Seversky P - 35 The Seversky P - 35 was a fighter aircraft built in the United States by the Seversky Aircraft Company in the late 1930s . A contemporary of the Hawker Hurricane and Messerschmitt Bf 109 , the P - 35 was the first single - seat fighter in U . S . Army Air Corps to feature all - metal construction , retractable landing gear and an enclosed cockpit . Design and development . The origins of the P - 35 trace back to the Seversky SEV - 3 three - seat amphibian , designed by Alexander Kartveli , Seversky ' s chief designer and Seversky ' s first aircraft . The SEV - 3 first flew in June 1933 and was developed into the Seversky BT - 8 basic trainer , 30 of which were ordered by the United States Army Air Corps ( USAAC ) in 1935 . This proved grossly underpowered and was quickly replaced by the North American BT - 9 . The second prototype SEV - 3 was completed as a two - seat fighter derivative , the SEV - 2XP . It was powered by a 735 hp ( 548 kW ) Wright R - 1820 radial engine , had fixed landing gear in aerodynamic spats and was armed with one . 50 in ( 12 . 7 mm ) and one . 30 in ( 7 . 62 mm ) forward - firing machine guns plus an additional . 30 in ( 7 . 62 mm ) gun for rear defence . When the USAAC announced a competition for a new single - seat fighter in 1935 , Seversky sent the SEV - 2XP , confident it would win despite being a two - seater . However , the aircraft was damaged on 18 June 1935 during its transit to the fly - offs at Wright Field . To compete with the Curtiss Model 75 , a single - seat aircraft with retractable undercarriage , Seversky rebuilt the aircraft into the single seat SEV - 1XP , replacing the SEV - 2XP ' s fixed landing gear with a retractable undercarriage where the mainwheels retracted backwards into the wing , and a 850 hp ( 634 kW ) R - 1820 - G5 replacing the - F3 of the SEV - 2XP . The SEV - 1XP was delivered to Wright Field on 15 August for evaluation , which was generally successful , although the Cyclone failed to deliver its rated power and the SEV - 1XP only reached 289 mph ( 465 km / h ) rather that the 300 mph ( 483 km / h ) predicted by Seversky . Protests from Curtiss lead to the formal flyoff between the fighters to be delayed until April 1936 . The delay was used by both Seversky and Curtiss to improve their aircraft , while allowing additional fighters from Vought ( the Vought V - 141 ) and Consolidated with a single seat version of the PB - 2 . The SEV - 1XP was re - engined again , with a two - row Pratt & Whitney R - 1830 - 9 " Twin Wasp " replacing the Cyclone and a modified vertical stabilizer fitted , becoming the SEV - 7 . The P & W also failed to deliver its rated power — it put out only 738 hp — and top speed was again well below 300 mph . While more expensive than the Curtiss and Vought designs , the Seversky was a clear winner of the Air Corps ' competition , with an order for 77 P - 35 fighters being placed on 16 June 1936 . Modifications from SEV - 1XP to production P - 35 standard included partial instead of complete mainwheel fairings and seven degrees of dihedral to the outer wing panels . The first production P - 35 was delivered to the USAAC in May 1937 , preceded by a company owned pre - production aircraft and demonstrator , the AP - 1 . Only 76 P - 35s were built , delivery being completed in August 1938 , with the 77th aircraft finished as the prototype XP - 41 . When it wanted further fighters in 1937 , the Air Corps , who were unhappy with both the slow delivery of the P - 35 , and sale of 2PA two - seat aircraft to the Japanese Navy , ordered 210 Curtiss P - 36 s . Seversky continued to develop the design with the hope of selling more aircraft both to the Air Corps and to civil and export customers . It modified the prototype SEV - 1XP as a single seat racer , the S - 1 entering it into the 1937 Bendix Trophy , where it finished in fourth place . The competition was won by the S - 2 ( registration number NR70Y ) , a similar aircraft built for Frank Fuller of the Fuller Paint Company . S - 2 also won the Bendix Trophy in 1939 and placed second in 1938 . The aircraft was used to portray