Subject: Number Forty-One in the Series--Seversky/Republic XP-41

From: [email-masked]
Date: 11 Jan 93 04:23:17 GMT

>From [email-masked]

The last aircraft on the Seversky P-35 contract (36-430) was delivered 
in 1938 as the XP-41 (company designation Model AP-2) with a revised 
wing and a 1200-hp R-1830-19 air cooled radial engine with a 
medium-altitude two-stage turbosupercharger in place of the standard 
850 hp R-1830-9 engine.  The supercharger was located in a ventral 
position just aft of the wings and had its air intake in the left wing 
root.  Overall length was increased from 25 feet 2 inches to 27 feet 0 
inches.  In addition, this aircraft had a fully retractable 
undercarriage, the legs and wheels folding inward into the wings and 
fuselage.  The canopy was somewhat lower than that of the standard 
P-35, and was more aerodynamically streamlined.  

The XP-41 made its first flight in March, 1939, shortly before the 
Seversky company threw out Major de Seversky as its CEO and changed 
its name to Republic Aviation Corporation.  A maximum speed of 323 mph 
at 15,000 feet was attained.  Maximum range was 1860 miles.  Empty 
weight was 5390 pounds and maximum loaded weight was 7200 pounds.  
Armament was the same as that of the standard P-35--one 0.50-in and 
one 0.30-in machine gun.  

The XP-41 showed significantly better performance than that of the 
standard P-35, but the Army preferred a parallel Seversky/Republic 
development, the high-altitude AP-4 which was eventually to emerge as 
the YP-43, and the XP-41 was not developed any further.  

Sources: 

  War Planes of the Second World War, Fighters, Volume Four, William 
  Green, 1964.  

  The American Fighter, Enzo Angelucci and Peter Bowers, Orion Books, 
  1987.  

  United States Military Aircraft Since 1909, Gordon Swanborough and 
  Peter Bowers, Smithsonian Institution Press, 1989.  

Joe Baugher       AT&T Bell Laboratories    2000 North Naperville Road 
		  Naperville, Illinois 60566-7033.   (708) 713-4548