P-40 Warhawk
The Curtiss P-40 Warhawk — the shark-mouthed fighter of the Flying Tigers — captured as a high-quality RC scale warbird.
About
The Curtiss P-40 Warhawk evolved from the earlier Curtiss P-36 Hawk, fitted with the supercharged Allison V-1710 inline engine in place of the P-36's radial. The XP-40 prototype made its first flight on October 14, 1938, and the type entered USAAC service in 1939 as the U.S. Army's most numerous front-line fighter at the outbreak of the Second World War. Curtiss-Wright built almost 14,000 P-40s across all variants between 1939 and 1944.
The P-40 fought everywhere in the early war — defended Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941; flew with the Royal Air Force in North Africa as the "Tomahawk" and "Kittyhawk"; and served with the American Volunteer Group ("Flying Tigers") under Claire Chennault in China, where Curtiss P-40s in their distinctive shark-mouth livery became one of the most iconic warbird paint schemes ever applied. The unmistakable inline-engine cowl, ventral radiator, and shark-toothed nose appears in countless modern RC scale warbird kits.
In the simulator
A satisfying warbird scale subject with the substantial-but-friendly handling of the real Curtiss design. A natural sibling of the P40F (CV Planes Pack 5).
