for the
United States and Great Britain.
One of the romances of the ma
tional defense program and the war
against totalitarianism is the story
of Lawrence D. Bell. who began
his aviation career after running
| away from high school to become a
mechanic for the famous pioneer
pilot. Lincoln Beachey, and for his
brother. Grover Bell, one Of the
noted early pilots.
After years as a cog in the airplane
production industry, Larry Bell flVe
years ago went out on his own. with
two office rooms, no money, but
burning desire to cast aside aero
nautical design tradition and pro-
duce airplanes which would be the
first true air weapons" and not
mere air carriers" devoted to mill
tary purposes.
Nova 400 Nj. p. ii. Rocket.
The result is the radical P-39
pursuit airplane, 400-mile-per-hour
rocket of destruction, which carries
cannon as the main battery of
nest of heavy-caliber rapidf fire guns,
made effective by entirely new
principles of fire which today are
among the most carefully guarded
OF aviation's military secrets
Larry Bell was born in Mentone
| Ind. but his family moved to Santa
Monica. Calf, when he was a boy.
He entered high school there. but
left IN 1912 to work for his brother
and Mr. Beachey. Grover Bell was
killed in a crash soon afterward
Larry Bell today regards these two
men as the outstanding heroes of
aviation. Mr. Beachey. he says, was
the greatest pilot of all time
At the age of l8, Larry Bell was a
shop foreman in the Glenn L. Martin
factory in Los Angeles He reached
the post of vice president and gen.
eral manager of the Martin COM
pany.
( In 1928 Mr.. Bell became general
sales manager of the Consolidated
Aircraft Corp, in Buffalo. When
Consolidated moved its plant from
Buffalo 10 San Diego, Calf, in 1885.
Mr.. Bell decided to cast loose and
/ form a company of his own.
Began Ringing Doorbells.
Surrounded by corporal's guard
I of associates who also decided to
remain in Buffalo and cast in their
lot with him, he moved into two
rooms down the street from the
plant Bell Aircraft now occupies.
In the summer of 1885, Larry Bell
7 began ringing doorbells to sell the
Bell Aircraft Corp. to people of Buff
falo.
BY the end of 1885 Bell Aircraft
had so employees, 40 of whom still
are with the company. The first
order the company received was 10
install Allison engines in Curtiss
! ALL attack airplanes.
With actual work in hand, Robert
J. Woods, now chief design engineer
OF the factory. began designing the
Alracuda, a tWin-engined, multi
scatter Army fighter, one of the
worlds unique aircraft and an air
plane which Larry Bell describes
as five years ahead of its time"
The Airacuda become an imme-
date sensation in world aviation
circles, with its two pusher pro-
pellers-a throwback to the earliest
airplane - two flexiblv mounted
cannon and other striking innova-
tons.
But while the Airacudas were be-
ing built Bob Woods was designing
a Single-engine, Single-Seater inter-
ceptor pursuit airplane, which Mr.
Bell insisted must have superior fire
power, the safety of tricycle. landing
gear. vision and maneuverability
surprising any other pursuit air.
plane in existence and unequalled
speed.
AiracObra Is Built.
1IIO ISSuII NdS lllt All dCOUl 4,
the XP39, official existence of which
was formally announced by the
Army in April, 1899. A service or
der for Is was awarded soon after
ward, but work under this contract
was purposely suspended until the
Army had submitted this new and
radical design to long series of
tests.
Eyebrows throughout the aviation
world went up when secrets of the
design of the XP-39 began to be
noised around. And no wonder!
The airplane was compound OF
unorthodox features. The engine
was behind the pilot, the propeller
operated by 9-foot drive shaft
passing between the pilots feet. A
37-millimeter cannon was mounted
to fire through the propeller hub
The airplane had a tricycle. landing
gear. The pilot was inclosed in
cabin ahead of the leading edge of
the wing, with unobstructed vision
in all directions. The fuselage was
only SO inches wide at its maximum
And the airplane was fast-So fast
that no indication of its true speed
has been permitted to reach the
public-and wonderfully maneuver-
able. Despite all this, it was capa-
BILE of operating off small, unpre-
pared fields.
Given Experimental Contract.
In the meantime Bell Aircraft
also was awarded an experimental
contract by the Navy for a single
engine fighter. the KILL, which is
somewhat similar to the Army job,
but with conventional two-wheel
landing gear for carrier operations
and other changes. 1t is to be known
as the "Airabonita" and soon is to
be delivered to Navy trial board.
A sensational demonstration with
both types. the single engine Aira-
cobra, as deadly as it name, and the
tWin-engined Airacuda was staged
for the writer and other visitors to
the Bell plant in the first unwilling
of this new addition to the Nation s