This photograph depicts an experimental U.S. Army Air Forces fighter of unconventional design, parked on an airfield ramp. Its swept wings, rear-mounted pusher propeller, and small nose-mounted canard foreplane, together with the visible serial number, identify it as most likely the Curtiss-Wright XP-55 Ascender — one of only three prototypes built during World War II to test radical departures from conventional fighter layouts. Though never placed into production, the XP-55 program contributed valuable data on canard aerodynamics and pusher-engine configurations to U.S. wartime aviation research. Project: 218470