HISTORY
The Seversky Aircraft
Company was founded in 1931 by
Alexander de Seversky, a Russian
expatriate and veteran World War I
pilot who had lost a leg in the war.
In the beginning, many of Seversky
Aircraft's designers were Russian
and Georgian engineers whom Seversky
had rescued from Joseph Stalin's
purges by bringing them to the
United States, including Michael
Gregor and Alexander Kartveli, who
would go on to design many of
Republic's most famous aircraft.
After several failed attempts,
Seversky Aircraft finally won a
design competition for a new United
States Army Air Corps fighter, and
was awarded its first military
contract in 1936 for the production
of its Seversky P-35.
In 1939, Seversky Aircraft again
entered in a military fighter
competition, this time with the much
improved AP-4. Unfortunately, the
contract was instead awarded to the
somewhat inferior Curtiss P-40, but
the Army Air Corps were very pleased
with the aircraft's medium- and
high-altitude performance and
ordered 13 additional AP-4s for
testing.
By April 1939, the Seversky
Aircraft Corporation had lost
$550,000, and Seversky was forced
out of the company he had founded.
The board, led by financier Paul
Moore, voted Wallice Kellet to
replace him as president, and in
September 1939, the company was
reorganized as the
Republic
Aviation Corporation. Seversky
continued to fight for his company,
and the matter was not resolved to
his satisfaction until September
1942.
Meanwhile, Seversky's AP-4
continued in development, finally
going into production as the P-43
Lancer. 272 P-43s were eventually
produced, with 108 of them being
sent to China to be used against the
Japanese. Many passed through the
hands of the AVG Flying Tigers,
whose pilots were pleased with the
plane's performance at altitudes up
to 30,000 ft (9,100 m), while their
P-40s were ineffective at altitudes
over 20,000 ft (6,100 m). Perhaps
Claire Chennault disliked the early
P-43's lack of self-sealing fuel
tanks and armor. He declined to
retain the plane for his crews.
In 1939,
both Republic and Curtiss
participated in an Army competition
to develop a lightweight
interceptor. Curtiss submitted a
lightweight version of the P-40
designated the XP-46 while Republic
submitted a similar design
designated the XP-47. Both designs
were based on a lightweight aircraft
built around an Allison V-1710 V-12
engine, with the Republic design
using a turbosupercharger. In the
end, neither design showed a
significant improvement over the
P-40, and neither was produced.
Further development of the P-43
continued in the form of a
lightweight version using a Pratt &
Whitney R-2180 radial engine. The
resulting aircraft was known as the
XP-44. When the R-2180 did not
produce the expected horsepower,
Republic switched to the Wright
R-2600. Despite possessing 1,600
horsepower (1,200 kW), this engine
could not be turbo-supercharged and
Republic finally modified the design
again, this time to accommodate the
enormous Pratt & Whitney R-2800
Double Wasp engine, which produced
1,850 horsepower (1,380 kW). The
resulting aircraft, now known as the
P-44, was truly impressive. Capable
of speeds of 404 mph (650 km/h) at
20,000 ft (6,100 m), and a climb
rate of 4,000 ft (1,200 m) per
minute, the aircraft would have been
an exceptional interceptor.
Unfortunately, the aircraft was
capable of carrying no more fuel
than the P-43, and the Double Wasp
engine was far more thirsty,
significantly limiting the
aircraft's range.
As the air war in Europe
progressed, the Army was discovering
that what it really needed was a
long range fighter capable of
escorting bombers into Germany.
Alexander Kartveli was called to the
Army's Experimental Aircraft
division and told of the new
requirements, and that the P-44
would not be ordered in its current
configuration. This was a
devastating setback for Kartveli and
Republic Aircraft because Kartveli
knew the XP-44 could not be
redesigned to meet these new
requirements. On the train back to
New York, he began sketching a new
design. This aircraft would become
the P-47 Thunderbolt.
The USAAF refused to give
Republic any money for the
development of the new XP-47B, so
Republic paid for the construction
of the first mock-up, reusing the
cockpit area of the P-43. By the
time the prototype was ready for
testing, it weighed over 12,550 lb.,
900 lb (410 kg) over the Army's
limit for the new fighter design,
and far more than any single-engine
fighter ever developed. It also
could carry only 298 gallons of
fuel, 17 gallons less than the
requirement, but the Army was
generally pleased with its
performance, achieving speeds of 412
mph (663 km/h) at 25,800 ft (7,900
m), and overlooked these issues.
The U.S. entry into the war in
December 1941 rapidly increased the
need for the XP-47B and work on the
plane progressed quickly. In June
1942, the Army took delivery of its
first P-47Bs. They soon placed an
order that required Republic
Aviation to quadruple the size of
their factory and build three new
runways at the Farmingdale, New York
factory. Eventually this proved
inadequate, and in November 1942,
the Army authorized the construction
of a new factory adjacent to the
Evansville, Indiana airport.
