Air Vanguard 08 - Curtiss P-40 Long-nosed Tomahawks.pdf

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CURTISS P40
Long-nosed Tomahawks
CARL MOLESWORTH
© Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
AIR VANGUARD 8
CURTISS P40
Long-nosed Tomahawks
CARL MOLESWORTH
© Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT
Birth of the Curtiss Hawk
The Biplane Hawks
Model 75
Model 81
4
5
TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS
Personal Perspectives
Specifications
18
OPERATIONAL HISTORY
At War in the Middle East
Action in the Pacific
The American Volunteer Group
42
CONCLUSION
FURTHER READING
Books
Magazines
61
62
INDEX
64
© Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
CURTISS P40
Long-nosed Tomahawks
INTRODUCTION
This story of the Curtiss P-40 line of World War II fighter aircraft starts with
a photograph taken more than a century ago. On August 20, 1910, Army Lt
Jacob E. Fickel was photographed sitting in the passenger seat of a crude
Curtiss pusher biplane, holding a .30-caliber Springfield rifle. Pioneer aviator
Glenn Curtiss sits by his side in the pilot’s seat.
Moments after the picture was taken, Curtiss took off from Sheepshead
Bay Race Track near New York City. He climbed to an altitude of 100 feet
and turned to make a pass over the race track. As the biplane crossed the
infield, Lt Fickel took aim at a 3ft by 5ft target set up there and opened fire.
It was the first time a military firearm had been discharged from an airplane.
History does not record if Lt Fickel hit the target, but he nevertheless had set
off a chain of events that would culminate in full-scale aerial warfare over
Europe starting four years later.
Glenn Curtiss, an early proponent of military aviation, formed the Curtiss
Aeroplane & Motor Company in Hammondsport, New York, and produced
the iconic JN-4 “Jenny” biplane trainer during World War I, along with a
series of successful flying boats and other aircraft. He retired in 1920, but his
company went on to become the largest American airplane and aircraft
engine manufacturer in the United States during the 1930s after merging with
Wright Aeronautical.
Curtiss, the airframe division of Curtiss-Wright Corporation, built all
manner of military and commercial aircraft during its heyday, but it was best
known for its line of Hawk pursuit planes. Starting with the PW-8 in 1924,
Curtiss produced a steady stream of Hawks for the US Army, US Navy, and
overseas export. The transition from biplane to monoplane arrived with the
Model 75 (P-36), and the last production Hawk, P-40N-40 serial number 44-
47964, rolled off the assembly line in Buffalo, New York, on November 30,
1944. By then, Curtiss had built 15,479 Hawks.
The initial version of the P-40, designated by the manufacturer as the Hawk
81, combined the established airframe of the earlier radial-powered P-36 with
the Allison V-1710 liquid-cooled engine. The year was 1939, and the marriage
was one of expediency. With the threat of war in Europe growing by the day,
the US Army Air Corps (USAAC) command wanted a modern fighter that
would combine the sterling handling qualities of the P-36 with a boost in
performance that would make it competitive with the new types emerging in
Germany and England, and the generals wanted the new plane immediately.
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© Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
The P-40 delivered admirably, and though it never
reached the performance levels of the later-model
Bf  109 or Spitfire, the sturdy airplane nevertheless
made a place in history for itself as the Army’s
frontline fighter when the US entered World War II.
Long-nosed P-40s initially saw combat in North
Africa, flying in Desert Air Force (DAF) squadrons.
They also fought in the skies over Pearl Harbor and
the Philippines. But the long-nosed P-40 is best known
as the shark-faced fighter flown by the American
Volunteer Group – the legendary “Flying Tigers” –
over Burma and China during 1941 and 1942.
The P-40 was an honest, tough, and reliable
fighter. Though some pilots groused about its relatively slow rate of climb and
its inability to operate at high altitude, others appreciated its firepower,
maneuverability, and diving speed. Admittedly outclassed by the new
generation of fighters that succeeded it by the midpoint of the war, the P-40
nevertheless soldiered on through to V-J Day in 1945.
This will be the first of two books in Osprey’s Air Vanguard series covering
the Curtiss P-40. Here we will cover the Hawk 81 model, otherwise known as
the “long-nose” P-40. The second book will take up with the Hawk 87,
covering the P-40 line from the D-model to the end. Having spent a good part
of my life since boyhood fixated on the P-40, it is my honor and pleasure to
have been chosen by Osprey to write these books.
On August 20, 1910, Army
Lt Jacob E. Fickel fired his
.30-caliber Springfield rifle
from a Curtiss pusher biplane,
while pioneer aviator Glenn
Curtiss piloted the plane. It
was the first discharge of a
military weapon from an
airplane in history.
DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT
Birth of the Curtiss Hawk
The end of World War I in November 1918 was a mixed blessing for the
American aircraft industry. Companies such as the Curtiss Aeroplane &
Motor Co. of Buffalo, New York, were encouraged by the reversal of the US
Army wartime policy of using only foreign-designed aircraft in combat
squadrons. In theory, this change would spur growth in domestic design and
manufacturing of military aircraft. But the reality of peacetime procurement
soon set in: In the wake of the “war to end all wars,” not only would budgets
for new military aircraft be extremely small but also the flood of war-surplus
aircraft unleashed by the military would engulf the civilian market as well.
Demand for new airplanes languished for three years before the US Army
Air Service made its first big postwar purchase of 200 MB-3A fighters from a
relatively new Seattle enterprise, the Boeing Airplane
Company. The MB-3A was a single-seat biplane
closely resembling the famous French SPAD scout, a
1916 design. Though the Army command was
satisfied that the MB-3A would serve their needs well
into the 1920s, Curtiss executives thought differently.
They believed they could build a fighter of advanced
design with substantially improved performance that
would force the Army to buy it.
Chief Engineer William Gilmore set to work
refining the designs he had developed for a series of
© Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
The clean lines of the original
Curtiss Hawk – the PW-8 –
show up in this January 1923
portrait. Incorporating the
radiator into the skin of the
top wing reduced drag, but
the idea was impractical for
a combat aircraft. (Glenn H.
Curtiss Museum,
Hammondsport, New York)
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