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THE 456th FIGHTER INTERCEPTOR SQUADRON |
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THE PROTECTORS OF S. A. C. |
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The P-35 won the distinction of being the first single-seat aircraft ordered by the Air Corps with such features as a fully enclosed cockpit and a retractable landing gear.
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The Seversky\Republic P-35 |
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The Seversky P-35was the Predecessor of the P-47 Thunderbolt
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The fighter incorporated a redesigned fuselage and tail section. Designated the SEV-1XP, it was flown to Wright Field in Ohio for the 1936 fighter competition, from which, it emerged as the winner. Further development resulted in an Air Corps order for the fighter, now given the new designation
P-35. The one glaring fault of the P-35 was its retractable landing gear layout. In an era where flush folding landing gear were becoming common-place on new fighter designs, the P-35 used a method that was minimally effective in reducing drag, as compared to a fixed landing arrangement. The Seversky’s gear simply folded back into a pod-like housing that protruded from the underside of the wing. When seen alongside many of the worlds newer fighter designs, such as the Hawker Hurricane, Supermarine Spitfire, Curtiss Hawk 75 and Germany’s Messerschmitt 109, the P-35 appeared awkward and decidedly less sleek. Nonetheless, the new P-35 offered performance on par with most of the world’s best fighters.
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The Seversky P-35-History |
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The P-35 Prototype
During its lifetime, Republic Aircraft Corporation constructed tens of thousands of combat aircraft yet, today, any form of Republic fighter is a very rare commodity. During the 1930s, a one-legged former Czarist Russian aristocrat had a very profound effect on American military aircraft design. Alexander P. de Seversky had been born in Tiflis, Russia, to a wealthy family. During the Great War, he entered the Imperial Russian Naval Air Service but on his first combat mission Seversky had the misfortune to have his aircraft hit by antiaircraft fire during an attack on German naval units in the Gulf of Rige. Seversky managed to bring his burning aircraft down for a rough crash-landing in the open sea but a bomb had hung up on its rack and detonated upon impact with the water.
The explosion instantly killed Seversky's observer and blew his own right leg off. Rescued by friendly forces, Seversky was rushed to a hospital and his life was saved. During his recuperation, the pilot demanded an artificial limb so he could get back into combat! His superiors thought him mad but eventually gave in and Seversky entered combat with an enthusiasm that bordered on mania. Seversky attacked every German aircraft that he spotted with a wild abandon. His score of enemy aircraft confirmed destroyed mounted, and he soon had 13 to his credit and was ranked as Russia's third highest ace.
Seversky/
Republic
P-35ASpecifications: Dimensions: P-35 P-35A Wing span: 36 ft (11.00 m) 36 ft (11.00 m) Length: 25 ft 2 in (7.67 m) 26 ft 10 in (8.17 m) Height: 9 ft 1 in. (2.76 m) 9 ft 9 in. (2.97 m) Wing Area: 220 ft.² (20.43 m²) 220 ft.² (20.43 m²) Weights: Empty: 4,315 lb. (1,975 kg) 4,575 lb. (2,075 kg) Gross: 5,595 lb (2,540 kg) 6,118 lb (2,775 kg) Max T/O: 6,295 lb (2,855 kg) 6,723 lb (3,050 kg) Performance: Cruise Speed: 260 mph (418 km/h) 260 mph (418 km/h) Max Speed: 282 mph (454 km/h)
@ 10,000 ft (3,048 m)290 mph (467 km/h)
@ 12,000 ft (3,658 m)Climb Rate: 15,000 ft/ 6.9 min (4,572/6'54") 1,920 ft./min (585 m/min) Service Ceiling: 30,600 ft. (9,327 m) 31,400 ft. (9,571 m) Absolute Ceiling: 31,750 ft. (9,677 m) 32,300 ft. (9,845 m) Normal Range: 1,150 miles (1,851 km) 600 miles (966 km) Max Range: 1,150 miles (1,851 km) 950 miles (1,529 km) During 1917, Seversky was ordered to travel to the United States on a fact-finding mission to check on that country's supply of raw and finished war materials. Seversky crossed the country, visiting war plants and talking to high-placed officials. While Seversky was in the United States, the depressing news of the Russian revolution reached him. Deciding not to return to a country dominated by the hated Communists, a type that he detested even more than the Germans, Seversky made the choice to stay in the United States and work to become a citizen of the country that he had quickly learned to admire.
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Seversky built up a large friendship of important military and political officials and during the 1920s patented a number of devices that helped develop aviation. In 1926, he was commissioned as a major in the Army Air Corps Reserve, a rank that he would proudly use for the rest of his life.
