Curtiss P-40F Warhawk
Curtiss had a success with the P-36 Hawk fighter, but so quickly was aerial technology moving in the 1930s that it was nearly obsolete before it even reached full production. To update the design without radically changing it, Curtiss modified a P-36A, replacing the radial engine with an inline Allison V-1710. This streamlined the front of the P-36, lessening drag while maintaining power. Though the V-1710 lacked a supercharger, this was not considered a problem in 1938, and impressed with its performance—especially as the RAF and Luftwaffe were reequipping with inline-engined fighters such as the Supermarine Spitfire and Messerschmitt Bf 109—the US Army Air Corps ordered over 500 P-40B Tomahawks. It also lacked range, but as the Tomahawk was intended as a point-defense interceptor, this was overlooked. A French order for P-40Bs was not filled before the fall of France in May 1940, and so this order was diverted to the RAF as the P-40C/D Kittyhawk. When the United States entered World War II in December 1941, the P-40B was the principal fighter of the USAAF, while RAF P-40Cs were active in North Africa and the P-40B-equipped American Volunteer Group—the famous “Flying Tigers”—were forming in China.
Facing the Japanese Ki-27s and A6M Zeroes in Southeast Asia, and Luftwaffe Bf 109Es in North Africa, P-40 pilots learned that their craft could not manuever with the lighter, more nimble Axis fighters, and that the P-40’s lack of a supercharger put it at a severe disadvantage over 15,000 feet, where it would be sluggish. The armament of two .50 caliber machine guns in the nose and four .30 caliber machine guns in the wings was also considered inadequate against the cannon-armed Axis fighters. Independently, however, both the RAF in North Africa and the AVG in China discovered the P-40’s saving grace: its toughness and weight.
If the P-40 was a poor climber and inadequate in the turn, it was deadly in a dive. P-40 pilots learned to establish altitude over their Axis opponents, then dive, blast through the formation, and use the velocity built up in the dive to return to altitude. Even if the P-40 was intercepted, its robust construction and use of armor around the cockpit meant that it could survive a good deal of punishment; because its level speed was faster than the Bf 109 or the Zero, P-40 pilots could always choose to simply abandon a fight and retreat to fight another day. Even the Zero was at a disadvantage against these tactics: hard turns and dives that were normal for a P-40 would rip the wings off a Zero, and if the P-40 could get away from a Zero, the reverse was not true. Despite being technically inferior to their opponents, the AVG shot down 247 Japanese aircraft for the loss of only four aircraft in air combat.
The earlier P-40B/C variants gave way to the more advanced P-40E, which deleted the nose guns in favor of six .50 caliber machine guns in the wings, and the P-40F/L, which replaced the Allison engine with the more efficient Rolls-Royce Merlin, which improved high altitude performance; to counter the higher torque, the fuselage was extended. These later marks were nicknamed Warhawk.
Final versions included the P-40M/N series, which reintroduced the Allison engine (as there was a shortage of popular Merlins) but kept the stretched fuselage, and cut down the rear fuselage; one weakness of other P-40 variants was a lack of vision to the rear. By the time the P-40 ended production in December 1944, the war had begun to leave it behind: higher-performance aircraft such as the P-51 were in service, and the Warhawk’s lack of range limited its effectiveness. Nonetheless, it was the only American fighter that was in service at the beginning of the war that would finish it. Nearly 14,000 were produced between 1938 and 1944. At the end of the war, the P-40 was rapidly taken out of service due to its obsolescence; however, its popularity among veterans meant that over 80 would be preserved in museums, with 19 still airworthy.
This P-40 is yet another of Dad's models he built for my characters in my novel "Audacity"--again, Akela Canis. In Canis' backstory, he started flying P-40Es with the 57th Fighter Group (a real unit) in North Africa before getting his own command with the 8th AF in England. This is a straight out-of-the-box P-40, using the 1/48 Monogram kit, painted in standard USAAF camouflage for 1943 over the Mediterranean and North Africa--two shades of brown over RAF-style light blue, with early USAAF roundels. The 57th FG did not fly with sharkmouths, but no P-40 looks right without one. The little name on the cowling is "Fifinella," the nickname of female gremlins.
