Two of a Kind
Reproducing the P-26A Peashooter, twice
BY TIM O’CONNOR, EAA 190007
IN A FEW YEARS, TWO P-26A PEASHOOTER reproductions under
construction at Golden Age Aeroplane Works in Seymour, Indiana,
will take to the air. Not since the early 1940s has America seen two
Peashooters flying in formation.
The Boeing P-26A began service as a frontline fighter with
the U.S. Army Air Corps in the early 1930s. It was a revolutionary
all-metal monoplane design that made biplane pursuit aircraft
obsolete. On December 8, 1941, the Philippine air force successfully
used six P-26As as frontline fighters against the invading Japanese,
scoring aerial victories before the island was overtaken. Of the 148
production aircraft, only two original P-26A aircraft are known
to exist today—one in the Smithsonian National Air and Space
Museum and the other at the Planes of Fame Air Museum. A non-airworthy reproduction is also on display in the National Museum
of the U.S. Air Force.
Realizing that the project would be complex and difficult, a
plan was developed for construction before metal was cut. The first
endeavor involved drafting full-scale drawings (from original prints)
of the landing gear fairings so mock-ups could be made. The mock-ups were fabricated from wood with the purpose of facilitating the
metal-forming process and to verify wheel and tire clearance. Next
a full-scale wooden mock-up of the fuselage was built to ensure that
the contour of the fuselage was correct. This was critical since the
original Army Air Corps test pilots complained of wind buffeting
and noise in the cockpit during preliminary flights of the prototype
(XP-936). To solve the problem, formed skin patches were installed
in the area immediately above and behind the cockpit door on both
sides of the fuselage. This “repair” redirected the air
around the cockpit by providing a wider cross-sectional
area around the pilot’s bulkhead.
Another difficulty involved fuselage access panels,
which are recessed into the compound curved skins
through a stamping process. This is somewhat different
than modern structural techniques that normally use
a reinforcement piece of sheet metal flush riveted
to the inside of the skin. The stamped access panel
feature is found throughout the P- 26 design, which
was the first flush-riveted aircraft ever produced. The
fuselage has 31 different skins—many with compound
Machined parts including rudder pedal stirrups, fuel tank baffle doors, elevator trim housing base, and seat fittings.
