P40 Model

The P-40 fighter/bomber was the last of the famous “Hawk” line produced by Curtiss Aircraft in the 1930s and 1940s, and it shared certain design elements with its predecessors, the Hawk and Sparrowhawk. It was the third-most numerous US fighter of World War II.

The P-40N, of which 5200 were built (more than any other version.) While it was put to good use and was certainly numerous in most theaters of action in WWII, the P-40′s performance was quickly eclipsed by the newer aircraft of the time, and it was not considered one of the “great fighters” of the war.

Source: Warbird Alley, Flickr

As a youngster growing up in Taiwan, Nick Gargano was a natural fan of the 1st American Volunteer Group of the Chinese Air Force in the early 1940s, more popularly known as the Flying Tigers. The pilots wore jackets with the Nationalist Chinese flag-now flown by Taiwan-giving them special meaning to the Taipei-born Gargano.

Eventually motorcycles became a focus of Gargano’s life, and two-strokes the object of his devotion. An ingenious amalgamation of parts, his P40 Flying Tiger is powered by a Yamaha RZR350R two-stroke motor rebuilt by Jay Mendoza, featuring a Pro Design Cool Head and custom stainless steel Jim Lomas expansion chambers with one-off titanium mufflers. RG500.com was the source of many custom parts, including an aluminum radiator, billet clutch housing and aluminum boost bottle, while RGV Steve’s Motorcycles supplied custom rear sets, headlight and aluminum kickstand.

To modernize the chassis, a late-model Yamaha YZF-R6 front end was grafted to the bike and a Honda NSR250 single-sided swingarm with a Penske shock was installed. Kunihide Okamoto sourced exotic Japanese parts, including the gauges and solo seat cowl.

But, the centerpiece of the bike is its graphic treatment. “The flashing shark’s teeth of the Curtis-Wright P-40s and trademark as Flying Tigers are world famous. I have seen many different versions of the Flying Tiger paint theme on cars and motorcycles,” Gargano explains, “so to honor the AVG, I decided to build my version of the famous paint theme featuring the shark mouth. I used Illustrator to design the over-theme of the bike and decal placement, and RG500.com had the bike painted to my design.” Having accomplished his goal, Gargano is selling the motorcycle and moving on to a Suzuki RG500-based project.

The result is a stunning tribute to the brave men who rallied to protect an American ally from aggression in the days preceding our country’s official involvement in World War II.

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The P-40 Warhawk was a remarkable fighter bomber and the last of the famous “Hawk” line produced by Curtiss Aircraft during the 1930s-1940s. The Warhawk also features certain design elements with its predecessors, the Hawk and Sparrowhawk. It was the third-most numerous US fighter of World War II. An early prototype version of the P-40 was the first American fighter capable of speeds greater than 300 mph.

Design work on the aircraft began in 1937, but numerous experimental versions were tested and refined before the first production version of the P40, the Model 81, appeared in May 1940. By September of that year, over 200 had been delivered to the Army Air Corps. 185 more were delivered to the United Kingdom in the fall of 1940, where they were designated the Tomahawk Mk I.

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On November 11th, 1942, Lt. (later Capt.) James E. Reed of the 33rd Fighter Group was piloting one of the 77 P-40Fs that was catapulted off the carrier ‘Chenango,’ a converted Great Lakes oil tanker, for a landing at an airport at Port Lyautey, 90 miles north of Casablanca, as part of Operation Torch–the invasion of North Africa.

P-40F

Not long after the landing, Lt. Reed had to turn over his P-40F, named ‘Irene’ in honor of his then-girlfriend and later wife, to the French Lafayette Escardrill Squadron, much to his chagrin (along with that of the other pilots who had to give up their planes as well).

Lt. Reed ultimately completed 83 missions flying P-40s. Many of these missions were against German fighters, especially the Me-109.