Curtiss P-40F Warhawk
Curtiss had a success with the P-36 Hawk fighter, but so quickly was aerial technology moving in the 1930s that it was nearly obsolete before it even reached full production. To update the design without radically changing it, Curtiss modified a P-36A, replacing the radial engine with an inline Allison V-1710. This streamlined the front of the P-36, lessening drag while maintaining power. Though the V-1710 lacked a supercharger, this was not considered a problem in 1938, and impressed with its performance—especially as the RAF and Luftwaffe were reequipping with inline-engined fighters such as the Supermarine Spitfire and Messerschmitt Bf 109—the US Army Air Corps ordered over 500 P-40B Tomahawks. It also lacked range, but as the Tomahawk was intended as a point-defense interceptor, this was overlooked. A French order for P-40Bs was not filled before the fall of France in May 1940, and so this order was diverted to the RAF as the P-40C/D Kittyhawk. When the United States entered World War II in December 1941, the P-40B was the principal fighter of the USAAF, while RAF P-40Cs were active in North Africa and the P-40B-equipped American Volunteer Group—the famous “Flying Tigers”—were forming in China.
Facing the Japanese Ki-27s and A6M Zeroes in Southeast Asia, and Luftwaffe Bf 109Es in North Africa, P-40 pilots learned that their craft could not manuever with the lighter, more nimble Axis fighters, and that the P-40’s lack of a supercharger put it at a severe disadvantage over 15,000 feet, where it would be sluggish. The armament of two .50 caliber machine guns in the nose and four .30 caliber machine guns in the wings was also considered inadequate against the cannon-armed Axis fighters. Independently, however, both the RAF in North Africa and the AVG in China discovered the P-40’s saving grace: its toughness and weight.
If the P-40 was a poor climber and inadequate in the turn, it was deadly in a dive. P-40 pilots learned to establish altitude over their Axis opponents, then dive, blast through the formation, and use the velocity built up in the dive to return to altitude. Even if the P-40 was intercepted, its robust construction and use of armor around the cockpit meant that it could survive a good deal of punishment; because its level speed was faster than the Bf 109 or the Zero, P-40 pilots could always choose to simply abandon a fight and retreat to fight another day. Even the Zero was at a disadvantage against these tactics: hard turns and dives that were normal for a P-40 would rip the wings off a Zero, and if the P-40 could get away from a Zero, the reverse was not true. Despite being technically inferior to their opponents, the AVG shot down 247 Japanese aircraft for the loss of only four aircraft in air combat.
The earlier P-40B/C variants gave way to the more advanced P-40E, which deleted the nose guns in favor of six .50 caliber machine guns in the wings, and the P-40F/L, which replaced the Allison engine with the more efficient Rolls-Royce Merlin, which improved high altitude performance; to counter the higher torque, the fuselage was extended. These later marks were nicknamed Warhawk.
Final versions included the P-40M/N series, which reintroduced the Allison engine (as there was a shortage of popular Merlins) but kept the stretched fuselage, and cut down the rear fuselage; one weakness of other P-40 variants was a lack of vision to the rear. By the time the P-40 ended production in December 1944, the war had begun to leave it behind: higher-performance aircraft such as the P-51 were in service, and the Warhawk’s lack of range limited its effectiveness. Nonetheless, it was the only American fighter that was in service at the beginning of the war that would finish it. Nearly 14,000 were produced between 1938 and 1944. At the end of the war, the P-40 was rapidly taken out of service due to its obsolescence; however, its popularity among veterans meant that over 80 would be preserved in museums, with 19 still airworthy.
This P-40 is yet another of Dad's models he built for my characters in my novel "Audacity"--again, Akela Canis. In Canis' backstory, he started flying P-40Es with the 57th Fighter Group (a real unit) in North Africa before getting his own command with the 8th AF in England. This is a straight out-of-the-box P-40, using the 1/48 Monogram kit, painted in standard USAAF camouflage for 1943 over the Mediterranean and North Africa--two shades of brown over RAF-style light blue, with early USAAF roundels. The 57th FG did not fly with sharkmouths, but no P-40 looks right without one. The little name on the cowling is "Fifinella," the nickname of female gremlins.