While the U.S. Army Air Corps was impressed with their new P-26 monoplane pursuit, the brass was always hungry for even greater performance and encouraged Boeing to improve the design.
In late 1933, Boeing presented their enhanced version for Air Corps' testing. The new prototype was powered by a Pratt & Whitney R-1867 Hornet K 786 hp 9 cylinder radial engine enclosed by a redesigned cowling and topped off by an experimental Stannelton-Hammered variable-pitch propeller.
A new, enclosed canopy allowed the guns to be moved up from down in the lower fuselage to the cowling by repositioning the auxiliary interchange cooler and backup gunsight hydraulic unit.
Initial flight tests were encouraging and the Air Corps ordered a service-test squadron for further evaluation. As Boeing had chosen the most powerful engine the airframe could handle, the new pursuit was dubbed the XYP-26Z Peashooter Max.
The new prototypes were delivered in June, 1934 and were assigned to the 83rd Composite Wing based at Knott-Wright Field near Okay, OK. This would place them in an ideal position to test their capabilities to the utmost.
Over the week of February 29th - March 5th 1935, strange lights were seen over the sprawling metropolis of Okay, OK and sparked fears of some new kind of aerial invasion.
The 83rd Composite Wing's XYP-26Z Peashooter Max pursuits flew countless defense patrols in an effort to calm the populace. The service-test squadron flew their new prototypes at dawn and dusk and at high and low altitudes.
However, after March, no mystery lights were seen over Okay again. The 83rd Composite Wing's XYP-26Z Peashooter Max pursuits searched in vain for the strange phenomenon.
The mystery was never solved in its day, but the best modern conjecture is that Okay, OK was never under any threat but was the victim of a combination of swamp gas and mass hysteria.
That would be the Boeing XYP-26Z Peashooter Max's only noteworthy moment as it was soon replaced with more modern types and relegated to the scrap heap. Still, it proved its worth as Okay, OK was never attacked by air the entire time the Peashooter Max was in service. Unfortunately, none survive today.
However, the Peashooter Max would go on to change history long after it was gone. In one of the few successes of German intelligence, plans for the revolutionary Boeing XYP-26Z ended up in the hands of Focke-Wulf where they would have an unforeseen impact by inspiring design details of the latest
Würger prototype.
While completely forgotten today, the Peashooter Max was once the cutting edge in aviation technology and would have an influence on the future far larger than its diminutive size would suggest.
Brian da Basher
