A sharp sword to defend Hawaii

[Spinners 15,984]

Wedell-Williams P-34A Excalibur - 78th Pursuit Group, United States Army Air Corps, Hawaii, 1941

 

During the early 1930's United States Army Air Corps (USAAC) officials noticed that many private racing aircraft were reaching speeds far faster than the front-line pursuit aircraft types then in service and soon identified that the Wedell-Williams Model 44 air racer, as flown by Jimmy Wedell, had the most potential of being adapted to military service. In April 1934, USAAC officials met Marguerite Clark Williams (widow of millionaire Harry P. Williams) and offered the Wedell-Williams Air Service Corporation a contract to urgently produce a pursuit fighter with a maximum speed in excess of 300mph and with an armament of four .30 calibre M2 AN Browning machine guns.

 

By the Summer of 1935 the Wedell-Williams proposal had evolved into a sleek design powered by a Rolls-Royce Kestrel inline engine and characterised by an extremely long nose that set the cockpit towards the rear of the fuselage. Whilst the Kestrel engine was based on the excellent Curtiss D-12 'cast-block' engine the Kestrel introduced a new pressurised cooling system allowing a far lower frontal area for cooling and a corresponding increase in speed due to the reduced drag which was further reduced by the early adoption of a retractable landing gear and a new wing airfoil profile. On October 31st, 1935 the USAAC issued the XP-34 designation and ordered 1 prototype, 9 pre-production and 190 production aircraft. The prototype XP-34 took to the air for the first time on August 15th, 1936 and the maiden flight of the first production aircraft took place on December 24th, 1937. Entering service as the P-34A in March 1938 with the 78th Pursuit Group at Wheeler Army Airfield, Hawaii the P-34A's of the 78th and 15th Pursuit Groups were responsible for air defense of the Hawaiian Islands Territory and were scheduled to be replaced by P-40C's during December 1941 when Wheeler Army Airfield was hit by the first Japanese attack on December 7th, 1941 as a prelude to the attack on Pearl Harbor. Most of the P-34A's were destroyed on the ground but 12 pilots assigned to the 15th Pursuit Group managed to get their P-34A's off the ground to score some of the first American victories of World War II.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Nice one Ed)

Edited August 30, 2014 by Spinners