Subject: Number Thirty-Five in the Series--the Seversky P-35

From: [email-masked] (Joseph F Baugher)
Date: 6 Nov 92 19:48:40 GMT

>From Joseph F Baugher <[email-masked]>

The Seversky Aircraft Corporation was the brainchild of Alexander 
Prokofieff de Seversky, who was born in Russia in 1894.  de Seversky 
had been an officer in the Tsar's armed forces during World War I, and 
emerged from the war as Russia's third leading ace, with 13 kills to 
his credit.  When the Bolshevik Revolution came to Russia in 1917, de 
Seversky was an air attache in the United States and he decided that 
it would not be a good idea to return home.  de Seversky subsequently 
became an American citizen and later became a Major in the USAAC 
reserve.  

In 1931, Major de Seversky and a group of investors founded the 
Seversky Aircraft Corporation of Farmingdale, Long Island.  His chief 
engineer was Alexander Kartveli, another emigre from Russia.  

The first product of the new company was the SEV-3, an amphibious all- 
metal monoplane with a low-mounted cantilever wing.  The "3" in the 
designation stood for the number of crew members it could carry.  The 
plane was built in a hangar rented from the Edo Aircraft Corporation, 
a well-known manufacturer of floats for airplanes.  The twin floats 
had retractable wheels.  

The SEV-3 flew for the first time in June, 1933.  Six examples were 
built for Colombia, where they were used as amphibious reconnaissance 
aircraft.  On September 15, 1935, the original SEV-3 was used to set a 
world speed record for piston-engined amphibious airplanes of 230.413 
mph, which still stands.  

A two-seat landplane version with dual controls was derived from the 
SEV-3, and in 1935 the USAAC ordered 30 examples under the designation 
BT-8.  The BT-8 became the first all-metal low-wing monoplane trainer 
to enter service with the USAAC, introduced just at the time that the 
biplane was being phased out of the pursuit and observation 
categories.  It was also the first Army basic trainer specifically 
built for the purpose rather than being a converted observation or a 
converted primary trainer.  The engine was a 450 hp Pratt & Whitney 
R-985-ll Wasp Jr. engine, and the maximum speed was 175 mph at sea 
level.  

In 1935, the Seversky company produced a privately-financed 
experimental fighter known as SEV-2XD, which stood for "Seversky 
Two-Seat Experimental Demonstrator".  The SEV-2XD aircraft was powered 
by an 850 hp Wright R-1820 radial air-cooled engine driving a 
three-bladed propeller.  The design used a low-mounted elliptical 
wing.  The SEV-2XD had a fixed undercarriage enclosed by large wheel 
pants.  The designation was soon changed to SEV-2XP (P for "Pursuit"), 
when Seversky decided to enter the aircraft in the USAAC's May 1935 
competition for a single-seat monoplane to replace the Boeing P-26 
currently in service.  

The SEV-2XP was completed in the spring of 1935.  However, Major de 
Seversky quickly learned that his two competitors, the Curtiss Model 
75 and the Northrop 3A, both had retractable undercarriages.  On June 
18, 1935, the SEV-2XP was "badly damaged" in an accident while on its 
way by road to Wright Field for entry into the competition, and the 
airplane was taken back to the Farmingdale factory for repairs.  Some 
cynics have suggested that this "accident" was contrived by de 
Seversky as a ruse on his part to buy him and his company enough time 
to modify the design.  

The Seversky company stalled the USAAC competition while they hastily 
modified the SEV-2XP prototype in the hope of making it more 
competitive.  The two-seater became a one-seater, and a retractable 
undercarriage was fitted.  The undercarriage wheels were partially 
faired and the wheels remained partially exposed when the legs 
retracted rearward into fairings mounted underneath the wing.  The 
tailwheel was retractable, and the single-seat cockpit was fully 
enclosed by a sliding canopy.  A new 850 hp Wright R-1820-G5 Cyclone 
air-cooled radial engine was fitted.  The company redesignated the 
aircraft as SEV-1XP, the "1" for a single seat.  Armament was two 
0.30-cal machine guns mounted in the upper fuselage, synchronized to 
fire through the propeller arc.  

The newly-revised SEV-1XP finally arrived at Wright Field on August 
15, 1935.  Needless to say, the Curtiss company was extremely annoyed 
at being confronted by what was basically a new competitor at this 
late stage.  In the meantime, the USAAC had postponed the flyoff until 
April of 1936, since one of the other competitors, the Northrop 3A, 
had crashed into the sea at the end of July during its very first test 
flight.  During early test flights at Wright Field, the SEV-1XP was 
able to attain only 289 mph at 10,000 feet, rather than the 300 mph 
actually promised.  The delay in the competition gave de Seversky some 
time to modify his design still further.  It was concluded that the 
troublesome Cyclone engine might be the cause of the poor performance 
of the SEV-1XP, and this engine was replaced by an 850 hp Pratt & 
Whitney R-1830-9 Twin Wasp.  The re-engined aircraft was redesignated 
SEV-7.  Simultaneously, new vertical tail surfaces.  However, the Twin 
Wasp engine was found to yield only 738 hp, and the top speed of the 
new fighter dropped still further, down to 277 mph.  

