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    Curtiss P-40: Long-nosed Tomahawks
    Curtiss P-40: Long-nosed Tomahawks
    Curtiss P-40: Long-nosed Tomahawks
    Ebook157 pages1 hour

    Curtiss P-40: Long-nosed Tomahawks

    By Carl Molesworth, Adam Tooby and Richard Chasemore

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    About this ebook

    A definitive technical guide to the long-nosed Curtiss P-40 Warhawk variants.

    The initial version of the Curtiss P-40, designated by the manufacturer as the Hawk H-81, combined the established airframe of the earlier radial-powered H-75 (P-36) fighter 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 brass 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.

    As this book details, the P-40 delivered admirably, and though it never reached the performance levels of the Bf 109 or Spitfire, the sturdy fighter 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 Royal Air Force 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 1941–42.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBloomsbury Publishing
    Release dateMay 20, 2013
    ISBN9781472802828
    Curtiss P-40: Long-nosed Tomahawks
    Author

    Carl Molesworth

    Carl Molesworth is a former newspaper and magazine editor now working as a freelance writer and editor. A graduate of the University of Maryland with a BA in English, Molesworth served as an enlisted man in the USAF from 1968 to 1972 before becoming an award-winning journalist for 35 years and then transitioning to full-time book writing. He has been researching and writing about fighter operations in World War II for nearly 30 years. His 14 previous titles include three books in Osprey's Aircraft of the Aces series, three in the Aviation Elite Units series and two in the Duel series. He is best known for his writing about the China-Burma-India theatre and the Curtiss P-40 fighter. He lives in Washington, USA.

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      Book preview

      Curtiss P-40 - Carl Molesworth

      Magazines

      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.

      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.

      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.

      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.

      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.

      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)

      Chief Engineer William Gilmore set to work refining the designs he had developed for a series of postwar Curtiss racers, and soon delivered plans for his new fighter to the Army’s Material Division at McCook Field, Dayton, Ohio. Officials there were impressed with the new design but had no procurement authority. They did, however, offer Curtiss a challenge. If Curtiss would build three prototypes at its own expense, using engines, armaments, and instruments provided by the Army, the division would agree to test the new planes on a bailment contract. They made the same offer to Boeing, setting up a fighter rivalry that would last for the next decade.

      Key

      1. Curtiss Electric propeller

      2. Carburetor air intake

      3. .50-caliber machine gun muzzles

      4. Allison V-1710-33 engine

      5. Two .50-caliber machine guns

      6. Pilot’s seat

      7. Fueling port

      8. Oil filler port

      9. Radio aerials

      10. Tail wheel

      11. Fuel tank

      12. Two .30-caliber machine guns

      13. Landing gear doors

      14. Cooling flaps

      15. Two coolant

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