The Curtiss-Wright P-36 Hawk was the oldest fighter still in service in some numbers with the USAAF when the war began. It was unique in having a retractable undercarriage and a very high speed for its time, yet by the time World War II started it had been hopelessly outclassed by other more modern fighters. It was, however, a fairly big export success (a total of 753 exported) especially with the French who made a large order when the war became imminent: known as the Hawk 75, these aircraft suffered heavy losses in 1940 but surviving aircraft were sent to to Britain. Overall, the P-36 was an agile and reliable aircraft hampered only by poor performance compared to the newer fighters then in service and was eventually replaced by another Curtiss "hawk" aircraft, the Warhawk. Other foreign users included Argentina, China, Finland, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, South Africa, and Thailand.

The prototype Model 75 was first flown in 15 May 1935 but lost a production contract to the Seversky P-35. Not to be undone, the Y1P-36 was developed and finally met with acceptance. The P-36A became the main production variant for the USAAF followed by a small run of the P-36C with two additional guns in the wings. Export orders to the French were renamed the Hawk 75, some of these had fixed landing gear (Hawk 75O) while others had retractable ones (Hawk 75A). A number of Hawks were assembled in Argentina, China and India. In RAF service, the P-36 was known as the Mohawk.