P40
Photos by: Bill Coffman
The first P-40Ns were produced in 1943. I doubt that any of them had this paint scheme, or this insignia.
A P-40 without a Shark's Mouth decoration. The RNZAF used a number of Kittyhawks of the different types.
Jammed into the storage area at the back of the "Canada Aviation Museum" as it is now called, is a genuine RCAF P-40.
CURTISS P-40E KITTYHAWK 1 RCAF
* Registration #: 1076 (RCAF)
* Manufacturer: Curtiss-Wright Corporation, United States
* Manufacture Date: 1942
* Construction #: 18780
* Aquisition Date: 1964
* Provenance: Transfer from RCAF
"The museum example was built in 1942 for the RAF but was delivered to the
RCAF. It operated in British Columbia until 1943, then was used for training
until 1945. Subsequently selected for preservation, it remained in storage
until finally transferred to the museum in 1964."
Click on thumbnails to enlargenIt
is not exactly a USN aircraft, it has never had a BuNo, but it was
apparently flown by a US Navy 'Volunteer' with the American Volunteer Group
in China. It is on display at the National Museum of Naval Aviation in
Pensacola.
This is actually an ex AVG aircraft, and is one of the few of the early
P-40/Tomahawks in existance. I wish that I had taken more
photos. P-40s did fly off of aircraft carriers (as did
Spitfires) in operation. Also attached are photos of
the USAFM Curtiss P-36 before and after the
aircraft was returned to a natural polished aluminum finish after wearing
that funny War Games experimental Camo job for so many years.
P-40 US &
RAF/Commonwealth Designations
Generally the RAF and Commonwealth used the Curtiss model H-81 as Tomahawks
and the model H-87 as Kittyhawks.
The US Army Air Corps and US Army Air Force used the P-40 designation, but
called the Merlin engined versions Warhawksı although the
appellation has migrated to include all P-40s.
This is confused by some aircraft being bought directly by the British,
some being taken from French production orders, and some
being Lend-Lease, in which case they had USAAF
serials. British orders were diverted to the
RCAF, RAAF, RNZAF, and RSAAF. As well many were shipped to Russia, Turkey,
the Dutch East Indies, China, Brazil, and Egypt. Some were
even returned to the USAAF. There were often equipment
differences between US and Export Aircraft, which
resulted in differing Curtiss Model Numbers. (The model
number for British Aircraft is shown.)
P-40,
Tomahawk 1 - 2x.50
in nose, 2x.30 in wings (H-81-A)
P-40B
Tomahawk IIA - 2x.50
in nose, 4x .30 in wings (H-81-A2)
P-40C Tomahawk IIB
- As above with leak proof tanks (H-81-A2/A3)
P-40D
Kittyhawk -
Taken from French production orders. Short Nose.
(H-87-A1)
P-40D
Kittyhawk I
- New engine, Short nose, 2x .50 in wings (H-87-A2)
P-40E Kittyhawk
IA - As
above with 6x .50 in wings. (H-87-A4)
P-40F Kittyhawk
II -
Merlin Engine, deeper radiator cowling. Later
production had the rear fuselage extended 20 in. (H-87-B3)
P-40 K
Kittyhawk III
- Allison Engine, Early short Fuselage had extended
dorsal fin, Later long fuselage same as P-40F
P-40L
Kittyhawk II
- Virtually identical to P-40F and used by British
under same designation.
P-40M Kittyhawk
III - Most were
very similar to the long fuselage Ks, but some were
P-40 Ls with Allison
Engines.
P-40N, Kittyhawk IV
- Allison Engine, Lightened airframe, extended canopy.
(H-87V/W)
There were other external detail changes between models, but the wings were
the same throughout the production run including P-36/H-75
versions.
British purchases of 72 Kittyhawk 1s were diverted directly from the
factory in Buffalo to the RCAF in 1941. In May of 1942, No
111 Squadron flew to Alaska to join with the USAAF in
the defense of North America from the Japanese. The
squadron eventually moved to Umnak in the Aleutians, but due
to aircraft losses the Canadians flew USAAF P-40Es with RCAF
markings and American serials, and later, P-40Ks. It
was in one of these aircraft that Sqdn Ldr K Boomer,
the CO of 111 Squadron, shot down an A6M2-N Rufe, the
only Japanese Aircraft destroyed by a Canadian in direct defence of North
America.
Canada had an important influence on the Curtiss P-40 right from its early
development. The XP-40 was flown from Buffalo up to Ottawa
where it was compared in flight with a Spitfire Mk II.
The test pilot, F/L Ernie Mc Nab
is reported to have preferred the Spitfire.
----Bernie has passed these photos on to Jerry Vernon who makes these
following informative comments on the P-40 Canadian Content. (Edited- BC)
"One thing I am going to comment on is the errors in the statements that
(was) made in at least one of the e-mails. Note that the
Kittyhawk Mk. I is NOT a P-40E. It is a model that
was built for the RAF(non-Lend Lease) and
is VERY SIMILAR to a P-40E, but in general terms is LIKE a P-40D with some
P-40E features, such as 6 guns instead of 4, etc. The RAF
and RCAF also had a number of Kittyhawk Mk.Ia
aircraft, which were Lend-Lease P-40E-1 models, with
former USAAF serials.
