The D-558-1 was developed by the Douglas Aircraft Company at its El Segundo (California) Division in the 1940s. The basic design philosophy was to build the smallest plane around the most powerful turbine engine available. To mitigate as much risk as possible, the team kept the design simple, using a conventional straight wing rather than the then new, and mostly unproven swept wing. The 5,000-lb.-thrust (22-kilonewton) Allison J35-A-11 engine filled the fuselage, leaving just enough room to house instrumentation and a pilot in a cramped cockpit. Because of the lack of knowledge about the survivability of a high-altitude, highspeed bailout, Douglas engineers designed a jettisonable nose section that could protect the pilot until a safe bailout speed was reached.