Boeing P-12E/F4B-3 | Planes of Fame Air Museum

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Boeing P-12E/F4B-3

HISTORY

Mention the name "Boeing" today and images of giant airliners whisking hundreds of passengers through the sky at speeds in excess of 500 mph come to mind. Between the wars, however, Boeing was a major supplier of fighter aircraft to the Army, Navy and Marine Corps.
The P-12E was the ultimate Air Corps biplane fighter.
Unlike earlier variants, it featured an all-metal fuselage and tail group but the wooden wings remained fabric covered. The Army ordered 135 P-12E's on 3 March 1931. The aircraft made its first flight on 15 October 1931. Only 110 P-12Es were delivered; the other 25 were completed as F models, with a slightly more powerful engine.
Boeing sold the P-12E prototype (company designation Mode1218) to China. There it became the only member of the P-12 family to see combat, flown by an American mercenary. By the late thirties, the P-12 had been replaced in front-line service by the Boeing P-26, the Seversky P-35 and the Curtiss P-36.

The Museum's aircraft is one of only two known survivors. It is painted to represent a Navy F4B-3, a close cousin of the P-12E.
Served both the U.S. Army Air Corps (P-12) and U.S. Navy (F4B) from 1929 until 1932.