the " Drake Bullet " in the 1938 film " Test Pilot " . Another civil aircraft was the DS , ( or Doolittle Special ) , a single seater for James Doolittle , employed at the time by the Shell Oil Company , while the AP - 7 was another racer , powered by a 1 , 200 hp ( 895 kW ) R - 1830 engine and used by Jacqueline Cochran to win the 1938 Bendix Trophy race and to set a women ' s air speed record . Seversky entered two aircraft based on the P - 35 in a 1938 competition for a new fighter for the Air Corps . One was the XP - 41 ( which had the company designation AP - 4D , which was a P - 35 with a 1 , 200 hp ( 895 kW ) R - 1830 - 9 engine fitted with a two - stage supercharger and the AP - 4 , which had a turbo - supercharger mounted in the belly of a deeper fuselage . The Air Corps preferred the AP - 4D , which was ordered into production as the P - 43 Lancer . Aiming to increase sales , Alexander P . de Seversky personally took a demonstrator on a tour of Europe in early 1939 . As a result of this demonstration , Sweden ordered 15 EP - 106 fighters on 29 June 1939 , a development of the P - 35 powered by a 1 , 050 hp ( 783 kW ) R - 1830 - 45 , which improved performance by over 25 mph ( 40 km / h ) and armed with two 7 . 9 mm ( . 311 in ) machine guns in the cowl and two 13 . 2 mm ( . 52 in ) machine guns in the wings . A second order for 45 EP - 106s was placed on 11 October 1939 , with a third order for 60 aircraft , placed on 6 January 1940 , although by this time Seversky had been thrown out of the company bearing his name by the board of directors , with the company renaming itself Republic Aviation . The Swedish Air Force designated them J 9 . Nonetheless , despite its obsolescence as a fighter design , the P - 35 design served as the inspiration for the promising Italian Reggiane Re . 2000 " Falco " fighter which bears a superficial similarity in layout . Two - seat versions - 2PA and A8V . Seversky also built a two - seater , the 2PA . Evolved in parallel with the P - 35 , the 2PA was a two - seat fighter and fighter - bomber with a fundamentally similar airframe and offered with either a similar undercarriage to that of the single - seater as the 2PA - L ( Land ) or with an amphibious float undercarriage as the 2PA - A ( Amphibian ) . Dubbed " Convoy Fighter " by the manufacturer , the 2PA was powered by a Wright R - 1820 - G2 or G3 Cyclone nine - cylinder radial engine , the former rated at 1 , 000 hp for take - off and the latter at 875 hp . Armament comprised two wing - mounted 7 . 62 mm or 12 . 7 mm Browning guns , one 7 . 62 mm Browning on a flexible mount in the rear cockpit , plus two forward - firing fuselage - mounted 7 . 62 mm or 12 . 7 mm Browning guns . Provision was made for a bomb load of up to 227 kg ( 500 lb ) on internal wing racks . One 2PA - A and one 2PA - L were procured by the Soviet Union in March 1938 , one with conventional landing gear and one with floats , along with the manufacturing license , but it appears that the Soviets never put it into production . In what proved to be an unpopular move for Seversky , 20 2PA - B3s were sold to the Japanese Navy , which briefly employed them in the Second Sino - Japanese War as Navy Type S Two - Seat Fighter or A8V - 1 ( Allied codename " Dick " ) . The Japanese were unimpressed with the aircraft and eventually relegated two of them to the Asahi Shimbun newspaper as " hacks . " Sweden ordered 52 2PAs ( Swedish designation B 6 ) , able to carry 1 , 350 lb ( 612 kg ) of bombs , but received only two prior to the U . S . embargo directed to combatants . The remaining 50 were appropriated by the USAAC , re - armed with 0 . 30 in and 0 . 50 in machine guns , and used as advanced trainers named AT - 12 Guardsman . Operational history . The first P - 35s were delivered to the 1st Pursuit Group ( 27th , 71st and 94th PS ) stationed at Selfridge Field in Michigan . The aircraft utilized a wet wing to save weight and ground personnel quickly learned about the persistent fuel leaks . The P - 35 ' s performance was poor even by contemporary standards and , although USAAC aviators appreciated the aircraft ' s ruggedness , it was already obsolete by the time deliveries were finished in 1938 . On 18 June 1940 , United States declared an embargo against exporting weapons to any nation other than the United Kingdom . Optimistically , Republic continued to manufacture EP - 106s which , by the 24 October 1940 order , 60 were taken over by the USAAC as the P - 35A . The aircraft were re - armed to American standards with a pair of 0 . 