Before the famous P-40 Warhawk, Curtiss had good success selling the P-36 Hawk, an earlier design first flying in 1935.
Although credited with some of America's very first aerial victories in WWII with the downing of two Japanese Mitsubishi Zeros during the first Pearl Harbour attacks, the fighter was generally employed in greater numbers by other countries. Notice the scallops behind the canopy for better rear vision.
With its metal skin, single wing retractable gear layout, it was considered on par with the contemporary British Hurricane and German BF-109 at the time.
With a maximum speed of a little over 300 mph., it featured light controls and was found to be more manoeuvrable in a dog-fight than the early Spitfire. Forward mounted landing gear helped prevent nose-over on hard braking, the gear rotated as it sat flush with the fuselage, a Boeing design who Curtiss paid royalties to for using.
It was ordered in quantity by France, and over 200 of them ended up going to England either by diverted shipments as France fell, or by escaping French pilots taking them out of the country before being over-run. Germany itself, after capturing many of them ended up selling 44 to Finland who used them against the Soviet Union.
Thailand, Norway, Iran and Holland (for the Dutch East Indies colonies) were among the customers for this airplane after the USA itself considered it obsolete and useful only for training.
Including export models, over 1100 copies in various versions were manufactured.