The Kittyhawk I was Curtiss Model 87A-2 and the Kittyhawk Ia was Curtiss
Model 87A-4. The P-40D was Model 87A-1 and the P-40E was
Model 87A-3. The first 20 Kittyhawk I aircraft for the
RAF were actually Model
87A-1(P-40D), while the rest of the order were Model 87A-2.
In all, the RCAF received 72 Kittyhawk I, 12 Kittyhawk Ia, 15 Kittyhawk III
and 35 Kittyhawk IV aircraft, for a total of 134 aircraft,
plus the loan of 9 Warhawks in the Aleutians, all in
lieu of the 144 P-39 Airacobras originally allotted to
Canada and rejected. Why we ended up one short has
always intrigued me, but it may be linked to the one Airacobra that came to
Canada for evaluation and was written off near Rockcliffe by
an RCAF pilot.
To add to the numbers on the museum aircraft, RCAF 1076 was originally RAF
s/n AL135, and the sequence number was 465. No-one that I
know of has ever been able to find any sign of the
Curtiss c/n on the airframes, and it was probably only
assigned on the books at Curtiss. The is no "Manufacturer's
tag" in the sense of aircraft manufactured for the USAAF.
The only tag on the aircraft is a small tag located
inside the starboard rear "scallop" and visible
through the window.
"465" means that
AL135 was the 465th aircraft built on the RAF order for 560
Kittyhawk I aircraft. A handful of the surviving RCAF
aircraft still have this tag in place. However, as
many of them have been converted to
two-seaters, with the fuselage fuel tank and scallop behind the pilot
replaced with the 2nd seat, the little tag was discarded
along with the sheet metal, as no-one knew what it
meant until I did the math and figured it out.
I wonder where (the c/n "18780" came) from?? My records show the c/n to be
18779. (It looks like somebody at Rockcliffe has done their
math wrong) when counting from the end of a list!!
18780 would have been AL136(RCAF 1077).
There are a lot of problems with the Curtiss c/ns, because
they were building other things,
such as C-46 transports, Helldivers, etc. with the
c/n system all intertwined between types!!
(Of course, if he is right on the number, then the published
c/ns of about half of the world's Kittyhawks are out
by one digit!!)
As far as restoration is concerned, I'm pretty sure the aircraft has been
repainted since the war, as it is not in a "war weary" paint
job. My file on the aircraft shows that it was taken
out of storage in 1960 and sent to CPA(Repair)(aka No.
10 Repair Depot at Calgary) for refurbishing. The
Kittyhawk was probably repainted then.
I would suggest also that the "Manufactured Date" is wrong too, and should
read "1941", not "1942". The aircraft was TOS the RCAF on 23
Mar 42......however, 9 of the 23 Kittyhawks with
higher RAF s/ns were TOS in Dec 41 and the other 14
were delivered in Jan/Feb/Mar 42. RCAF 1076 was one of
the last four Kittyhawk Is delivered to the RCAF.
I don't know what they mean by ".....operated in British Columbia until
1943, then used for training until 1945". OK, perhaps they
mean it was one of the Kittyhawks attached to No. 5
OTU for Fighter Affiliation Training for the Gunners
on the Liberators. Carl Vincent's listing of wartime
service on the RCAF Kittyhawks is rather vague about
1076, and it does not appear in the logbook of Tom
Gurr, who was a Fighter Affiliation pilot at
No. 5 OTU, but there were some of the Mk. I Kittyhawks used there, I think.
All Carl's notes say is that 1076 didn't see much squadron
service.
The Curtiss
P-40 was originally intended as an interim model, pending the
development of the P-46, which was to be a ONew Generationı
fighter. The USAAF watched fighter development in
Europe and saw the streamlining
benifits of the liquid cooled inline V-12 engine, and decreed that all of
its New Generation fighters were to be powered by such
engines. (This held up until the advent of the
P-47.--- It was probably partially fueled by the
US Navyıs exclusive use of air cooled radial powerplants.)
As the first step
in the development of the P-46, (which eventually proved
to be no improvement over the P-40, and a total failure,)
Donovan Berlin, developed an aircraft using a
turbocharged Allison V-1710 engine, P-36
flying surfaces, and a new fuselage with the cockpit moved well back in the
manner of the racing aircraft of the time. This machine was ordered in a
very limited quantity as the YP-37. The P-40 was much preferred by the
Pilots.
At about the same time, Berlin had a supercharged Allison V-170 installed
in a P-36, initially with the radiator cooling system below
and behind the wing, (a feature that was later picked
up on the P-51,) and finally with the
radiators beneath the engine, which provided that distinctive enlarged
cowling that inspired so many intimidating sharkıs mouth
decorations. Production of this aircraft was initially
established to meet urgent French
and British requirements and orders,and it was purchased by the USAAF as the
P-40 . The same basic airframe continued to be produced until
1944 with improved variants of the same engines, and
had one of the largest American production runs of
WW2.
Curtiss tried to develop a succesful replacement, and even with as many as
four revised versions of the XP-60, was never able to come up
with an aircraft that met the rapidly developing
technology of the times. With a
failed attempt at a jet powered fighter, the pioneering Curtiss name faded
from the aviation scene.