Ryan FR Fireball The Ryan FR Fireball was a mixed - power ( piston and jet - powered ) fighter aircraft designed by Ryan Aeronautical for the United States Navy during World War II . It was the Navy ' s first aircraft with jet propulsion . Only 66 aircraft were built before Japan surrendered in August 1945 . The FR - 1 Fireball equipped a single squadron before the end of the war , but did not see combat . The aircraft ultimately proved to lack the structural strength required for operations aboard aircraft carrier s and was withdrawn in mid - 1947 . Design and development . Design of the FR - 1 began in 1943 to a proposal instigated by Admiral John S . McCain , Sr . for a mixed - powered fighter because early jet engines had sluggish acceleration that was considered unsafe and unsuitable for carrier operations . Ryan received a contract for three XFR - 1 prototypes and one static test airframe on 11 February 1943 with the first two prototypes delivered in 14 months . Another contract was placed for 100 aircraft on 2 December 1943 and a later contract on 31 January 1945 increased the total of FR - 1s on order to 700 . The XFR - 1 was a single - seat , low - wing monoplane with tricycle landing gear . A Wright R - 1820 - 72W Cyclone radial engine was mounted in the fighter ' s nose while a General Electric I - 16 ( later redesignated as the J - 31 ) turbojet was mounted in the rear fuselage . It was fed by ducts in each wing root which meant that the wing had to be relatively thick to house the ducts and the outward - retracting main landing gear . To simplify the fuel system , both engines used the same grade of avgas . Two self - sealing fuel tank s were housed in the fuselage , one of and the other of . The cockpit was positioned just forward of the leading edge of the wing and the pilot was provided with a bubble canopy which gave him excellent visibility . The XFR - 1 had the first laminar flow airfoil in a navy carrier aircraft . The Fireball was armed with four . 50 in ( 12 . 7 mm ) M2 Browning machine gun s with 300 rounds per gun . They were mounted in the center section of the wing , immediately outboard of the air intakes for the jet engine . Four 5 - inch ( 127 mm ) rockets could be carried under each outer wing panel and two hardpoint s were provided under the center section for 1 , 000 lb ( 454 kg ) bombs or drop tanks . Armor plates were provided in front and behind the pilot ' s seat and for the oil cooler . The first XFR - 1 made its first flight on 25 June 1944 without its jet engine , but that was installed shortly afterward . The second prototype first flew on on 20 September 1944 . Test flights confirmed wind tunnel tests that revealed a lack of longitudinal stability because the center of gravity had been miscalculated . In addition , the circular rear fuselage of the FR - 1 gave less stability than the slab - style fuselage of the Grumman F4F Wildcat that was used as a model for the stability calculations . A new tail with enlarged vertical and horizontal stabilizer s was designed and retrofitted to the prototypes . The original Douglas double - slotted flaps proved to be unsatisfactory during flight testing , but all three prototypes and the first 14 production aircraft were built with them before they were replaced with a single - slotted flap . The first prototype was lost in a crash at NAS China Lake on 13 October 1944 . Investigation showed that the wing structure was not strong enough to resist compressibility effects . This was cured by doubling the number of rivets in the outer wing panels . The second prototype crashed on 25 March 1945 when the pilot failed to recover from a dive from , probably also due to compressibility effects . The third prototype crashed on 5 April when the canopy blew off during a high - speed pass over Lindbergh Field . Operational testing by the Naval Air Test Center at Naval Air Station Patuxent River that included carrier acceptability tests revealed additional problems . The piston engine tended to overheat until electrically operated cowl flaps were installed , the catapult hooks had to be moved and the nose wheel oleo shock strut had to be lengthened by . Carrier suitability tests began aboard the escort carrier in early January 1945 . The aircraft successfully made five catapult takeoffs using the piston engine as well as three takeoffs using both engines . No problems were reported when landing aboard the carrier . The FR - 1 Fireball was further