P-40 Warhawk/Tomahawk Fighter Plane

This was America's front-line fighter
plane during the late 1930's and early
1940's. The P-40 was built by Curtiss
Aircraft Company and was powered by
a 1360 horsepower inline Allison engine.
The P-40 had six wing-mounted 12.7
caliber machine guns and could carry
up to 1500 pounds in bombs. The
American version was called the Warhawk
but the ones given to the English were
called Tomahawks. Around 15,000 were
built, but only 29 are known to be still
flyable. More info below..The 1st photo
is a real P-40 and the remainder are of
my latest model.

History: The P-40 fighter/bomber was the third-most numerous US fighter of World War II. An early prototype version of the P-40 was the first American fighter capable of speeds greater than 300 mph. Design work on the aircraft began in 1937, but numerous experimental versions were tested and refined before the first production version of the P-40, the Model 81, appeared in May 1940. By September of that year, over 200 had been delivered to the Army Air Corps. 185 more were delivered to the United Kingdom in the fall of 1940, where they were designated the Tomahawk Mk I.

Early combat operations pointed to the need for more armor and self-sealing fuel tanks, which were included in the P-40B (called the Tomahawk Mk IIA in the UK). These improvements came at price: a significant loss of performance due to the extra weight. Further armor additions and fuel tank improvements added even more weight in the P-40C (Tomahawk Mk IIB). Curtiss addressed the airplane's mounting performance problems with the introduction of the P-40D (Kittyhawk Mk I), which was powered by a more powerful version of the Allison V-1710 engine, and had two additional wing-mounted guns. The engine change resulted in a slightly different external appearance, which was the reason the RAF renamed it from the Tomahawk to the Kittyhawk. Later, two more guns were added in the P-40E (Kittyhawk Mk IA), and this version was used with great success (along with their mainstays, the earlier B-models) by General Claire Chenault's American Volunteer Group (The Flying Tigers) in China.