Curtiss P-36 Hawk

The Curtiss P-36 Hawk was an all-metal, single-seat monoplane fighter that won the U.S. Army Air Corps pursuit competition in 1937, leading to an initial order of 210 aircraft. With retractable landing gear and a Pratt & Whitney R-1830 radial engine, it represented a major advance over the biplane fighters it replaced, though it was lightly armed and already being overtaken by faster designs by the time war came. The Hawk was widely exported: France ordered around 1,000 and managed to field nearly 300 against the Luftwaffe in 1940, where they accounted for several German aircraft.

American P-36s saw action at Pearl Harbor in December 1941. The basic airframe was developed into the far more numerous P-40 Warhawk. P-36 variants also served with Britain (as the Mohawk), China, the Netherlands, and other nations.