July 2020 / Volume 4 / Article 55
The Curtiss P - 40 Warhawk
USAH
PHX AIRPORT
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The first time I saw the P-40 Warhawk, I found myself admiring the lines of the aircraft, in that I could only imagine how this plane would cut through the sky like a knife. Well.......I had the pleasure of shooting an air-to-air of the P-40 Warhawk, the "American Dream". So it was only fitting to have July's article be on this beautiful sleek looking bird. The Curtiss P-40 Warhawk is an American single-engine, single-seat, all-metal fighter and ground-attack aircraft that first flew in 1938. The P-40's design was a modification of the previous Curtiss P-36 Hawk, which reduced development time which allowed a rapid entry into production and operational service. The Warhawk was used by most allied powers during World War II, and remained in service until the end of the war. It was the third most-produced American fighter of World War II, after the P-51 and P-47. In November 1944, when production of the P-40 ceased, 13,738 had been built, all at Curtiss-Wright Corporation's main production facilities in Buffalo, New York. The Curtiss P-40 was a sturdy fighter with its pilots owing their lives to its rugged quality and the P-40 earned a reputa- tion in battle for extreme ruggedness. The P-40 was a work- horse and vilified, the fact remains it took much of the brunt of the air warfare over many battle fronts. Lack of a depend- able supercharger, as it was designed as a medium-altitude fighter making its performance less than desirable. Compared to the Mitsubishi Zero and Messerschmitt bf 109, it was for all practical purposes ,outclassed as soon as it came off the assembly line as it was not designed as a high-altitude
Article & Photos by Jimi Simmons
Curtiss-Wright Plant Buffalo, N.Y.
fighter. However, it was available in quantity and its shortcomings were partly compensated by its docile flight characteristics, and sturdiness which enabled it to with stand a considerable amount of punishment. The P-40's history dates back as far as 1924, with the Curtiss Hawk fighters being the best all around U.S. pursuit aircraft. In 1933, after the Curtiss Model 66 lost to the Boeing P-26 during a USAAC fly-off, Curtiss was determined to retain its dominance the an Army Air Corps contractor and hired Donovan R. Berlin as Curtiss’ new chief engineer. He had previously worked at Douglas and Northrop, two firms that had been at the cutting edge of aircraft design. The result was the Model 75, which was originally rejected in favor of the Seversky P-35, but in 1937 Curtiss was awarded a contract for 210 Model 75's designated P-36A's, which was the largest U.S. military airplane. The Model 75 airframe was then adapted as the XP-37 with an Allison V-1710-11 engine with a General Electric turbo -supercharger. Thirteen YP-37's were ordered for evaluation, but the supercharger proved troublesome and was likely to catch fire. Due to supercharging reliability issues, it was ultimately decided that the XP-40 Curtiss Hawk, Model 81, would use a 1,160 hp Allison V-1710-19 engine with a mechan- ical supercharger. Although an inline engine offered better streamlining, more power per unit of frontal area, and better specific fuel consumption than did air-cooled radials of comparable power. The rated altitude of the Allison engine was only some 12,000 feet, rendering combat above 15,000 feet unfeasible. Given the limits of technology at that time and an outmoded pursuit aircraft strategy, the achievements of the P-40 become all the more remarkable. In 1939, the National Defense Act called for 5,500 airplanes for the Air Corps, but in May 1940 President Roosevelt increased the total number of planes to 50,000, which was an impossibly at the time. During the first years of the war, the P-40's made up a large
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Courtesy of Beoing
Photo by Jimi Simmons
Photo Courtesy of Smith. Air Mus.
