After the Boeing Airplane Company completed the first B-9 Bomber for the US Army Air Corps (USAAC) on April 29, 1931, the twin-engine behemoth proved to be faster than any other bomber in the world. It was so fast that existing American fighters had trouble intercepting it. The B-9 had a maximum speed of 188 mph (302 km/hr), while the Boeing P-12E pursuit fighter had a speed of 189 mph (304 km/hr) and the Curtiss P-6E, still to be delivered, could do 197 mph (317 km/hr) only under ideal conditions.
With the development of the B-9, some observers felt that the day of the fighter was at an end, but Boeing engineers thought they could produce a small fighter that would be fast enough to overtake their own B-9 Bomber and combat it successfully. Their answer was the Boeing P-26 Pursuit Fighter. Design work on the P-26 was undertaken during 1931 and production began the following January. Three experimental models designated the XP-936 (Model 248) were built at company expense. The first flight was on March 20, 1932.1
