Subject: Number Forty-Four in the Series--Republic XP-44 Rocket

From: [email-masked]
Date: 15 Jan 93 17:21:48 GMT

>From [email-masked]

The Republic P-44 Rocket was a progressive development of the P-43 
Lancer.  It can be regarded as yet another step along the road which 
led ultimately to the P-47 Thunderbolt.  

As described earlier, the AP-4 project was a progressive adaptation of 
the Seversky P-35 fighter powered by a turbo-supercharged Pratt and 
Whitney R-1830-35 radial engine.  The supercharger was mounted 
underneath the rear fuselage and was fed by an air intake mounted 
beneath the engine.  On March 12, 1939, thirteen service test models 
of the AP-4 were ordered by the Army under the designation YP-43.  
Although the weight of the YP-43 was excessive, the turbosupercharger 
gave the new aircraft a considerable advantage in both speed and 
operational ceiling over the earlier P-35.  

However, by 1939, the Lancer was already outdated by the rapid 
advances in air combat technology that had taken place in Europe.  It 
suffered from poor maneuverability and climbing performance, and 
lacked such modern innovations as armor protection for the pilot and 
self-sealing fuel tanks.  Consequently, the Army did not anticipate 
ordering any more P-43s beyond the initial service-test contract.  

On September 13, 1939, the Army ordered eighty examples of the more 
advanced AP-4J from Republic under the designation P-44.  The 
P-44/AP-4J was basically similar to the P-43 but was powered by the 
more-powerful Pratt and Whitney R-2180-1 radial engine of 1400 hp.  
Drawings of the projected P-44 show an aircraft which looked very much 
like the P-43 but with a somewhat longer nose and a somewhat heavier 
armament of six machine guns.  

However, combat reports coming out of Europe in the spring of 1940 
indicated that even the P-44 Rocket would not be up to the task, and 
Alexander Kartveli and his design team began to consider an even more 
advanced project known under the company designation of AP-10.  A 
prototype of the AP-10 had been ordered by the USAAF in November 1939 
under the designation XP-47.  Since the USAAF regarded the XP-47 as 
showing greater promise, they cancelled all work on the P-44 project 
on September 13, 1940, before any P-44 prototype could be completed.  
170 P-47Bs and 602 P-47Cs were ordered in their place.  

Kartveli and his team then concentrated all their efforts on the P-47 
project, which was to turn out to be a wise decision indeed.  However, 
P-47 development promised to be protracted, the first production 
aircraft not scheduled to roll off the production lines until late 
1942.  The Army felt that Republic's Farmingdale production lines 
needed to be kept busy in the interim.  Consequently, the P-43 was 
ordered into production as a stop-gap measure.  

Sources: 

  War Planes of the Second World War, Fighters, Volume 4, William Green, 
  Doubleday, 1964.  

  The American Fighter, Enzo Angelucci and Peter Bowers, Orion Books, 
  1987.  

  United States Military Aircraft Since 1909, Gordon Sqanborough and 
  Peter M. Bowers, Smithsonian, 1989.  

  American Combat Planes, Ray Wagner, Doubleday, 1982.  

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