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P-35 #
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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-35, a forerunner of the Republic P-47, was the U.S.
Army Air Corps' (USAAC) first production single-seat,
all-metal pursuit plane with retractable landing gear
and an enclosed cockpit. The USAAC accepted 76 P-35s in
1937-1938, and assigned all but one of them to the 1st
Pursuit Group at Selfridge Field, Mich.
Sweden also purchased 60 improved aircraft (designated EP-106), but the United States diverted a second order for 60 to the USAAC in 1940 and assigned them to the 17th and 20th Pursuit Squadrons in the Philippines. These aircraft, redesignated P-35As, were all lost in action early in the war. Ironically, the Japanese Navy ordered 20 two-seat versions of the P-35 in 1938, and these became the only American-built planes used operationally by the Japanese during World War II. The aircraft on display, the only known surviving P-35, served with the 94th Pursuit Squadron, 1st Pursuit Group. The aircraft was restored by the 133rd Tactical Airlift Wing, Minnesota Air National Guard, with assistance from students of the Minneapolis Vocational Institute. It is marked as the P-35A flown by the 17th Pursuit Squadron commander, 1Lt. Buzz Wagner, in the Philippines in the spring of 1941. |
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