[1][better source needed] Seversky was selected for duty as a naval aviator, transferring to the Military School of Aeronautics at Sebastopol, Crimea.

While stationed in the Gulf of Riga, on his first mission, he attacked a German destroyer but was shot down by enemy anti-aircraft fire before he could drop his bombs.

Tsar Nicholas II intervened on his behalf and in July 1916, de Seversky returned to combat duty, downing his first enemy aircraft three days later.

In February 1917, he assumed command of the 2nd Naval Fighter Detachment, until he was seriously injured in an accident where a horse-drawn wagon broke his good leg.

General William Kenly, Chief of the Signal Corps, appointed him as a consulting engineer and test pilot assigned to the Buffalo District of aircraft production.

On February 16, 1931, with the backing of Wall Street millionaire Edward Moore and other investors, he resurrected the enterprise as the new Seversky Aircraft Corporation in Long Island, New York.

[6] Moving into the former EDO Aircraft Corporation's float plane factory at College Point, Long Island, Seversky's patents were the primary assets of the new company.

This ground-breaking design would go on to set numerous speed records at the 1933–1939 National Air Races, often piloted by Seversky himself, who was the company's greatest "pitchman".

The most radical conversion occurred when the fixed-gear SEV-1P was fitted with a rearward retracting main undercarriage to produce the prototype of the successful P-35A fighter series.

[6] The Sev-S2, virtually identical to the P-35, which was undergoing trials in 1937, dominated the last three Bendix Trophy air races, beginning in 1937 when Frank Fuller won at an average speed of 415.51 km/h.

A controversial contract Seversky negotiated in secret with the Japanese for 20 SEV-2PA-B3 fighters created antagonism with the War Department, leading inevitably to the U.S. government putting pressure on the USAAC to limit the P-35 order to the initial batch of 76 aircraft.

[8] When Seversky left for Europe on a sales tour in the winter of 1938–39, the Board reorganized the operation on October 13, 1939, renamed as Republic Aviation Corporation with Kellett becoming the new president.

The influence of both the book and film in wartime, however, was significant, stimulating popular awareness and driving the national debate on strategic air power.

In 1942 The New York Times even published one of his residences, reporting that "Airplane Designer Rents Apartment: Major Seversky One Of Seven New Tenants in 40 Central Park South.

"[13] Seversky was a founder and trustee of the New York Institute of Technology, which in 1972 acquired an elegant mansion originally built by Alfred I. du Pont.