Howdy.
I am new to Aces High and was very happy to able to obtain the call sign “AVG.” My uncle was a member of the “American Volunteer Group” (AVG) known as the “Flying Tigers” in China. He later became one of the members who was instrumental in setting up the Flying Tigers Museum in San Diego, Ca.
I have been flying all available fighters and bombers off line and was truly amazed at many of the life like 3D cockpits in AH. The P-40B and P-40E, however, are not of the same quality and it my sincere “wish” that the P-40B and P-40E cockpits be upgraded to the same level as the BF109F-4, Spitfire, etc.
Thanks,
AVG
AVG, who is your uncle? I was/am friendly with several of the AVG (Shilling, Rossi, RT Smith, Baisden and several others). Unfortunately, most of them are gone now.
A few things to understand about the Aces High P-40s:
The P-40B is modeled to P-40C performance data. In reality, the AVG didn't fly P-40Bs or P-40Cs. They were equipped with a unique variation of the Tomahawk. Britain agreed to exchange 100 contracted Tomahawk IIB fighters for new P-40Ds (Kittyhawk Mk.I) so that the former aircraft could be sold to China. Britain's lot of Tomahawks were in production, but those for China hadn't began construction yet. There were some formidable obstacles to be overcome to build the Chinese fighters. All Allison engine production was already earmarked for American and British aircraft. Allison agreed to build the required 100 engines and spares for a premium as they would would have to be assembled and tested using a specially set up production line. Moreover, there were no engine parts to spare. Thus, Allison would have to custom fit or rework previously rejected components to construct these engines. The downside was that these were extremely expensive engines. The upside was that they were literally "blueprinted" engines, that produced nearly 20% more horsepower than the standard V-1710-33. This would provide the AVG Tomahawks with outstanding speed, but at the price of suffering a much higher rate of reduction gear failures in the field. The reduction gear on early Allisons installed in H81 type fighters was rated for a maximum 1,200 hp, and every engine built for the Chinese exceeded that on the factory dynamometer.
Other unique features of the AVG aircraft were that Curtiss built them with left-over P-40B fuel system components. Unlike the Tomahawk IIBs sold to the Brits and US P-40Cs, the AVG fighters used tanks with external self-sealing membranes. Thus, they had greater internal fuel capacity than the IIB/P-40C types. Also unlike the IIB/P-40C, the AVG fighters were not fitted with fuel and shackle provisions for an external belly tank or ordnance. Although some authors and a few historians refer to the AVG Tomahawks as Curtiss H81-2 types, the fact is that Curtiss gave these aircraft a special designation to reflect their unique construction: H81-3.
In addition, the AVG fighters were not fitted with the typical government owned equipment, such as guns, gun sights or radios. The Chinese were responsible for acquiring this hardware. Therefore, most of the AVG fighters were fitted with commercial radios and a mix of guns. All were fitted with twin .50 cal MGs above the engine. Wing guns (rifle caliber) varied from plane to plane, with some being fitted with Brownings in 7.92 mm (the standard round of the Chinese Army), some with Brownings in .30 cal US and even a few with Brownings in .303 Brit caliber. Over the course of the AVG's 7 months of operations (under the Chinese flag), efforts were made to standardize the gun installation as aircraft were written off and salvaged due to operational accidents. Gun sights were purchased on the open market, but replacement light bulbs for the reflector were very hard to come by.
Our P-40B offers performance based upon the heavier Tomahawk IIB/P-40C, not the P-40B and especially not the AVG Tomahawk, which was actually faster than the P-40Es the AVG received in the Spring of 1942.
Shifting to the AH2 P-40E, we find yet another issue. P-40Es were fitted with the Allison V-1710-39 engine. This Allison did not have a War Emergency rating. Our P-40E does. This was not unusual for early Aces High fighters, that were sometimes an amalgam of models (a prime example being the old Spitfire Mk.IX). Within that context, the performance and configuration of the AH2 P-40E more closely resembles that of the P-40K.
So, our P-40B offers less performance than the actual fighter, and the P-40E presents slightly better performance than the actual model it represents.
As others have pointed out, the P-40s use older graphic models that have not yet been brought up to the current standard. Eventually, they will be updated and I would not be surprised to see a variant of the P-40N being added when that occurs.
My regards,
Widewing
