The prototype Curtiss Wright CW-22 two-seat low-wing general-purpose or advanced training monoplace was developed at the Curtiss-Wright St Louis factory in 1940. The two crew members were housed under a continuous glazed canopy, and the all-metal CW-22 showed its lineage by landing gear which had main units retracting rearward into underwing fairings as on the CW-21 single-seat interceptor. Powered by a 313kW Wright R-975 Whirlwind radial, 36 CW-22s were exported to the Netherlands East Indies, but due to the Japanese advance in that region were delivered to the Dutch in northern Australia during March 1942.

A developed CW-22B version was sold to Turkey (50); the Netherlands East Indies (25); and various Latin American countries (totalling about 25). Several Dutch aircraft were later captured and flown by the Japanese. Both the CW-22 and CW-22B were armed with two machine-guns, one fixed and the other flexibly mounted.

After a demonstrator had been tested by the US Navy, a CW-22N advanced training version went into production. The US Navy applied the designation SNC-1 Falcon to the type, a total of 455 being purchased in three batches of 150, 150 and 155 respectively; the aircraft of the third batch had a modified, higher cockpit canopy. Many SNC-1s were sold to private owners in the USA after World War II.