50 in machine guns that fired through the propeller , but retained the Swedish specification of a 0 . 30 in machine gun mounted in each wing . Flight instruments were metric , and both their labeling and flight manuals written in Swedish . Of these , three aircraft were kept in United States as instructional airframes for mechanics . Six P - 35As were delivered to Ecuador to form the first combat unit , the " Escuadrilla de Caza " . The remainder were sent to the Far East Air Force in the Philippines beginning in February 1941 . Eventually all pilots of the three pursuit squadrons on Luzon transitioned to the P - 35A from the P - 26 . About 10 of these were lost in accidents . The P - 35s were used primarily as gunnery trainers by all three squadrons because of a critical shortage of . 50 - caliber ammunition in the Far East Air Force , placing a strain on the engines of all the aircraft since no replacement engines were available . In October 1941 , the P - 35s were earmarked for transfer to the Philippine Army Air Corps after sufficient Curtiss P - 40 Warhawk s were received by the FEAF . In November 1941 , after the 3rd and 17th PS received new P - 40E aircraft , most of their P - 35As were passed to two newly arrived squadrons attached to the group , the 21st and 34th PS , with the latter receiving most . The 21st PS received its P - 40Es on the eve of war and transferred its few P - 35s to the 34th Pursuit Squadron , which then had nearly a full squadron . It then fought with them in the futile defense of the islands in December 1941 , initially at Del Carmen Field . They were hopelessly outclassed by the Japanese fighters . Lack of armor and self - sealing fuel tanks made the aircraft extremely vulnerable ( 12 P - 35As were destroyed and six damaged by a Japanese strafing attack on Del Carmen Airfield on 10 December ) and by 12 December 1941 , only eight P - 35As were still in flying condition . In January 1942 , five surviving P - 35As attempted to fly to Bataan from Lubao Airfield , but two were shot down as they attempted to land , and a third was destroyed in place when no volunteer could be found to fly it . The two remaining P - 35s transported several unit personnel to Mindanao in their baggage compartments . On 4 April , they returned briefly to Bataan to evacuate other personnel , and one was lost crash - landing on Cebu on 10 April . The sole surviving P - 35 was turned over to Capt . Ramon Zosa of the PAAC on 30 April , and flew its last sortie out of Del Monte Airfield , accompanying a P - 40 on a strafing attack of Japanese landings at Macajalar Bay on 3 May 1942 . Swedish service . The Swedish Air Force received 60 J 9s in the spring - summer 1940 . The aircraft were operated alongside other units assigned to the F 8 Air Force base protecting Stockholm , replacing the obsolete Gloster Gladiator s . Swedish J 9s served with Flygvapnet as a fighter until 1946 . Later , 10 aircraft were equipped with cameras but retained their J 9 fighter designation and , in addition , a number of others were used for liaison and general flight training . The last seven J 9 aircraft remained in service until September 1952 . Survivors . No Ecuadorian aircraft survived as part the lend lease agreement with the U . S . which exchanged the Ecuadorian P - 35s for P - 47s . The P - 35s were to be sold as scrap and the Ecuadorian government took the agreement literally . Within a few days of the delivery of the P - 47s , ground crews with blow torches cut the P - 35s apart and they were sold as scrap . Recently plans were announced for the manufacture of a new production , full scale replica J 9 / P - 35A from Vintage Component Specialties .