Word: airacomet
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...develop an early "bomber" before joining Martin (converted from a Martin exhibition plane, stocked with dynamite-filled gas pipes and sold to Pancho Villa), by 1935 had launched his own firm (estimated 1956 sales: $200 million). Planemaker Bell in 1944 produced the U.S.'s first jet fighter, the Airacomet, made helicopters, missiles and the famed X-1 and X-2 rocket planes, which have broken all speed, altitude records...
...through the hollow prop hub. Expanding from 100 workers to 55,000 at five plants around the U.S. in World War II, Bell built 12,900 fighters (many of which were lend-leased to the Russians), and by 1944 was in production with another innovation, the Bell P-59 Airacomet, first U.S. jet fighter. But typically, Bell was losing interest in fighters. Said he: "They don't offer much challenge really; it's just an endless race to go ten miles an hour faster than somebody else...
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