Curtiss P-40C Tomahawk

From The Air Combat Wiki

Contents 1 Fighter Ace Screenshots 2 Fighter Ace Ratings 3 Fighter Ace Performance 4 Historical Statistics 5 Strengths 6 Weaknesses 7 History 8 Sources 9 See Also

Fighter Ace Screenshots

Fighter Ace museum screenshot by Doug@HQ	Fighter Ace museum screenshot by Doug@HQ	Fighter Ace museum screenshot by Doug@HQ	Fighter Ace museum screenshot by Doug@HQ
Fighter Ace museum screenshot by Doug@HQ	Fighter Ace museum screenshot by Doug@HQ	Fighter Ace museum screenshot by Doug@HQ

Fighter Ace Ratings

Durability: 3

Speed: 6

Maneuverability: 7

Firepower: 3

Climb Rate: 5

Ground Attack: 1

Fighter Ace Performance

Top Speeds						Climb Rates
	Sea Level	4921' 1500m	9843' 3000m	19685' 6000m	Best Speed	Best IAS	to 1000m	to 3000m	to 6000m
mph	288	308	327	326	345@ 15092'	165 mph	1:49	4:38	8:57
kph	463	495	526	524	555@ 4600m	265 kph

Historical Statistics

Service Date: June 1941

Primary Guns: 4x 0.3" (7.6mm) machine guns with 400 rpg in wings

Secondary Guns: 2x Browning M2 0.5" (12.7mm) machine guns with 291 rpg in cowl

Ordnance: 1x 250 lb (113 kg) bomb or 1x 312 lb (142 kg) drop tank

Engine(s): 1x Allison V-1710-33 in-line rated for 1,150 hp at sea level

Int Fuel Capacity: 805 lbs (365 kg)

Ext Fuel Capacity: 313 lbs (142 kg)

Maximum Speeds: 345 mph (555 kph) at 15,000 ft (4,572 m)

Ceiling: 29,500 ft (8992 m)

Loaded Weight: 7,549 lbs (3,424 kg)

Wing Area: 236 sq ft (22 sq m)

Wing Loading: 32.0 lbs/sq ft (155.6 kg/sq m)

Strengths

Durability: The P-40 can absorb considerable battle damage and still bring its pilot back home.

Weaknesses

Guns: Four .30 caliber and two .50 caliber guns are insufficient to deal much damage to enemy planes, particularly bombers.

High Altitude Performance: While it is nimble and agile at low altitudes, the lack of a decent supercharger makes the P-40 a sluggish performer above 10,000 feet.

History

During production of the Hawk 75 fighter for the US Army in 1937, Curtiss modified the original radial engine design to accommodate the new Allison V-1710 inline, liquid-cooled engine. The new design benefited from both streamlining and increased engine power, and was flown for the first time in October 1938 as the XP-40. Performance was so impressive that the Army ordered 524 production machines, which was at that time the largest-ever single production order for a US fighter.

The first production P-40s began to appear in May 1940, and the US Army elected to defer delivery of the new fighter to allow production and delivery of the export version (known as the Hawk 81A) to France. However, the initial production version was hardly combat ready, lacking armor protection and self-sealing fuel tanks, and deliveries weren't able to be made until September 1940. By then France had fallen and the RAF had taken over the production order from the French Air Force.

The British replaced the two .30 caliber Browning machine guns in the wings with guns chambered for the .303 round, but retained the two .50 caliber machine guns in the nose. With some armor protection and self-sealing fuel tanks, the new machine was designated the "Tomahawk IIA" for RAF service, and was virtually identical to the USAAF's P-40B, which began to reach service units in early 1941.

For the next variant, the P-40C model (Tomahawk IIB to the RAF), improvements were made to the self-sealing fuel tanks and an additional .30 caliber machine gun was added to each wing, which increased gross weight and reduced the maximum speed. By the time the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, the Army had 62 P-40Bs and 11 P-40Cs, the majority of which were destroyed on the ground. However, several survived the initial attack and were able to score the AAFs first "kills" of the war. Two weeks later, on December 20, 1941, the American Volunteer Group, aka the "Flying Tigers", took to the skies in their P-40Cs and destroyed six of ten Japanese bombers attacking Kunming.

Sources

Green, William; War Planes Of The Second World War: Fighters Volume Four; Macdonald & Co., London; 1961.

Davis, Larry; Curtiss Army Hawks In Action, Aircraft Number 128; Squadron/Signal Publications, Carrollton, Texas; 1992.

McDowell, Ernest R.; Curtiss P-40 In Action, Aircraft No. 26; Squadron/Signal Publications, Carrollton, Texas; 1976.

See Also

Fighter Ace Planes Inventory

The Curtiss-Wright Corporation, Aircraft Division

Aircraft Manufacturers During World War II