Boeing P-26

The Boeing P-26 "Peashooter" was the first American production all-metal fighter aircraft and the first pursuit monoplane to enter squadron service with the United States Army Air Corps. Designed and built by Boeing, the prototype first flew in 1932, and the type was still in use with the U.S. Army Air Corps as late as 1941 in the Philippines. There are two surviving Peashooters, but there are three reproductions on display with two more under construction.

Design and development

The project funded by Boeing to produce the Boeing Model 248 began in September 1931, with the US Army Air Corps supplying the engines and the instruments. The open cockpit, fixed landing gear, externally braced wing design was the last such design procured by the USAAC as a fighter. The Model 248 had a high landing speed, which caused a number of accidents. To remedy this, flaps were fitted to reduce the landing speed. The Army Air Corps ordered three prototypes, designated ''XP-936'', which first flew on 20 March 1932.

The Boeing XP-936's headrest offered little protection should it flip onto its back, risking injuring the pilot. As a result, production Model 266s (''P-26A''s) had a taller headrest installed to provide protection.

Two fighters were completed as ''P-26B''s with fuel-injected Pratt & Whitney R-1340-33 engines. These were followed by twenty-three ''P-26C''s, with carburated R-1340-27s and modified fuel systems. Both the Spanish Air Force (one aircraft) and the Republic of China Air Force (eleven aircraft) ordered examples of the Boeing ''Model 281'', an export version comparable to the P-26C, in 1936.

The "Peashooter", as it was known by service pilots, was faster than previous American combat aircraft. Nonetheless, rapid progress in aviation led to it quickly becoming an anachronism, with wire-braced wings, fixed landing gear and an open cockpit. The cantilever-wing Dewoitine D.500 flew the same year as the P-26 and two years afterwards the Soviet I-16 was flying with retractable landing gear. By 1935, just three years after the P-26, the Curtiss P-36, Messerschmitt Bf 109 and Hawker Hurricane were all flying with enclosed cockpits, retractable landing gear and cantilever wings. However, some P-26s remained in service until after the United States entered World War II in December 1941.

Operational history

U.S. Army Air Corps

Deliveries to USAAC pursuit squadrons began in December 1933 with the last production P-26C aircraft coming off the assembly line in 1936. Ultimately, 22 squadrons flew the Peashooter, with peak service being six squadrons, in 1936. P-26s were the frontline fighters of the USAAC until 1938, when Seversky P-35s and Curtiss P-36s began to replace them. A total of twenty P-26s were lost in accidents between 1934 and America's entry into World War II on 7 December 1941, but only five of them were before 1940.

Air Corps units using the P-26 were the:
*1st Pursuit Group ( 17th, 27th, and 94th PS), Selfridge Field, Michigan;
* 4th Composite Group ( 3d, 17th, and 20th PS), Nichols and Clark fields, Philippine Department.
*8th Pursuit Group (33rd, 35th, and 36th PS), Langley Field, Virginia;
* 16th Pursuit Group ( 24th and 78th PS), Albrook Field, Panama Canal Zone;
* 17th Pursuit Group ( 34th, 73d, and 95th PS), March Field, California
*18th Pursuit Group ( 6th and 19th PS), Wheeler Field, Hawaii; and
* 20th Pursuit Group ( 55th, 77th, and 79th PS), Barksdale Field, Louisiana.

Overseas deployments

Between 1938 and 1940, P-26s were assigned overseas to supplement Seversky P-35s in two defense units based at Wheeler Field, Territory of Hawaii:
*18th Pursuit Group (6th, 19th, 73d, and 78th PS)
*15th Pursuit Group (45th and 47th PS).

The 17th PG became the 17th Attack Group in 1935, and its P-26s were transferred in 1938 to the 16th Pursuit Group (24th, 29th, and 78th PS) at Albrook Field in the Panama Canal Zone. These P-26s were transferred in 1940 to the 37th Pursuit Group (28th, 30th, and 31st PS) which flew them until they were replaced by P-40s in May 1941. Some continued service with the 32d Pursuit Group (51st and 53rd PS), but only nine P-26s remained operational in Central America at the start of World War II.

P-26As were also flown by the 3d PS of the 4th Composite Group, based in the Philippines. Between 1937 and 1941, 31 were sold to the fledgling Philippine Army Air Corps.