In the meantime, Curtiss had fitted its Model 75 prototype with a new 
Wright XR-1820-39 radial engine.  In addition, the Vought company had 
bought the 3A design from Northrop and entered a new competitor based 
on this design under the company designation V-141.  Consolidated had 
also entered the fray, with a single-seat adaptation of its PB-2A 
two-seat fighter.  

After some further modifications to the SEV-7, the designation was 
changed to AP-1.  Although the Seversky fighter never lived up to its 
promised maximum speed of 300 mph, it was judged by the USAAC as the 
best of the entries, and on June 16, 1936, Seversky was awarded a 
contract for 77 examples under the designation P-35.  Serial numbers 
were 36-354/430.  

The P-35 was closely reminiscent of the SEV-7, with a cantilever, 
low-mounted wing.  The wing was entirely of metal with the exception 
of the control surfaces, which were fabric covered.  The 850 hp Pratt 
& Whitney R-1830-9 radial engine was enclosed by a tight cowling.  
Armament was the American standard of the day, one 0.50-inch and one 
0.30-inch machine gun in the upper fuselage deck, synchronized to fire 
through the propeller arc.  The armament of the P-35 was rather light 
in comparison to that which was becoming standard elsewhere in the 
world, in particular with the contemporary Hawker Hurricane which 
carried eight machine guns.  Maximum speed of the P-35 at 10,000 feet 
was 282 mph.  An altitude of 15,000 feet could be reached in 6.9 
minutes.  Service ceiling was 30,600 feet.  Empty and loaded weights 
were 4315 lb and 5599 lb respectively.  Maximum range was 1150 miles.  

The first delivery of a P-35 to the USAAC was in July 1937.  
Deliveries of the P-35 to the USAAC were exceedingly slow, and it was 
not until the spring of 1938 that the 17th, 27th, and 94th Squadrons 
of the First Pursuit Group actually received their first P-35s.  In 
the meantime, the USAAC was becoming exceedingly nervous about 
Seversky's tardiness in meeting production schedules and decided to 
hedge its bets.  On July 30, 1937, the USAAC ordered 210 Curtiss 
P-36s, a production version of the Curtiss Model 75 which had come in 
second in the 1936 competition.  

The last P-35 of the original order was delivered in August 1938.  
After flying for a few months with the 1st Pursuit Group, the P-35s 
were redistributed among squadrons of the 31st, 49th, 50th, 53rd, and 
58th Groups, pending the arrival of the P-36 fighters into service.  

The success of the P-35 inspired efforts to develop versions intended 
for export.  

The Seversky corporation developed a two-seat fighter intended for 
export based on the design of the P-35.  Designated 2PA-L, it was 
powered by a Wright R-1820 engine of 1000 hp.  The sole 2PA-L was sold 
to the Soviet Union in March of 1938.  An amphibian two-seat fighter 
similar to the 2PA-L but powered by a 850 hp Wright R-1820-G2 engine 
was acquired by the Soviet Union in the same month, along with a 
license for its manufacture.  In the event, the Soviet Union never 
took up the option for the manufacture of the 2PA-L.  

Twenty two-seat fighters similar to the 2PA-L were sold to Japan.  
Designated 2PA-B3 by the company, they were operated briefly by the 
Japanese Navy under the designation of Navy Type S Two-Seat Fighter or 
A8V1.  These planes participated in combat during the second 
Sino-Japanese war, but were phased out of operation by the time the 
Pacific War began.  

Since Major de Seversky had made somewhat of a pariah of himself in 
the USA by selling combat aircraft to Japan, the Army ordered no more 
P-35s from Seversky.  Major de Seversky had always been a better pilot 
than he was a businessman, and by early 1939, his company had gotten 
itself into some deep financial doo-doo.  In April of 1939, while 
Major de Seversky was out of the country on a business trip, the board 
of directors of his company voted him out of office as CEO, and 
changed the name of the company to Republic.  The newly-formed 
Republic company then recapitalized itself and Alexander Kartveli was 
appointed as vice president and technical director.  Major de 
Seversky, having been forced into an involuntary early retirement, 
spent the rest of his life writing and consulting, and Kartveli and 
the Republic company went on to design and produce the famed P-47 
Thunderbolt.  

