 First flight took place on 30 September when the XP-59 rose to altitude for during taxi testing.However, the first official flight was 1 October 1942 with NACA, Navy Bureau of Aeronautics, Royal Air Force, Army, Bell and General Electric personnel on hand.As with virtually all of the test programs conducted during the war years, most of the actual flight test work on the P-59 was conducted by the contractor.