its first flight in Buffalo. The XP-40 was the 10th production Curtiss P-36 Hawk, with its Pratt & Whitney R-1830 Twin Wasp 14-cylinder air-cooled radial engine replaced at the direction of Chief Engineer Don R. Berlin, by a liquid-cooled, supercharged Allison V-1710 V-12 engine. The first prototype placed the glycol coolant radiator in an underbelly position on the fighter,just aft of the wing's trailing edge. USAAC Fighter Project Officer Lieutenant Benjamin S. Kelsey flew this prototype some 300 miles in 57 minutes, approximately 315 mph. Hiding his disappointment, he told reporters that future versions would likely go 100 mph faster. Kelsey was interested in the Allison engine because it was sturdy and dependable, and it had a smooth, predictable power curve. The V-12 engine offered as much power as a radial engine, but had a smaller frontal area and allowed a more streamlined cowl than an aircraft with a radial engine, which was a promising theoretical 5% increase in top speed. THe P-40's first saw action at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Of the 99 P-40B's stationed in Hawaii that day, only seven managed to get airborne during the attack. They shot down multiple Japanese planes, including Nakajima B5N2 torpedo bombers, a Mitsubishi A6M2 Zero fighter and an Aichi D3A1 dive bomber . Unfortunately, only 25 P-40's remained operational, three had been shot down, and the rest were destroyed on the ground. Out of the 99 P-40's based in Hawaii during the event, only 25 survived. The P-40 cost was approximately $53,000, the P-39 was $71,000 and the P-38 cost $126,000. A total of 11,998 P-40's were built before production was finally terminated in 1944. Warhawks constituted the principal armament of the U.S. Army Air Forces fighter squadrons throughout 1942 and 1943. By the end of the war, the US had produced more than 300,000 aircraft overall. Throughout their years in service, the P-40's were famed for producing over 200 aces from seven different Allied nations.
number of the orders for aircraft, with Britain and France also ordering P-40's to contend with the German Luftwaffe, but in the case of France, deliveries came much too late and their P-40's were diverted to the Royal Air Force which later became known as the Tomahawks. Similarly, the Soviet Union's outdated air force had fared badly at the hands of the Germans, and P-40's were also sent there. The P-40 would become the third most American fighter produced during World War II, after the P-51 and P-47, with 13,738 P-40's built. At the end of the war, the U.S. had produced more than 300,000 aircraft overall. The Tomahawk Mk. IA, and IB, carried two Browning .303 caliber machine-guns in place of the .30 caliber guns fitted in USAAF machines. It retained the standard synchronized armament of two .50 caliber machine guns in the nose. P-40's first saw combat with the British Commonwealth squad- rons of the Desert Air Force in the Middle East and North African campaigns, during June 1941. The 112th Squadron Royal Air Force, was among the first to operate Tomahawks in North Africa and the unit was the first Allied military aviation unit to feature the "shark mouth" logo, copying similar markings on some Luftwaffe Messerschmitt Bf 110 twin-engine fighters. The P-40 Warhawk was the name the United States Army Air Corps gave the plane, and after June 1941, the USAAF adopted the name for all models, making it the official name in the U.S. for all P-40's. The British Commonwealth and Soviet air forces used the name Tomahawk for models equivalent to the original P-40, P-40B, and P-40C, while the name Kittyhawk for models equivalent to the P-40D and all later variants.
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Crew: 1 Length: 31' 8.5" Wingspan: 37' 3.5" Height: 10' 8" Wing area: 236 sq .ft . Airfoil: root: NACA2215; tip :NACA2209 Empty weight: 5,922 lbs. Gross weight: 8,515 lbs. Powerplant: 1 ×Allison V-1710-39V-12 liquid-cooled piston engine, 1,240 hp Propellers: 3-bladed Curtiss-Wright electric constant-speed propeller Maximum speed: 334 mph at 15,000 ft. Cruise speed: 308 mph Range: 716 mi les at 70% power Service ceiling: 29,100 ft . Time to altitude: 15,000 ft. in 6 minutes 15 seconds Wing loading: 35.1 lb/sq. ft . Power/mass: 0.14 hp/lb Guns: 6 × 0.50 in M2 Browning machine guns with 235 rounds per gun in the wings Bombs: 250 to 1,000 lb . bombs to a total of 2,000 lbs. on three hardpoints, one under the fuselage and two underwing.
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