WTD: Classic Airframes P-43A Lancer

The way I would put it is the P-43 was a cross between a P-47 and the Sev P-35.

WmB

Paul:

Approximate history-timeline is this:

Seversky (later Republic) P-35/P-35A Basic low wing all metal monoplane with P & W 14 cylinder engine. U.S. Army Air Corps and Swedish Airforce use. P-35A's were export aircraft built for Sweden and seized by U.S. in

Republic P-43 "Lancer", basically a slightly enlarged P-35 airframe incorporating Westinghouse turbo-supercharger technology to improve high altitude performance. Around 200 build, some saw service in SouthWest Pacific as reconnaissance aircraft and some were sent to China. Little or no combat in China as the Chinese didn't have the technical know how to maintain the supercharger.

Republic P-47 "Thunderbolt", basically a completely new bird designed around the R-2800 engine and a turbo-supercharger from a more realistic Army Air Corps spec of what a high altitude fighter should be.

Bill Shuey

"Cross between?" No. Development step between? Yes.

Were these planes put into production

Yes, and yes - though I don't think we used them much, if at all. Google may help here.

As I recall Robert L. Scott flew one over Mt. Everest in early '42. He writes about it in his book "God is my Co-pilot"

The P-35 was built by Seversky, and saw limited combat in the Philipines. USAAC first monoplane with enclosed cockpit etc. Pretty advanced, but technologi ran away from it - never very succesfull. The Swedes ordered 120, of which 60 ended up in USAAC as P-35A's bigger engine, longer fuselage and different instrumentation. Also one flown as a racer by Jacki Cockrane and others. P-43 was as far as I know on the drawingboard when Seversky became Republic and is a development stage between the P-35 and the P-47. It also saw limited combat, amongst other places in China with the AVG.

The actual evolution was complicated--simplistically it was: P-35 --> XP-41 --> P-43 --> P-44 (project only) --> P-47B (the XP-47/47A were unrelated projects for a lightweight fighter.)

Most of the P-43s that were built served in the U.S., latterly as fighter-trainers. Although the only high altitude fighter in the USAAF inventory besides the P-38, the P-43 wasn't really combat worthy, because it was relatively slow, its fuel tanks tended to leak, the brakes were faulty and the oxygen system was primitive. A large proportion of the total production (272) was only built to keep skilled personnel employed at Republic until the P-47 entereed production. Apart from 51 lend-lease airframes for Chinese use (which was probably sporadic,) the only foreign air force to use the P-43 was the RAAF, which had 8 (A56-1 through -8) recon machines. A couple of the Chinese ones were with the AVG for a while, but no other USAAF-manned aircraft saw front-line service.

Mark Schynert