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P-36 Hawk
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Photo: Robert Deering 1985 National Museum of the USAF Wright-Patterson AFB (FFO) Dayton, Ohio |
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The P-36 was
developed from the Curtiss Hawk Model 75, a
prototype participant in a series of design
competitions held by the Air Corps between
1935 and 1937. After initial setbacks in
early competitions, the aircraft was
equipped with a new Pratt & Whitney R-1830
engine. The Air Corps was so impressed by
the performance of the P-36 that it ordered
210 of the aircraft, the largest military
order of a single airplane type since World
War I. Including 30 P-36G export models
seized by the U.S. government in 1942
because of the German occupation of Norway,
the Army Air Forces possessed a total of 243
P-36s [three P-36s (S/N 37-68 to 70); 210
P-36As (S/N 38-001 to 210); 30 P-36Gs (S/N
42-38305 to 38322 and 108995 to 109006)] .
Both France and England used the Hawk 75A in combat over Europe in 1939 and 1940, even though the airplane was obsolescent when compared to its major adversary, the Messerschmitt 109. During 1941, the AAF transferred 39 of its P-36s to Hawaii and 20 to Alaska, and with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, two of the first six AAF fighters to get off the ground to meet the enemy were P-36s. Following the outbreak of hostilities, the outmoded P-36 was relegated to training and courier duties within the United States. |
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