Flight, August 1934

AMERICAN MILITARY MONOPLANES
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   The two-seater Pursuit type was not passed by in these new developments, and five aeroplanes known as the Detroit P-24 have been delivered for trial. These are low-wing, all-metal of the noted Lockheed type, and have streamlined monocoque fuselages and a speed well over 200 miles per hour. The standard two-seater Pursuit machines now in use are biplanes of the B.J. P-16 type, in service with the 94th Pursuit Squadron. The very latest version is the Consolidated P-30, a modification of their P-25. This is also a two-seater, fitted with the "Conqueror" 700 h.p. engine, and so new that no information is available as to its performance. Needless to say, it is also of low-wing design.
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Flight, February 1935

FOR "PURSUIT" WORK
The Consolidated P-30 Monoplane, adopted by the U.S. Army Air Corps

   WITHOUT taking sides in any monoplane v. biplane argument, the very least one can do in writing of America's widespread adoption of monoplanes for fighting purposes is to regret that Professor Aldous Huxley has already thought of the title “Brave New World."
   It was a bold step to adopt a single-seater fighter of the pattern of the Boeing P-26A and to issue it as a standard service type. Not that there are any doubts regarding the qualities of that aeroplane, but the change was a radical one. The hundred odd P-26A's acquired have been in everyday service for several months past, and, as far as we know, the U.S Army Air Corps has not regretted its action. Its hand was forced, of course. It was the well-known story of new and cleverly designed bombers “walking" away from fighters, and so the handy little biplanes had to make way for the superior speed given by monoplanes like the P-26A. That was a year or two ago.
   Now comes news that the Consolidated P-30 cantilever monoplane has been adopted as the standard two-seater "pursuit" type. What engine will be used is not definitely known.
   The Consolidated machine has been developed from the P-25, and was illustrated in Flight of December 20, 1934. Four P-30's have for some time been under service tests in the hands of American service pilots. No particulars of construction or performance have been divulged from official quarters, but it appears that the machine is entirely of metal with stressed-skin-covered monocoque fuselage and cantilever wing. The tail surfaces are of full cantilever construction. In the prototype a Curtiss "Conqueror" twelve-cylinder vee-type liquid-cooled engine is fitted, with an exhaust-drive supercharger mounted on its port side; it drives a three-bladed metal airscrew. The radiator is of the abdominal type.
   A very neat system of cockpit protection is incorporated, the roof of the pilot's compartment, which is situated above the wing, being arranged to slide, permitting exit by parachute. Two Browning guns are mounted in the cowling. In the rear gunner's cockpit, close behind that of the pilot, is a third Browning gun on a track-type mounting. This gun, when not in use, lies in a trough in the fuselage decking. The two halves of the retractile undercarriage fold upwards into the wing.
   Similar in basic design to the P-30, the A-11 "attack" machine, under test at the moment, has an unsupercharged "Conqueror" engine giving the high performance at low altitudes required by an "attack" machine, and special armament and equipment.

Flight, January 1936

SOME NEW AMERICANS
Contrasted Types, but all Fast: The Vultee V-11: Consolidated P-30: Grumman F2F-1: Rasmussen IIa Racer

Exhaust Supercharger

   Consolidated P-30. - The Air Corps, however, is to receive a large number of what would appear to be extremely efficient two-seater pursuit machines, or what we should know as fighters. The type concerned is the Consolidated P-30, which has a liquid-cooled twelve-cylinder Curtiss Conquerer engine, fitted with an exhaust-driven supercharger mounted on the port side.
   No performance figures have been officially released, but a maximum speed of 252 m.p.h. is said to be attained.
   During recent years aircraft of the U.S. Army Air Corps have usually been fitted with air-cooled radials, although a fair number of machines in service have the water-cooled or Prestone-cooled Conquerer. The adoption of the P-30 with this power plant might indicate that the pendulum is tending to swing over to that type for certain purposes. The U.S. Navy, of course, makes use of air-cooled engines almost exclusively.