When Capt. Reed was asked about how the P-40F and L (which he also flew) compared to both the Me-109 and Fw-190, which also flew in North Africa but to a lesser degree (more often as a fighter-bomber). Here is Capt. Reed’s emailed reply:

“Regarding performance against the Me-109 and FW-190. The 190 was tough to out-turn. I could out-turn the 109, but it was hard to do. I, at times, had to drop a few degrees of flaps and slow down to out-turn it. On one mission dropping the flaps was not enough so I had to drop my landing gear to slow down enough to out-turn the Me-109 and get away from his fire. I think dropping the flaps and landing gear probably saved my life. I never had a one-on-one with the FW-190 so am not sure what I could do with it. I understand that it was harder to get away from than the Me-109.”

The Americans and allies that flew the P-40/Tomahawk/Kittyhawk had a tough time against the Axis fighters in North Africa, especially the Me-109 and Italian Macchi 202, but the old Curtiss fighter was a tough, well-armed aircraft that, when flown to its potential by experienced pilots, could dish it out as well as take it.

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The Curtiss P-40 is one of the best-known American fighters of World War II. Despite it’s fame, it was not one of the period’s best performers, outclassed in virtually every way by other fighters of its time.

The Curtiss P-40E Kittyhawk (Model H87-B2) was based on the existing Curtis P-40 design as famously used by Major General Claire Chennault’s Flying Tigers but with improved offensive armament and the unsatisfactory Allison engine replaced by a Rolls Royce Merlin V-1650-39 licence built Packard, the engine used by the British Spitfire and Hurricane fighters and later by the Mustang.

The Curtis P40E Kittyhawk was ordered by the French Government at the outbreak of WW2, but after their surrender to German forces the fighters were diverted into RAF service as the Curtis P40E Tomahawk, other air-forces who also flew the Curtiss P-40E Kittyhawk include the RAAF, Russian air-force, RNZAF and the South African air-force.

Here’s how it looks like:

What follows are pictures of a surviving P-40E by Carey Dorset:

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The US Air Force P-40B Warhawk flown by Tex Hill hand made wood model airplane is made of the finest kiln of dried mahogany and carefully hand crafted by our master craftsmen. From the most complicated details up to the simplest ones, the Air Force P-40B Warhawk flown by Tex Hill hand made model is hand painted. Some parts of it are made of hand molded resin.

In addition to that, after each step is completed, the US Air Force P-40B Warhawk flown by Tex Hill mahogany model plane is being checked for any revisions before it goes to the next step thus, this is an assurance that each step is well done. This P-40B Warhawk flown by Tex Hill model airplane has a scale of 1/24, a wingspan of 18.5″ and fuselage length of 16″.

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This P-40N is owned by the Commemorative Air Force that was flown and on static display in Airshow Oklahoma 2001. The plane is painted to represent David Lee “Tex” Hill’s aircraft (the actual model Tex flew during his AVG days was a P-40C) General Hill was an honored guest at the airshow. (Got his autograph on my A-2 jacket AVG blood chit!)

The CAF P-40N is stationed in San Marcos, Texas. It was flown at Airshow Oklahoma 2001 by Col. Ollie Crawford. Crawford was a aerial gunnery instructor during WWII, stationed in Arizona. Among those he taught aerial gunnery for the P-40 were Nationalist Chinese pilots who were shipped to the
U.S. for training.

The project started on a whim, it developed into a tribute to the AVG (American Volunteer Group) who were known as THE FLYING TIGERS.

Lonnie Gilbertson, has been famous on building and driving street rods, race cars and bikes since he was old enough to squeeze glue from a tube.About 12 years ago he fulfilled another dream and got his pilots license. Through work and his love of airplanes he became acquainted with Dean Zinter.

Dean owns a 172 Cessna that he completely restored when it was time to paint the plane he wanted something better than white with your color stripe here. Dean and Lonnie have spent many hours flying to these shows and hanging around with Military Flyboys. Dean also, spent many hours driving Lonnie’s Hot Rods and in turn Lonnie spends time flying Dean’s airplane.

One day Dean sends Lonnie an e-mail of an e-bay ad. Some guy had a Rat Rod done up with a military theme. It had a chopped pickup cab and on the doors was painted the shark jaws of the Flying Tigers. In a follow up phone call with Lonnie Dean was talking about how cool it would be to have a car like that.