The last aircraft on the P-35 contract (36-430) was delivered in 1938 
as the XP-41 with a revised wing and a 1200-hp R-1830-19 engine with a 
turbosupercharger.  It made its first flight in March, 1939, shortly 
before the Seversky company changed its name to Republic Aviation 
Corporation.  A maximum speed of 323 mph at 15,000 feet was attained, 
but the Army preferred a parallel development, the high-altitude AP-4 
which was eventually to emerge as the YP-43, and the XP-41 was not 
developed any further.  

By 1940, it was clear that the rapid advances in military aviation 
were quickly making the P-35 fighter obsolete.  The P-35 was too slow, 
too lightly-armed, and was lacking in such protections as armor for 
the pilot or self-sealing fuel tanks.  Consequently, the service life 
of the P-35 with the USAAC was rather brief.  By early 1941, most of 
the Army P-35s had been replaced in front-line service by the Bell 
P-39 Airacobra or by the Curtiss P-40.  As P-35s were removed from 
service with front-line combat units, they were transferred to 
training units or were used at ground schools for the training of 
mechanics.  By the time of Pearl Harbor, no P-35s were in active Army 
combat service.  

It was only in its export incarnation that the Seversky fighter was to 
see any combat in American hands.  Seversky had actively sought out 
export contracts for the P-35 fighter, the export version of the P-35 
being designated EP-1 by the company.  On June 29, 1939, a couple of 
months after Major de Seversky had been thrown out of the company he 
had founded, the Swedish government placed an order from the new 
Republic company for 15 examples of the export version of the P-35.  
The actual model ordered by Sweden was designated EP-106 by the 
company.  The EP-106 was quite similar to the P-35 but was fitted with 
the more-powerful 1050 hp Pratt & Whitney R-1830-45 radial and had two 
nose-mounted 0.50-in guns and two 0.30-in guns in the wings.  The 
EP-106 had a maximum speed of 310 mph at 14,300 feet.  Initial climb 
rate was 1920 ft/min.  Service ceiling was 31,400 feet.  Maximum range 
was 950 miles.  Weights were 4575 lbs empty and 6118 lbs normal 
loaded.  

The Swedish government later supplemented the order to bring the total 
up to 120 planes.  By June, 1940, Sweden had taken delivery of sixty 
of its EP-106 fighters.  These served under the designation J-9 with 
the Flygvapnet (Royal Swedish Air Force).  However, in that month the 
United States government placed an embargo on all arms that were not 
destined for Britain, and Sweden was to receive no more EP-106 
fighters.  

In spite of the embargo, Republic continued production of the EP-106, 
the undelivered aircraft of the Swedish order being placed in storage 
at the Seversky factory.  On October 24, 1940, President Roosevelt 
signed an executive order requisitioning all the undelivered EP-106 
aircraft and impressing them into the USAAC.  These were designated 
P-35A by the Army, and were assigned serial numbers 41-17434/17493.  
Also seized were were 50 2PA two-seat versions of the EP-1, also 
destined for Sweden.  The USAAC did not perceive any combat role for 
these two-seaters, so they took them on force as advanced trainers.  
These planes were redesignated AT-12 Guardsman, and were assigned the 
serial numbers 41-17494/17543.  

Some of the P-35As were ceded to the Ecuadorean Air Force, but most of 
them (40 planes) were sent to the Philippines during 1941.  These 
served with the 34th and 21st Fighter Squadrons of the 4th Composite 
Group based at Luzon.  These units later took them out of service and 
they were then flown by the 34th and 21st Fighter Squadrons.  

On December 8, 1941, when the Japanese launched the first air attacks 
on the Philippines, the P-35A fighters were an important part of the 
first line of defense of these islands.  They were completely 
inadequate for the task.  By late 1941, the P-35A was hopelessly 
obsolescent.  It was too lightly armed and lacked either armor around 
the cockpit or self-sealing fuel tanks.  Consequently, the P-35A stood 
little chance against the Zero fighters and were badly mauled.  Most 
of the P-35As were quickly shot down in combat or else were destroyed 
on the ground.  By December 12, there were only eight airworthy P-35As 
left.  

Surviving P-35As were redesignated RP-35A in October 1942, indicating 
that they were to be restricted from combat use.  The EP-106 fighters 
which reached Sweden served with the Flygvapnet until 1944.  

There is a P-35 on display at the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base 
Museum in Dayton, Ohio.  I am unaware of the history of this 
particular airplane.  

Sources: 

  War Planes of the Second World War, Fighters, Volume Four, William 
  Green, 1964.  

  United States Military Aircraft Since 1909, Gordon Swanborough and 
  Peter Bowers, Smithsonian Institution Press, 1989.  

Joe Baugher       AT&T Bell Laboratories    2000 North Naperville Road 
		  Naperville, Illinois 60566-7033.   (708) 713-4548