Seversky (Republic) P-35

The Seversky P-35 was a fighter aircraft built in the United States in the late 1930s. A contemporary of the Hawker Hurricane and Messerschmitt Bf 109, the P-35 won the distinction of being the first single-seater ordered by the US Army Air Corps with such features as a fully enclosed cockpit, and a retractable landing gear, but to be proved totally inadequate when faced with the harsh realities of war.

Group Captain Christopher Clarkson, the UK's Royal Air Force test pilot on the US east coast in 1940, logged six hours on P-35 variants and utterly rejected the machine for the RAF.

Americans in P-35As in the Philippines simply could not stay with or effectively fight the Mitsubishi and Nakajima fighters that swarmed down on them. Some died ignominiously: First Lieutenant Samuel W. Marrett, commander of the 34th Pursuit Squadron at Del Carmen Field, Philippines, was killed 10 December 1941 when an ammunition barge he was strafing exploded beneath him over Lingayen Gulf, Northern Luzon.

Source:
Info: Fighters of the United States Air Force
Published by Temple Press/Aerospace.
Profile: American Aircraft of World War II
Published by Chancellor Press.