Seversky P-35

The Seversky P-35 was an American fighter aircraft built in the late 1930s by the Seversky Aircraft Company, the firm that was reorganized as the Republic Aviation Corporation in 1939. A contemporary of the Hawker Hurricane and Messerschmitt Bf 109, it was the first single-seat fighter in United States Army Air Corps service to feature all-metal construction, retractable landing gear and an enclosed cockpit. The Seversky design was a clear winner of the Air Corps competition, and an order for 77 P-35 fighters was placed on 16 June 1936; the first production aircraft was delivered to the Air Corps in May 1937. It was powered by a Wright R-1820 radial engine and armed with machine guns. The P-35 was the design from which the Republic P-43 Lancer was later developed.