developed into the XFR - 2 which utilized a 1 , 425 hp ( 1 , 063 kW ) Wright R - 1820 - 74W in place of the - 72W . One single airframe was converted to this configuration . No prototypes were built for the next proposed variant , the FR - 3 , which would have used a General Electric I - 20 turbojet . Both of these projects were canceled with the end of the war . The fastest Fireball was the XFR - 4 , which had a Westinghouse J34 turbojet and was approximately 100 mph ( 161 km / h ) faster than the FR - 1 . The turbojet ' s air intakes were moved from the wing roots to the fuselage in front of the wing ; they were covered by electrically powered doors to lessen drag when the aircraft was only flying on its piston engine . The Fireball ' s fuselage was lengthened by to accommodate the larger engine and the leading edge extension of the wing root that housed the air intakes was also removed . The XFR - 4 was intended to serve as a testbed for the turbojet installation on the XF2R - 1 Dark Shark . This was the final variant ; the piston engine was replaced with a General Electric XT31 - GE - 2 turboprop , but only one prototype was built . On 2 December 1943 , orders for 100 production FR - 1s were placed , with a follow - up order of 1 , 000 additional fighters in January 1945 . All of the contracts were contingent on the aircraft successfully completing carrier trials . Only 66 Fireballs were completed by November 1945 as orders for 1 , 044 FR - 1s were canceled on VJ Day . Operational history . One squadron , VF - 66 , received its first Fireballs in March 1945 , but they never saw combat . On 1 May , three of the squadron ' s aircraft were craned aboard the carrier to attempt to qualify seven pilots , but two of the fighters were damaged while landing . One missed the arresting gear and hit the crash barrier while the other one ' s nose gear collapsed . The following month the pilots qualified and were on pre - embarkation leave when the Japanese surrendered . The squadron was decommissioned on 18 October with all pilots and aircraft transferred to VF - 41 . On 6 November 1945 , a Fireball of VF - 41 became the first aircraft to land under jet power on an aircraft carrier , albeit unintentionally . After the radial engine of an FR - 1 failed on final approach to the escort carrier , the pilot managed to start the jet engine and land , barely catching the last arrestor wire before hitting the ship ' s crash barrier . The squadron was attempting to qualify its pilots on carrier operations during this time , but only 14 of its 22 pilots made the six required take offs and landings . A number of accidents occurred when the nose gear failed on landing , but the pilots were at least partly responsible as they were slamming the nose gear onto the deck after landing on the main gear . The squadron qualified on in March 1946 , but nose gear problems persisted and cut the cruise short . Ryan installed a steel fork for the nose wheel , but inspections also revealed evidence of partial wing failures so the aircraft was limited to maneuvers not to exceed 5 Gs . VF - 41 suffered three fatal accidents in 1946 before being redesignated as VF - 1E on 15 November 1946 . One Ensign collided with the target banner during gunnery practice and spun into the water . A few months later , the squadron commander was performing a barrel roll when his wing broke off and he struck another Fireball , killing both pilots . VF - 1E conducted carrier qualification in March 1947 aboard the escort carrier and only eight pilots successfully qualified , not least because the FR - 1s were proving to be too fragile to endure repeated carrier landings . During one brief deployment in June aboard , one aircraft broke in two during a hard landing . Subsequent inspections of the squadron ' s aircraft showed signs of structural failure and all the Fireballs were withdrawn by 1 August 1947 . After the withdrawal of the type from service , except for a few examples retained for modifications and testing , the FR - 1s were scrapped . Operators . The " Firebirds " squadron was known under three names : Survivors . Only a single example , FR - 1 , Bu . 39657 still survives . Deployed first to NASA Ames , the aircraft served as an instructional airframe at a technical school before being acquired by the Planes of Fame Air Museum at Chino , California in the 1960s . After restoration to static display condition , 39657 was rolled out at Chino on 13 June 2009 .