In 1931, with the help of investors, he set up his own aircraft company and began developing numerous modern aircraft which eventually resulted in the Seversky P-35 pursuit, the US Army Air Corps' first modern production fighter with all-metal construction, enclosed cockpit, and retractable landing gear. Seversky and chief designer Alexander Kartveli, also a Russian refugee, were always modifying their designs to attract more customers- especially lucrative export orders. The company made a controversial sale to the Japanese government in 1939 of 20 SEV2PA-B3 two-seat fighters which were based on the basic P-35 design.
The contract with the Japanese had a disastrous effect on future business for Seversky. The secret nature of the Seversky negotiations with the Japanese government angered American politicians who, in turn, apparently exerted considerable pressure on the Air Corps not to order any more P-35s and, instead, to concentrate on the rival Curtiss Model 75-the pursuit that would become known as the P-36.
Powerplant: P-35 Pratt & Whitney R-1830-9 Twin Wasp radial engine,
850 hp (634 kW)Armament: One 0.30 in machine gun;
one 0.50 in machine gun;
up to 300 lb (136 kg) of bombsWhile no actual evidence was uncovered that Seversky acted illegally, his sale of aircraft to Japan was extremely unpopular with the public and the company began to experience severe financial difficulties. While Seversky was in England trying to convince the British that the P-35 was just what they wanted (fortunately, they knew better), the Board of Directors ousted Seversky and reorganized the company in order to avoid bankruptcy. The new organization became known as the Republic Aircraft Corporation.
During this time of transition, a deal was being struck with Sweden for the sale of modified P-35s. During February 1939, Sweden placed an order with Republic for 100 EP- I 06s (the designation of EP- 1 was also utilized for this aircraft) and 50 SEV2PA-204A two-place fighters that were to be outfitted as dive bombers. The first batch of EP- I s arrived in Sweden and a second order for 60EP- 1 s was signed.
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However, events soon turned sour for Sweden when the United States placed an embargo on all military goods to that nation and, on 24 October 1940, claimed all the completed and uncompleted Swedish aircraft in the United States. The remaining EP- I s were given the designation P-35A and shipped to the Philippines to bolster American defenses. Only two of the dive bombers had been delivered and the remaining aircraft were taken over by the Army Air Force (redesignated the previous June) and assigned to training units as AT- 12 Guardsman advanced trainers. The 48 AT- I 2s led a quiet life, serving mainly as base hacks and at the conclusion of the war, the majority of survivors were simply scrapped. However, a couple were sold surplus. One surplus AT- 12 was even entered (as a "Super P-35") into the 1949 Bendix Trophy cross-country speed dash! Flown by Vincent Perron and sponsored by actor Buddy Rogers, the completely outclassed Guardsman was registered NX55811 and carried the race number 61. The AT12 was to start off with the rest of the competition from a race horse start on Rosemond Dry Lake but Perron had a hard time starting the engine and the AT- 12 was the last craft to take off. Perron and the AT- 12 dropped out at Grand Junction, Colorado, with a malfunctioning engine, thus ending the "Super P-35's" brief moment of fame.
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SEV-3
As a private venture, Seversky built the prototype of a two-seat fighter which it designated Seversky SEV-2XP, but while being evaluated by the US Army Air Corps in June 1935 this prototype was damaged sufficiently to need factory repair. The company's designer Alexander Kartveli, took the opportunity to introduce retractable main landing gear and revised the cockpit as a singleseater, the aircraft then being redesignated SEV-1XP. When tested by the USAAC it was found to be underpowered, its 634-kW (850-hp) Wright R-1820-G5 Cyclone radial then being replaced by a Pratt & Whitney R-1830-9 Twin Wasp of similar output, resulting in the new designation SEV-7. Performance had deteriorated still further, the R-1830-9 delivering little more than 85 per cent of its rated power resulting in the installation of an R-1830-9 engine with a guaranteed output of 708 kW (950 hp) in the aircraft that was then rede signated AP-1. In this form the type was ordered by the USAAC under the designation P-35, the first of 77 aircraft being delivered in July 1937. The last of the batch was completed as an improved aircraft designated XP-41 which flew shortly before the company changed its name to Republic Aircraft Corporation, and this was fundamentally the prototype of the Republic P-43 Lancer
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Under the designation EP-1 the type was offered for export, the Swedish government ordering the first 15 of a batch of 120 designated EP-106, which differed primarily by having a more powerful R-183045 engine and heavier armament Half of these had been delivered by 18 June 1940, being designated J 9 in Swedish service, but the balance of 60 was requisitioned for the USAAC and delivered under the designation P-35A. They were severely mauled by the Japanese when deployed in the Philippines, only eight of 48 remaining airworthy after the first two days of enemy attacks, and this represented the first and last operational use of the type. The remaining 12 P-35As were later supplied to Ecuador.
