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During World War II, Boeing became famous for its B-17 and B-29 but prior to the war, the company was a major designer of biplane fighters, notably Army Air Corps’ P-12 and the Navy’s F4B.
In 1930, Boeing built the advanced Model 200 Monomail – a cantilevered (internally-braced) wing monoplane with an aluminum fuselage and retractable landing gear that was the beginning of the unbroken line of highly successful Boeing airliners. Switching back to fighters, Boeing then used some of the Monomail technology for an advanced all-metal, low-wing monoplane fighter – the Boeing P-26.
Unfortunately, both Boeing and the Army Air Corps were very conservative, and while the P-26 was a monoplane, the design failed to use other important parts of the Monomail technology – such as retractable landing gear (deemed too heavy) and cantilever wings, thought to be unable to bear the stress of combat – even though monoplane fighters had been used as early as 1915.
The P-26 also had an open cockpit because enclosed canopies were felt to be confining, the glass caused optical distortion and many pilots simply preferred flying in the open. The P-26 was armed with two .30 caliber machine guns behind long, circular blast tubes and was quickly dubbed the “Peashooter.”
Performance wise, the P-26 was about 30 miles per hour faster than biplane fighters and had greater range, though the biplanes’ double wings gave them a greater rate of climb and service ceiling.
The major problems with the P-26 occurred on landing. It had a high landing speed (82 miles per hour), 17 miles per hour faster than a biplane, and there was no upper wing to protect the pilot if the aircraft flipped over on landing on the standard rough grass airfields. To solve these problems, the P-26 was given manually-operated flaps – the first installed on a production U.S. Army Air Corps aircraft – which reduced the plane’s landing speed to 73 miles per hour, as well as a streamlined, internally reinforced roll bar, giving the P-26 a distinctive humpbacked appearance.
It was also the first Army fighter to be equipped with a two-way radio. The Army ordered 136 P-26s but in service, its light armament and low speed – scarcely faster that the new monoplane bombers such as the B-10 – led the AAC to the drastically wrong conclusion that bombers could outrun and outgun fighters, a conclusion that was to have deadly consequences for American bomber crews in WWII.
***image1***In service, P-26s were painted with brilliant blue fuselages and bright yellow wings and the squadron markings were gaudy and elaborate. One squadron, the 34th Pursuit of the 17th Pursuit Group, was the original “Thunderbirds” and its insignia was adopted by the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds acrobatic team in 1954.
P-26s were soon replaced in the Army Air Corps by modern monoplanes with retraceable gear and heavier armament, but many P-26s went on to serve in combat in other air forces. In the mid-1930s, 11 were delivered to China (paid for in part from donations boxes in American Chinese restaurants) and performed well against early Japanese aircraft in the first dogfights between monoplanes.
Others were given to the Philippine Army Air Corps’ 6th Fighter Squadron, which used them at the beginning of World War II, but with much less success against the modern Japanese Zeros.