Combat service

The first examples to see combat were Chinese Model 281s. On 15 August 1937, eight 281s from the Chinese Nationalist Air Force 3rd Pursuit Group, 17th Squadron, based at Chuyung airfield, engaged eight of twenty Mitsubishi G3M ''Nell'' medium bombers from the Kisarazu Air Group attacking Nanking. Four of the Chinese fighters shot down three of the fourteen Japanese bombers destroyed that day without suffering any losses, while Chinese Hawk IIs, Hawk IIIs and Fiat CR.32s claimed the other eleven. Subsequent engagements between the Chinese 281 pilots and Japanese Navy Mitsubishi A5Ms were the first aerial dogfights and kills between all-metal monoplane fighter aircraft. Chinese-American volunteer pilots who joined the Chinese Air Force in the mid-1930s include aces John "Buffalo" Huang and John Wong Pan-yang, both of whom successfully fought the Japanese in the 281. John Wong Pan-yang scored two shared kills over A5Ms on 22 September 1937 and a solo kill over an A5M on 12 October 1937 over Nanking while in his Boeing 281.

The Spanish Republican Air Force operated a single Model 281 during the Spanish Civil War of 1936–1939, but no kills were made with it before it was shot down in 1936.Green and Swanborough ''Air Enthusiast'' December 1980 – March 1981, p. 73.

By December 1941, U.S. fighter strength in the Philippines included 28 P-26s, 12 of which were operational with the 6th Pursuit Squadron of the Philippine Army Air Corps.Shores, Cull and Izawa 1992, p. 56. Captain Jesus A. Villamor and his squadron of P-26s engaged Japanese Mitsubishi A6M Zeros above Zablan and Batangas Fields, and despite being outclassed Villamor and his squadron claimed four kills – one Mitsubishi G3M bomber and three Zeros, two by Villamor himself. For these actions, Villamor was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross and an Oak Leaf Cluster.
The P-26s were burnt to prevent their capture by advancing Imperial Japanese Army forces on 24 December 1941.Shores, Cull and Izawa 1992, pp. 184–185, 195. Nine P-26s remained airworthy with the United States Army Air Forces (as the USAAC had been renamed in June 1941) in the Panama Canal Zone.

During 1942–1943, the ''Fuerza Aérea Guatemalteca'' (Guatemalan Air Force) acquired seven P-26s, which the United States Government delivered to Guatemala as "Boeing PT-26A" trainers to circumvent restrictions on sales of fighters to Latin American countries. The P-26's last combat operation was with the Guatemalan Air Force during the 1954 coup d'état. The final pair of P-26s still flying in military service in the world would be replaced with North American P-51 Mustangs two years later in 1956.

Although Boeing produced the prototype XF8B in 1944 and the X-32 entry in the Joint Strike Fighter contest in 2000, the P-26 was the last Boeing Company fighter aircraft to enter service until Boeing acquired McDonnell Douglas in 1997 and took over its production and continuing support contracts for the F-15 Eagle and the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet.

Variants

;XP-936
:Model 248, prototypes powered by a Pratt & Whitney SR-1340E Wasp radial engine, three built.
;XP-26
:Designation assigned to the three XP-936 aircraft after acquisition by the USAAC on June 15, 1932. Other designations assigned to the aircraft included Y1P-26, XY1P-26, and eventually P-26.
;P-26A
:Model 266, first production variant, powered by a R-1340-27. Multiple modifications were made during the production run and afterward. 111 built. Surviving aircraft were redesignated RP-26A in October 1942 and then ZP-26A in December.
;P-26B
:Model 266A, improved variant powered by a fuel-injected R-1340-33. Two built, with 17 more being converted from P-26Cs.
;P-26C
:Interim variant with a carbureted R-1340-27 and a modified fuel system. Flaps were factory installed. 23 built. All surviving P-26Cs were modified into P-26B standard in 1936.
;Model 281
:Export version of the P-26C; 11 built for China and one for Spain.

Operators

;
*United States Army Air Corps
;
*Republic of China Air Force – (11 aircraft in the 1930s)
;
* ''Fuerza Aérea Guatemalteca'' – (7 aircraft operated 1942 to 1956)
;
*Philippine Army Air Corps – (12 operated in late 1941)
; Spain
* ''Fuerzas Aéreas de la República Española'' – (1 demonstrator used briefly)