Throughout the war, the P-47
would undergo constant development.
A bubble canopy was added to
increase backward visibility. The
final version of the P-47 would be
the P-47N, a long-range version with
longer wings and fuselage, and an
increased fuel capacity. The P-47N
was designed to escort B-29s on long
missions to Japan for a planned
invasion of the Japanese homeland
that never came. Production of all
versions ended in November 1945. By
then, 15,660 P-47s had been built,
making it the most produced U.S.
fighter of the war. 1,816 would be
the long range P-47N model. This
model would continue to serve with
Air Force Reserve and Air National
Guard units until the mid 1950s.
In 1946, Republic temporarily
left the field of military contracts
to produce the Republic RC-3 Seabee,
an unusual all-metal amphibian. The
Seabee was the brainchild of
Percival "Spence" Spencer, a former
Republic P-47 test pilot. He
convinced the Republic board of the
need for a light sport plane to meet
a demand for private aircraft from
pilots returning from World War II.
The expected sales of 5,000 Seabees
a year never materialized, as most
returning pilots never flew again,
though Republic did manage to sell
1,060 Seabees in two years of
production. This was a respectable
number at a time when many small
aircraft manufacturers were
producing only a handful of aircraft
before going bankrupt. Much of this
was due to the Seabee's remarkably
low price of just $3,500 to $6,000.
In 1946, Republic again turned
its attention to military contracts,
developing a single-engine jet
fighter to meet an Army requirement
for a fighter with a top speed of
600 mph (970 km/h). The first YP-84A
Thunderjet flew on February 28,
1946, but the aircraft was plagued
with so many developmental problems
that the first F-84B didn't enter
Air Force service until 1949. The
straight-wing F-84D would go on to
become an important aircraft during
the Korean War, flying 86,408
missions. In 1949, a swept-wing
version, the F-84F Thunderstreak,
was developed but additional
development and engine problems
resulted in the aircraft not
entering service until 1954. A
photo-reconnaissance version known
as the RF-84F Thunderflash was
developed from the F-84F, and 715
were produced. The final
straight-wing version, known as the
F-84G, would continue in service
with Air National Guard units until
1971, when corrosion forced them to
be withdrawn from service.
In 1951, Alexander Kartveli began
to design a replacement for the F-84
Thunderjet. The new aircraft would
be a single-engine fighter, but
larger than any single-engine
fighter ever designed for the Air
Force. By the time the mock-up was
completed in October 1953, the
aircraft had grown so large that a
more powerful engine was needed; the
Pratt & Whitney J75 was finally
selected. On June 28, 1954, the Air
Force placed an order for 15 of the
new F-105A Thunderchief. The
aircraft weighed 50,000 lb (23,000
kg), but could carry up to 14,000 lb
(6,400 kg) of bombs and missiles,
and could fly at Mach 1 at sea level
and Mach 2 at altitude. Although it
had only one engine, the F-105 could
carry a larger bomb load than a
four-engine World War II bomber, and
travel a greater distance at much
higher speed. The F-105 would become
the primary ground attack aircraft
of the Vietnam War, flying over
20,000 missions until replaced by
the McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II
in November 1970. Of the 833 F-105s
produced, 397 were lost during the
Vietnam War. Seventeen were shot
down by North Vietnamese MiGs, while
most of the rest were lost to ground
fire. The F-105 was Republic
Aviation's last independent design.
A two seat version, the F-105G,
known as "Wild Weasel", was later
developed to replace the "Wild
Weasel" version of the F-100. The
first F-105G flew on January 15,
1966, and deliveries began arriving
in Southeast Asia in June 1966. This
version continued operating in
theater long after the ground attack
versions had been withdrawn and was
still in service at the end of the
war.
In December 1957, Republic
developed a helicopter division,
building the French Aérospatiale
Alouette II helicopter under
license, with marginal sales
success.
In an effort to keep the company
going, Republic proposed converting
a wartime-developed four-engine
reconnaissance aircraft (the XF-12
Rainbow) into a transport aircraft.
The aircraft would be very fast for
a prop plane, but interest from
airlines was not sufficient to
continue development of the aircraft
and the project was cancelled.
Republic Aviation made one last
attempt to survive by returning to
military contracts. In 1960,
Republic Aviation acquired a
minority interest in the Dutch
aircraft company Fokker, and
attempted to market a
Fokker-designed attack plane to the
Air Force, but the Air Force showed
little interest in the foreign
design and no contracts were
offered.
In the early 1960s, the aerospace
company Fairchild, owned by Sherman
Fairchild began purchasing
Republic's stock and finally
acquired Republic Aviation in July
1965. In September, Republic became
the Republic Aviation Division of
Fairchild Hiller and ceased to exist
as an independent company.
Republic's naming system was
carried forward by Fairchild Hiller
with the A-10 Thunderbolt II, which
first flew in May 1972.
Source:
Wikipedia
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