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P-43 in CAF service

Republic P-43 Lancer in Chinese service

Thanks to Richard Dunn, we have a long article (or short book) on the Republic P-43 Lancer, 108 of which were Lend-Leased to China as part of the "Special Air Unit" that Roosevelt authorized in the winter of 1940-1941. Originally intended to equip the 3rd American Volunteer Group, the planes were instead transferred directly to the Chinese Air Force. (The 1st AVG bcame famous as the Flying Tigers. The 2nd AVG, a bomber group, was ready to go when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. The 3rd AVG was to have been a fighter group, recruited early in 1942.)

As Rich Dunn explains, many of the P-43s were lost en route, many as a result of ferry accidents by inexperienced Chinese pilots. Some may have been cannibalized to provide replacement engines for transports flying over the Hump from India to China.

Evidently China received 41 P-43 Lancers in 1942, along with some Vultee P-66 Vangards, also originally intended for the AVG. Some of these planes wound up in the China Air Task Force, General Channault's branch of the 10th Air Force, and the embryo of the 14th Air Force. In his article, Richard traces the mostly-untold history of the P-43, a plane that grew out of the Seversky P-35 and that was the daddy or at least the elder brother of the redoubtable Republic P-47.

This is a fairly large file--about 550 kilobytes. Click here to fetch the manual. It's 39 pages long, with photos, a three-view, and maps.

You probably knew this already, but you'll need Acrobat Reader in order to view the manual. You can get the software by clicking here. It's free, but for most Windows platforms it's a 8.6 megabyte download. Note that you won't be returned to this page, so either finish up before you go to the Adobe site, or bookmark this page so you can come back later.

Enjoy!

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