Surviving aircraft

*P-26A c/n 1899 serial number ''33-123'' is on display at the Planes of Fame Museum in Chino, California. This aircraft was sold to the Guatemalan Air Force on 11 May 1943, and it flew as FAG 0672 until it was retired in 1957. Flown regularly with the registration N3378G, the museum placed it on static display in the mid-1980s to protect it. In 2004, the decision was made to again fly the P-26, and it made its first public flight during the museum's air show in May 2006. The aircraft was shipped across the Atlantic and flown and displayed at Duxford Aerodrome in England in July 2014 during the type's first post-World War II visit to Europe.
*P-26A c/n 1911 serial number ''33-135'' is with the Smithsonian Institution′s National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. This aircraft was assigned to the 94th Pursuit Squadron at Selfridge Field, Michigan, until being sent to the Panama Canal Zone. It was sold to the Guatemalan Air Force on 11 May 1943, and it was flown as FAG 0816 until retired in 1957 when it was donated to the Smithsonian. This aircraft was restored by the USAF, and was displayed at the National Museum of the United States Air Force in 34th Attack Squadron markings until 1975, when it was returned to the National Air and Space Museum in 1976.

Replicas

*A P-26A reproduction is on display at the National Museum of the United States Air Force at Wright-Patterson AFB in Dayton, Ohio. It is painted as the commander's aircraft of the 19th PS / 18th PG, stationed at Wheeler Field, Oahu, Territory of Hawaii, in 1938.
*The San Diego Air and Space Museum has made a reproduction of an early model to Boeing's plans with the original design's "streamlined tailwheel" and without flaps and the crossover exhaust that were later additions.
*P-26D: A flying replica completed in 2006 is in the collection of the Military Aviation Museum, Virginia Beach, Virginia. Mayocraft Inc., completed the final assembly in September 2006, and it went on display in June, 2011 after nearly 12 years of construction. Retrieved: 17 March 2007.
*P-26A: Two flyable reproduction aircraft using original blueprints are currently being constructed by Golden Age Aeroplane Works in Brownstown, Indiana.
*A P-26A replica in Philippine Army Air Corps colors is on display at the Bunker Building in Bataan, Philippines.

Specifications (P-26A)

See also

Notes

References

Bibliography

* Angelucci, Enzo and Peter M. Bowers. ''The American Fighter''. Sparkford, Somerset, UK: Haynes Publishing Group, 1987. .
* Bowers, Peter M. ''Boeing Aircraft since 1916''. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1989. .
* Bowers, Peter M. ''Boeing P-26 Variants (Aerofax Minigraph 8)''. Arlington, Texas: Aerofax Inc., 1985. .
* Bowers, Peter M. "The Boeing P-26A". ''Aircraft in Profile, Volume One, Part 2''. Windsor, UK/Garden City, NY: Profile Publications/Doubleday, revised 4th edition, 1976. .
* Crosby, Francis. "Boeing P-26." ''Fighter Aircraft''. London: Lorenz Books, 2002. .
* Davis, Larry. ''P-26 (Mini in Action number 2)''. Carrollton, Texas: Squadron/Signal Publications Inc., 1994. .
* Dorr, Robert F. "Boeing P-26 Peashooter". ''Air International'', Vol. 48, No. 4, 1995, p. 239.
* Fitzsimons, Bernard, ed. ''The Illustrated Encyclopedia of 20th Century Weapons and Warfare (Volume 19).'' London: Purnell & Son Ltd, 1978, First edition 1971. No ISBN.
* Green, William and Gordon Swanborough. "Boeing's Fighter Finale... The Peashooter Chronicle". ''Air Enthusiast'', Fourteen, December 1980 – March 1981, pp. 1–12, 73–75.
* Maloney, Edward T. ''Boeing P-26 "Peashooter" (Aero Series 22)''. Fallbrook, California: Aero Publishers Inc., 1973. .
* Maloney, Edward T. and Frank Ryan. ''P-26: History of the Famous Boeing P-26 "Peashooter" (Air Museum Historical Series)''. Hollywood, California: Challenge Publications, Inc., 1965.
* ''Pedigree of Champions: Boeing Since 1916, Third Edition''. Seattle, Washington: The Boeing Company, 1969.
* Shores, Christopher, Brian Cull and Yasuho Izawa. ''Bloody Shambles: Volume one: The Drift to War to the Fall of Singapore''. London: Grub Street, 1992. .
* Wagner, Ray. ''American Combat Planes – Second Edition''. Garden City, New York: Doubleday and Company, 1968. .

External links

*
P-26 entry on historynetThe Peashooter’s legacy, by Michael LombardiProject for two Peashooter reproduction aircraft
at the Military Aviation Museum, Virginia Beach, Virginia
"High Speed Changes in Flying," ''Popular Mechanics'', May 1935, pp. 706–708

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Boeing P-26
P-26 Peashooter
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Aircraft first flown in 1932
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World War II Chinese fighter aircraft