J. Cochran Seversky AP-7A

Additional Information:

The Alexander de Seversky’s P-35 was the first single-seat, all-metal pursuit plane with retractable landing gear and enclosed cockpit to go into regular service with the U.S. Army Air Corps. The Army accepted 76 P-35s from1937 to 1938. The P-35 was the forerunner of the P-47 after Republic Aviation bought out the Seversky Aircraft Company.

Seversky modified a P-35 into the AP-7 racer for Jacqueline Cochran. The AP-7 was powered by a 1,200 hp R-1830 engine and used by Cochran to win the 1938 Bendix Trophy race and to set a women’s air speed record.
Jacqueline Cochran (May 11, 1906 – August 9, 1980) was an American pilot and business executive. She pioneered women’s aviation as one of the most prominent racing pilots of her generation. She set numerous records during her career and was the first woman to break the sound barrier on 18 May 1953. Cochran along with Nancy Love was the wartime head of the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) (1943–1944), which employed about 1000 civilian American women in a non-combat role to ferry planes from factories to port cities. Cochran was later a sponsor of the Mercury 13 women astronaut program.

In 1935 Cochran became the first woman to enter the Bendix Transcontinental Air Race. She entered again in 1937 and came in third In 1938 she entered and won the Bendix Trophy, flying a Seversky AP-7A, NX1384 pursuit plane.
Cochran stopped in Albuquerque with her Seversky AP-7A to refuel during both 1937 and 1938 Bendix races.

On September 15, 1939, Cochran set a Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) World Speed Record flying her Seversky AP-7A, NX1384, over a 1,000 kilometer course, from Burbank to San Mateo, California and back to Burbank with an average speed of 305.93 miles per hour.

GALLERY: