The turbine was reduced to four stages. The low-pressure compressor was encased in a two-part cylindrical casing with stiffening ribs, which gave it an odd appearance similar to the bottom of an egg carton. The shorter high-pressure compressor was similarly encased but with ribs running front-to-back only. Power was taken off between the two compressor stages to power accessories, with the gearbox placed on the top of the engine outside of the compressor casings. In June 1943 the Army eventually demonstrated their interest in a Lockheed jet design but contracted for the P-80 Shooting Star, to be powered by a licensed version of the centrifugal-flow Halford H.1. They remained interested in the L-1000 as well and sent out a long-term development contract under the name XJ37-1 in July 1943 with the first delivery on 1 August 1945. However, when the war ended the first example was only about two thirds complete. Some of the work had been contracted out to Menasco Motors Company and at the end of the year the entire mechanical side of the project was turned over to them. The XJ37 was being worked on at the same time as competing Westinghouse axial-flow designs undergoing development, the 19A and 19B, were being test-run through the 1943-45 period, resulting in America's first production axial-flow turbojet engine, the Westinghouse J30, of which some 260 examples were made for the earliest American military jets for the U.S. Navy, and for the first American delta-wing fighter design, the Convair XF-92. The first engine was finally ready for operation in 1946. The Army contracted for another four examples. Around this time a turboprop version was proposed, the XT35 Typhoon. This was a fairly simple adaptation of the J37, adding a fifth turbine stage at the rear of the engine, containing a radial turbine that drove the pusher propeller and exited the exhaust around the outer rim of the engine. An alternate arrangement would send the exhaust through an opening in the propeller boss. In September 1947 Lockheed finally threw in the towel and sold the design to Wright Aeronautical. At the time the Army (soon to be US Air Force) was in the process of developing a new truly intercontinental bomber. Given engine and airframe technology at that time it appeared that the only way to build such an aircraft would be to use turboprops and Wright was interested in capturing that