Manufacturer: Curtiss-Wright

Model: CW-24F

Name: Ascender

Type: Fighter

Date: 1944

Status: Operational

Country: Canada (U.S.)

Service: Royal Canadian Air Force (U.S. Air Force)

Designation: Ascender I (P-55B)

As Canada did not want to put all their eggs in one basket in procuring the Miles Libellula III, they also asked Curtiss-Wright to work on an improved variant of the XP-55 which was designated P-55B by the USAF and lend-leased to RCAF, which evaluated it as the Ascender I. Here is a rare photo of the two types in formation flight.

The basis was a picture of an XP-55 in flight (see below right). I rounded off the top of the engine and created new air intakes at the wing roots and redrew the wingtip fins. All of these were done "from scratch", being redrawn over the original picture (not my best work I must say, but the original pic was in a small resolution).

The basic configuration of the Ascender remains unchanged. There is no vertical tail any longer but this is compensated by the larger wingtip fins, a configuration which has since been proven by the Rutan family of designs.

• Excellent, very good work. (oliv30330)
• "Those are nifty. I need to build that Miles. (sotoolslinger)
• Very neat, Stargazer. It looks good. (Logan Hartke)
• Really love the Ascender! (lauhof52)
• The Ascender and Libellula are amazing: congrats. (JP Vieira)
• Love the Ascender (Luis Almeida)