Perhaps Claire Chennault disliked the early P-43's lack of self-sealing fuel tanks and armor. Many passed through the hands of the AVG Flying Tigers, whose pilots were pleased with the plane's performance at altitudes up to 30,000 ft (9,100 m), while their P-40s were ineffective at altitudes over 20,000 ft (6,100 m).
272 P-43s were eventually produced, with 108 of them being sent to China to be used against the Japanese. Meanwhile, Seversky's AP-4 continued in development, finally going into production as the P-43 Lancer. Seversky continued to fight for his company, and the matter was not resolved to his satisfaction until September 1942. Wallace Kellett to replace him as president, and in September 1939 the company was reorganized as the Republic Aviation Corporation. The board, led by financier Paul Moore, voted W. While the contract was awarded to the Curtiss P-40, the USAAC was impressed with the high-altitude performance of the AP-4 and ordered 13 additional aircraft for testing, as the XP-43.īy April 1939, the Seversky Aircraft Corporation had lost $550,000, and Seversky was forced out of the company he had founded. In 1939, Seversky Aircraft again entered in a military fighter competition, this time with the much-improved AP-4. Īfter several failed attempts, Seversky Aircraft finally won a design competition for a new United States Army Air Corps fighter, and was awarded its first military contract in 1936 for the production of its Seversky P-35. In the beginning, many of Seversky Aircraft's designers were Russian and Georgian engineers, including Michael Gregor and Alexander Kartveli, who would go on to design many of Republic's most famous aircraft. The Seversky Aircraft Company was founded in 1931 by Alexander de Seversky, a Russian expatriate and veteran World War I pilot who had lost a leg in the war. Originally known as the Seversky Aircraft Company, the company was responsible for the design and production of many important military aircraft, including its most famous products: World War II's P-47 Thunderbolt fighter, the F-84 Thunderjet and F-105 Thunderchief jet fighters, as well as the A-10 Thunderbolt II close-support aircraft. The Republic Aviation Corporation was an American aircraft manufacturer based in Farmingdale, New York, on Long Island.
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