Republic P-43 Lancer

The Republic P-43 Lancer was a single-engine, all-metal, low-wing monoplane fighter developed from the Seversky AP-4 and first delivered to the United States Army Air Corps in 1940. It had fully retractable landing gear, flush riveting and a Pratt and Whitney radial engine with a belly-mounted turbo-supercharger, which gave it very good high-altitude performance. It was not an outstanding fighter overall, but until the Lockheed P-38 Lightning arrived it was the only American fighter able to catch the Japanese Mitsubishi Ki-46 Dinah reconnaissance plane at its speed and height. In all, 272 were produced, 108 of them sent to China, and the type also flew many long-range, high-altitude photo reconnaissance missions. A proposed development was the P-44 Rocket.