This is a really cool aircraft that I have only had the chance of seeing once at the Wings over Gillespie Airshow a number of years ago. The North American P-64 was an export fighter designed off of the NA-50 which was a single seat fighter for export. The P-64 was the United States designation for the NA-68 the improved version of the NA-50. The NA-50 was designed from the NA-16/BT-9 both were used in the development of some of the best single seat aircraft after 1935, including the T-6 Texan.
The NA-50 Torito was designed for the Peruvian Air Force based off of the NA-44. It had a 840hp Wright R-1820-G3 engine with a top speed of 295mph at 9,500ft. It was armed with two .30 M1919 Browning machine guns. NA-50 first flew in May of 1939 and the NA-68, which had modified landing gear, new outer wings, heavier armament, and redesigned tail surfaces, first flew in 1940. Seven NA-50’s arrived in Peru in 1939 and were retired in 1950. The Six NA-68’s were ordered by the Royal Thai Air Force but never made it there after their export clearance was revoked. Only one known example of a NA-50 is known to exist outside a museum in Peru and one P-64 of the original six exists now at the EAA AirVenture Museum. This particular plane is a converted Harvard Mk IV. While not an original it is the only flying example that we get to enjoy today.