P-40 Question

[dizman]

Well, The P-51 and the P-47 first started out like the P-40, with a crappy rear view. Well the P-51 and P-47 were upgraded to have a teardrop canopy for superb vision. I was wondering if the P-40 got the same treatment, maybe in the last models.

[Oldman731]

Originally posted by dizman
Well, The P-51 and the P-47 first started out like the P-40, with a crappy rear view. Well the P-51 and P-47 were upgraded to have a teardrop canopy for superb vision. I was wondering if the P-40 got the same treatment, maybe in the last models.

The US produced the P-40 way beyond its useful life.  The final attempt to keep the corpse alive was the P-40Q, which had a bubble canopy.  It never went into production because, even with all the modifications, it was still grossly inferior to its contemporaries.

- oldman

[Captain Virgil Hilts]

The problem with the P-40 was lack of horsepower. Had it been equipped with a 1700HP engine, it'd be a whole different plane. The Allison, as spec'd by the U.S. military, was equipped with a single speed single stage crank driven supercharger. For the P-38, a GE turbocharger was added. Originally, the same turbocharger was spec'd for the P-39, but the USAAF had it deleted. So it hadn't a prayer above 15,000 feet. But one of the fastest prop planes in the air after the war was a P-39 with a P-38 engine. Curtiss requested both turbochargers and two stage two speed superchargers for the P-40, but to no avail.

[SMIDSY]

P-40Q, damn ugly bird

[Golfer]

I'd hit it.

[Rino]

Of course you would, you go gaga over a slowtation

[Golfer]

Originally posted by Rino
Of course you would, you go gaga over a slowtation

The ultra and encore aren't that slow.  The way it looks now I could wind up in the X in <12 months.  Poor poor me.

[Rino]

Sweet!  Slow is in the eye of the beholder though  I see dozens of
Cessnas every day at work..Net Jets and Citation Shares love KMMU....
lots of rich folks with fractional ownerships.

     Is the 10 part of the fleet you're flying with now?

[Golfer]

1 X and adding another in September.

Know a lot of X guys including an ACP and several captains at NetJets.  Happy for them with their new contract and they're being properly compensated.

[Saxman]

I thought I saw somewhere that some of the later model P-40s were still respectable fighters. P-40N is one I hear most about. Faster and more maneuverable with a better rate of climb than earlier models.

[Krusty]

Not really. The N and Q models didn't show up til the end of the war, and they were still inferior to the P51s, P47s, F4us, etc that had already been fighting for years.

The aircraft was hurt from the start, like the P39. It was just behind the curve as the war started, and only fell behind from there. It got improvements, but not enough and not fast enough to be competitive.

[GlacierGirl]

I believe the N modle had an extended tail section for more stability and maybe a larger engine. I dont know if its true or not but i heard that P40s are supposed to handle much differantly than in the game. I also read that someone could always tell a P40 pilot from the others because of the over developed calf muscle on, i believe the right leg because the P40 always pulled to the left in a dive, and had to be counter acted by the rudder. I also heard that a P40 Pilot said that there wasnt much that could keep up with a P40 in a dive and diving was his last resort to getting away from somebody on his six. I found a Problem with the P40B in the game, i was reading the history of the flying Tigers and it said that the P40Bs never had the optical sight on it and they had to use the Iron sights on the exterior of the plane, i also think the P40Bs guns should do a little bit more damage in the game, i had to pump 1000 rounds into the tail of an LA at less than 200meters to get him to crash, that seems a bit much. I noticed that on the shadow of the E modle in the game the landing gears are always down and dont retract with the gears on the plane.


~P40E best plane in the game...WOOOOOO!!!~

[DoKGonZo]

In fairness, by late-42 the P40 was relegated to ground support duty, and delivered to Allied nations for their use (except for China where it did fine against what the IJA had going for most of the war). It was cheap and relatively easy to build and rugged as hell. So comparing it to a fist line air superiority fighter isn't quite fair.

The Military Channel has an episode running this month on the P40. While watching it you learn that (a) it more or less won WW2 single-handed, (b) it had 50mm guns, and (c) by the end of the war it looked an awful lot like a P51D. WTF?

[Krusty]

LOL DokGonzo

Glacier Girl you're getting your planes mixed up. Pilots of the Me109 were supposedly developing strong calf muscles because of the constant rudder input needed at all speeds.

[Widewing]

Originally posted by Krusty
Not really. The N and Q models didn't show up til the end of the war, and they were still inferior to the P51s, P47s, F4us, etc that had already been fighting for years.

The aircraft was hurt from the start, like the P39. It was just behind the curve as the war started, and only fell behind from there. It got improvements, but not enough and not fast enough to be competitive.

XP-40Q, 2 built... Never saw service.

P-40N: In service by May of 1943, not at the end of the war. Heavily used in SWPA, CBI and MTO theaters. Two of the three squadrons of the highest scoring fighter group in the Pacific (the 49th FG) flew P-40Ns right up until late summer of 1944.

By 1941, Curtiss had devolved into a major clusterhump of a company. There is absolutely no doubt that a vastly improved P-40 could have been in service by 1943. Curtiss simply wasn't up to it. They lost a contract to build P-47s (the P-47G) because they were way behind schedule and because their quality control was horrific. Virtually every Curtiss fighter design after the P-40 was an abject failure.

My regards,

Widewing