The Great Depression was terrible for the U.S. aircraft industry. Some companies went under. Like many others, the firms of Curtiss and Seversky were also facing grave difficulties.
Conditions forced a merger which should be remembered not only for the aircraft that came out of it, but for one of the more impressive feats of corporate branding yet seen.
The upside was the new company now possessed the concepts and design methodologies from both of the old firms. As events would prove, the total would be greater than a mere sum of the parts.
The YP-356 of 1936 was but one example, a melding of the best both the Curtiss P-36 and Seversky P-35 had to offer with a couple of important changes.
The prototype pursuit was powered by a new DB (Duesenberg) 1356 V-12 inline engine.
Switching from radial to inline engines was a sea change for the U.S. Army Air Corps, but the enhanced performance the 1356 h.p. DB (Duesenberg) 1356 V-12 offered was too good to ignore.
The engine wasn't the only revolutionary thing about the YP-356. A cutting-edge perspex canopy offering excellent all-around view was also added. Test pilots were universal in their praise for the greater power and visibility the new aircraft afforded.
However, due to a bureaucratic screw-up, the service test squadron of YP-356s was ordered modified for the night pursuit role. What this meant in practice is that two large spotlights were added under the wings so the pilot could see what he was shooting at in the dark. Thus the Curtisseversky YP-356N (night) pursuit was born.
Heavily armed with two 24 m.m. cannons in the wings and two .30 cal. m.g.s synchronized to fire through the propeller, the new night pursuit was a formidable aircraft. As things unfolded, the timing of all this would be fortunate indeed.
Just as the night service test squadron took on their new YP-356Ns, strange incidents involving a bizarre creature were reported in Point Pleasant, West Virginia.
The Night Flight of the 17th Pursuit Sqn. was sent to a forward base just outside of Follansbee, West Virginia tasked with hunting down the strange moth-human hybrid. The Air Corps was seen as ideal for this task and pursuits that could operate at night were critical as the Mothman was known to take flight after dark.
While many more sightings and strange incidents involving this nocturnal creature were reported, the 17th Night Flight was stymied in their efforts tracking down the cause of all the excitement. Countless sorties were flown to little effect.
The panic was turned up a notch when Mothman sightings were reported in Washington state early the following year.
Would America be safe from the ravages of this paleo-zoologic monstrosity?
Oddly enough, reports of Mothman sightings dropped off to zilch after the start of the war in Europe. The half-moth, half-man would be largely forgotten until a reappearance some 30 years later.
The 17th Night Flight was eventually reassigned to other duties and their aircraft replaced by more modern types on the eve of U.S. entry into Wold War II.
While the Curtisseversky YP-356N has been almost completely forgotten today, the same cannot be said for the iconic Mothman whose legacy still lives on.
Still, for one, brief, moonlit moment, the Curtisseversky YP-356N guarded the West Virginia night sky.
Brian da Basher
