Initial Army units received P-35s during May of 1937. In practice, its handling qualities were shown to be rather dangerous, spin- and stall-prone when pressed, and thusly a revision of the wings was ordered. However, the changes never fully ironed out the issue which stayed with the design throughout its whole short-lived career. By the time of its introduction, performance of the little machine had also fallen behind, making it an obsolete mount before it had ever fired a shot in anger. The USAAC was also procuring the Curtis Model 75s as the P-36 "Hawk" which began to appear in number from 1938 onwards and several units actually fielded both aircraft types at once. The P-36 was procured in 215 examples for local Army use and over 900 of the type built for export. Comparatively, only 196 P-35s were ever built - including any available export numbers. Exports customers (beyond Sweden and Japan) also went on to include Colombia, Ecuador, the Philippines, and the Soviet Union.
In general, P-35 pilots held no ill-will against their little P-35s though the aircraft was not particularly liked on the whole. Its limitations as a fighter mount proved the aircraft was nothing more than a touring performer of a by-gone era of flight. Performance was lacking against competing types -especially the new generation of Japanese fighters - and its mixed machine gun armament was not effective against said fighters or their bomber counterparts. The P-35 lacked the key qualities, even at the start of the war, to keep a good long existence in the conflict - the upcoming competing Curtiss P-40 "Warhawk" managed a much more memorable existence.
To add insult to injury, those P-35As sent to the Philippines from the Swedish order did not fare well against Japanese fighters of similar mission scope and function. Additionally, these aircraft were delivered with assembly instructions and flight manuals as well as instrument panels completed in their original Swedish text and symbology. A total of forty-eight of these P-35A aircraft made up the Philippine defense and, by the time of the Japanese invasion, the P-35s were wholly inadequate and largely obsolete fighting machines in the grand scope of World War 2. P-35s were eventually succeeded by the aforementioned P-40 "Warhawks" along the frontier when possible.
When their combat usefulness had ended, P-35s were used to ferry evacuating Army personnel to safe locations away from the Japanese lines. The aircraft held a spacious baggage compartment in their fuselage which aided in transporting several persons aloft. Stateside P-35s were relegated to training units, mechanic schools, or the scrap yard. Those "J9" aircraft that managed to be delivered to customer Sweden were not used in anger during the global conflict as the nation maintained its strict neutral status throughout the war. These did, however, live exceedingly longer service lives with their host country - the last remnants not retired until September of 1952.
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