Scale: 1:26
Length: 13"
Wingspan: 16"

The first P-26A made its maiden flight on January 10, 1934, and the last aircraft of the initial order for 111 aircraft was delivered on June 30, 1934. The factory designation of the P-26A was Model 266. The unit price per plane (less engine and government- furnished equipment such as armament, radio, etc) was $9999, compared with $10,197 for the P-12E biplane which it replaced. This must have been one of the few occasions in history in which a new military aircraft was actually cheaper than the one which it superseded. :-)

The powerplant of the P-26A was a single Pratt and Whitney R-1340-27 Wasp nine-cylinder supercharged radial engine rated at 500 hp at 7500 feet. It drove a Hamilton-Standard two-blade, adjustable-pitch propeller. The armament was the same as that of the prototypes, namely a pair of 0.30-in machine guns, or one 0.30 and one 0.50-in machine guns, mounted in the fuselage sides and firing through the spaces between the cylinder heads of the radial engine. Outwardly, the P-26A differed from the prototypes only in that the wheel pants did not project aft of the undercarriage strut fairings. In addition, the wingtips were elliptically shaped which gave the wings sightly larger wingspan but slightly less wing area. Inwardly, the P-26A wing structure was considerably revised and a radio was added. The addition of the radio was reflected in the fitting of an antenna mast on the starboard fuselage just ahead of the cockpit and a mast on top of the vertical tail.