Lonnie said that while the guy did a good job, he missed the target. To begin with the motor was wrong, Flying Tigers (P-40’s) had V-12’s and the shark jaw should be at the front.

For an aircraft look Lonnie chooses to use 72 fin Buick aluminum brake drums on both ends of the car. He used 48 Ford front and 65 Buick Rivera rear brakes to make it work. With the car on its feet the top was chopped 4” by Lonnie with the help of a friend, Gary Scrutton. Next Lonnie mounted a 32 Ford grill shell and chopped it 2”. The car was shaping up.

However, it needed a prop hub to look like an airplane. A 50 Studebaker billet nose was chosen, this was molded into the duce shell by Paul Gilbert. The aircraft theme was starting to show. Next it needed exhaust. This was formed by Lonnie and John Keller. Lonnie crafted baffles and inserted 3 in each pipe to create baby chambered mufflers.

Marty Strode created the hand made hood, it was the longest hood he had ever built, 55” long at the shortest point. Ron Wagner built the air scoops to look like the ones on a P-40. Lonnie and Dean installed the scoops with real aircraft rivets for the right look.

Steve Bradley, a musician friend of Lonnie’s, did the art work and sized the nose of a P-40 shark jaw into the size needed for the gauges. For instruments Lonnie went online with Auto Loc, where you can design your own gauge faces and Auto Loc will fit them into the gauges.

All major variants of the P-40 series were single-seat fighter or fighter-bomber aircraft. They came in a confusing series of engine modifications, and gun arrangements with even minor variations given a letter designation where it likely wasn’t warranted.

The P-40C was a major variant called the Tomahawk II by the RAF. It mounted a 1,040 hp Allison V1710-3 v 12 liquid cooled engine. This engine generated a maximum speed of 345 mph (555 km/h), although under desert conditions with a sand filter over the air inlet it was considerably less. It was not usually equipped with oxygen so it’s maximum altitude of 30,000 ft could not be reached by most pilots and it was typically flown at under 15,000 ft. It’s range with internal fuel was 730 miles (1175 km).

The Tomahawk II had two 0.303 machine guns on the cowl and four in the wings. It did not have the ability to carry bombs.

The P-40F, called the Kittyhawk II (also the Goshawk) was a major improvement in handling, although more power was not available. The ones shipped to Russia were equipped with the Packard built 1,300 hp V-1615-1 Rolls-Royce Merlin engine. All others used an Allison engine. This boosted the maximum airspeed to 364 mph (582 km/h). Range was 610 miles (976 km).

The Kittyhawks had a major modification in their armaments, with the cowl-mounted machine guns removed and all guns upgraded to six 50 caliber machine guns in the wings. It could also carry a 500 lb bomb or a long-range fuel tank on the center-line, and 250 lbs of bombs under each wing (6 lb and 40 lb anti-personnel bomb clusters were also carried in North Africa).

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A WW II P-40 Kittyhawk was successfully brought to life by the Warbirds Adventures at Mareeba Airport in Tropical North Qld. The aircraft was retrieved from its wartime resting place on 10 December 2004 and it now resides on display at Warbird Adventures.

This aircraft (S/N 42-104977) from the USAAF 49th Fighter Group was piloted by Lt Joel Thorvaldson and was shot down by a Japanese Zero on 13 September 1943 in the Lae area of Papua New Guinea.

Click on the image for larger view:

The restoration was a 4 year project and first flew in Dec 2008. The aircraft was restored with a passenger seat to enable visitors to enjoy the thrill of an adventure flight.

About the Kittyhawk:

The P-40D, named the Kittyhawk I by the English and the Warhawk by the Americans, had an improved Allison engine that allowed for a shorter nose and had the fuselage mounted 0.50 caliber machine guns moved to the wings to allow for a hefty six 50 caliber machine guns that would become the standard suite of armament for all American fighters.

A Packard Merlin-engined version was produced for export to Russia, but no models were received by the English, Australian or South African squadrons flying the Kittyhawk. Many versions of the aircraft were developed all in an attempt to improve the performance of the inadequate Allison engines.

Overall, the various models of the P-40 made it the second most numerous fighter aircraft produced by the Allies during WWII. They had a production run of some 13,738.

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