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The P-35
* The P-35, which had the company designation "AP-1 (Army Pursuit 1)", entered service in 1937, the last of the batch being delivered in August 1938. 76 P-35s were actually built instead of the 77 ordered, with the 77th aircraft finished as an experimental variant for the USAAC, featuring a P&W R-1830-9 engine with a two-stage, two-speed supercharger and 895 kW (1,200 HP); better streamlining, including fully retractable landing gear; and the designation of "XP-41".
The production P-35 differed from the SEV-1XP by featuring partial mainwheel fairings instead of full mainwheel fairings, seven degrees of dihedral to the outer wing panels, and a more aerodynamic front canopy.
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The P-35's performance was poor even by contemporary standards and its handling was atrocious, with a nasty tendency to go into a spin in a tight turn. Although USAAC fliers appreciated the P-35's ruggedness, the aircraft was already obsolescent by the time deliveries were finished.
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* Kartveli continued to refine the P-35 design while the aircraft was being produced. The company constructed a range of one-off variants with different powerplants and enhancements, with the designations "AP-2", "AP-7", "AP-4" (which flew after the AP-7), "AP-9", and the previously mentioned XP-41; and actually built a carrier-based fighter designated the "NF-1 (Naval Fighter 1)".
None of these variants went into production and are of little interest, but the AP-4 proved significant in the further development of Seversky aircraft. It featured fully retractable landing gear, flush riveting, and most significantly a P&W R-1830-SC2G engine with a belly-mounted turbo-supercharger, providing 895 kW (1,200 HP) and good high-altitude performance. Exhaust-driven turbo-supercharger technology had been refined by Boeing as part of the development program for the B-17 bomber; the opportunities offered by it for improved performance were of great interest to other aircraft manufacturers.
The one AP-4 built was used as a test platform to evaluate means of improving the aerodynamics of radial-engine fighters. It was fitted with a very large prop spinner and a tight-fitting engine cowling, following similar experiments that had been performed with the first production P-35. The AP-4's big spinner was later removed and a new tight-fitting cowling was installed. Unsurprisingly, these measures led to engine overheating problems. On 22 March 1939, the engine caught fire in flight, the pilot had to bail out, and the AP-4 was lost. However, the AP-4 would lead to bigger and better things.
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The P-35
* Incidentally, Seversky also built a refinement of the original two-seat fighter concept embodied by the SEV-2XP, resulting in the "SEV-2PA Guardian", apparently also referred to as the "X-BT", which was available with retractable landing gear or floats. The USSR bought one with each landing gear option, plus a manufacturing license, but never put the type into production.
The Japanese Imperial Navy actually bought 20 SEV-2PAs, apparently through an intermediary as a subterfuge to conceal the ultimate customer, but found them disappointing. Two of them were passed on the ASAHI SHIMBUN newspaper as hacks. Sweden ordered 52 SEV-2PAs as dive-bombers, but only two were delivered before the US embargoed exports of fighters to Sweden in October 1940. The other 50 ended up in USAAC hands as the "AT-12" and were used as gunnery trainers.
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The P-35
* The Seversky Company also sold Sweden a refinement of the P-35 designated the "EP-1 (Export Pursuit 1)". The EP-1 was powered by a P&W R-1830-S1C1 Twin Wasp engine with 745 kW (1,000 HP), improving its performance relative to the P-35 by over 40 KPH (25 MPH). The Swedes ordered a total of 120 EP-1s, with initial order placed in mid-1939.
60 of these aircraft were actually delivered to Sweden. They were armed with two 7.9 millimeter guns in the nose and one 13.2 millimeter gun in each wing, for a total of four guns. They served with the Swedish air force through the war and occasionally escorted intruding Allied bombers into internment, though they could barely keep up and were at substantial risk of being shot down, since the EP-1 looked quite a bit like a German Focke-Wulf FW-190 fighter from some angles.
Following the embargo against Sweden, the other 60 EP-1s were taken over by the USAAC with the designation of "P-35A". They were apparently fitted with two 12.7 millimeter Brownings in the cowling and a 7.62 millimeter Browning in each wing. 48 were sent to the Philippines, where they fought in the futile defense of the islands in December 1941 and January 1942, but they were hopelessly outclassed by Japanese fighters. The other P-35As were used as USAAC trainers.
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