The P-35 above is on display at the US Airforce Museum .

The P-35, one of the forerunners of the Republic P-47, was the first single-seat, all-metal pursuit plane with retractable landing gear and enclosed cockpit to go into regular service with the U.S. Army Air Corps. The Army accepted 76 P-35s in 1937-38 and assigned 75 to the 1st Pursuit Group Selfridge Field, Michigan.

The Japanese Navy ordered 20 of a two-seat version of the P-35 in 1938, the only American-built planes used operationally by a Japanese squadron during WW II. Sweden also purchased 60 improved single-seat EP-106s, but a second order for 60 was taken over by the U.S. Army in 1940 and designated P-35As. Most were assigned to the 17th and 20th Pursuit Squadrons in the Phillipines; all were lost in action early in the war.

In 1935 Race pilot Lee Miles talked deSeversky the designer of the P-35 into letting him fly a new float amphibian designated as:"SEV-3" in the Thompson race and won fith place money.The plane later set a world speed record for amphibians at 230.4 mph. Two civilian versions of the Seversky P-35,designated as "SEV-S2" were raced in the 1937 Thompson Trophy race and caused quite a stir.New rules went into effect for the 1938 race aimed at curbing the take over by advanced military planes such as the Seversky P-35.

In 1938 Jacqueline Cochran won the Bendix Trophy race flying a Seversky P-35 AP-7.

PERFORMANCE
Maximum speed: 280 mph.
Cruising speed: 260 mph.
Range: 625 miles
Service Ceiling: 30,600 ft.

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