P-40B Posse Check In

[Mox]

Good to see you're still trying Downtown!  

I'd like to see the P40 also!

[lazs1]

yep.. love to see a p40 b or e  (both have allison engines) in AH but..  Besides the half dozen true fans and martyr's out there... they would be useless in the current MA.   Even The zeke we have is the one with the titanium armor so not an early model.  

We would need at least 3-4 planes all introduced at once and a place (besides the CT) for em to fly to make it worthwhile.   I would say, P40E, 109e, SpitI, ki43 and say an f4f3 or P39 with early versions of the zeke and hurri one thrown in.  Even stukas and vals would work inb such a crowd.

For a place to fly em we would need and early war "area" in the arena or... a modified RPS with say 2 days at the beggining of the tour for early war and if it were popular add days as needed... Perhaps a few days at the end for the late war and fantasy planes like the 152 and such also.

[Rojo]

For what it's worth, the CM's submitted a list of planes (at HTC's request) to be developed to support scenarios.  A P-40 varient was on the list (either -E or -N).  I will definitely spend a lion's share of time in MA in this plane.  The -B is too early at this point in the a/c development schedule.  The -N is, IMNSHO, the most likely varient to be produced first.  It was the last model produced in larget numbers (over 3,000), and served in every theater except western Europe.

[streakeagle]

When I said it was designed to replace P-40... I meant exactly what you said, I just didn't want to go into detail about the facts: North American turned out the design of one of the greatest airframes in the war in a couple weeks as an alternative to producing P-40s for Britain... To me that's just long-winded way of saying it was designed to replace the P-40 (even if the scope is limited to a British contract). And eventually it sure as hell did replace the P-40 (the primary single-inline engine fighter when the war started)... name another single engine inline fighter that flew with the USAAF in signifcant numbers (throws out the P-39 which we pretty much pushed off on the Soviet Union) besides the P-40 and the P-51... once the P-51 got the merlin its production far exceeded the meager numbers of P-40s. But Curtiss had been a powerful company and would never be forced to build P-51s the way GM, Ford, and Vega were forced to license build other companies designs, so token production of P-40s continued throughout the war. I don't remember, but was the P-40 the last Curtiss military design to ever go into production?

Curtiss did try to sue North American over the P-51 design. They claimed that North American used their access to the P-40 design as the basis for the P-51 (hence the short design time). I laugh at Curtiss for that: aerodynamically and structurally, the only things they have in common are single-inline engine and low-wing tail dragger plus the standard US 0.50 cal armament. The P-51 incorporated the newly developed laminar flow wing to get superior performance with less power (i.e. low drag!).

If the E did not have Merlin, was the F the first Merlin? I am too lazy to look it up. But the E did have substantial changes to the airframe/radiator. Only the B/C has the sleek chin scoop evolved from the XP-37. The E starts getting too heavy... and the N would be the last variant I would want to fly.

But I am not as picky as I sound... Just as long as HTC keeps adding as many well-modeled planes as possible. I love them all, I just have a few favorites like the B-17, P-51, P-40, and F4U.

[ 08-20-2001: Message edited by: streakeagle ]

[ 08-20-2001: Message edited by: streakeagle ]

[buhdman]

(* punt *)

Pretty please  

[DRILL]

works for me  

[Hobodog]

PUNT

[Weave]

Absolutly gotta have one, yup, gimme gimme!  

[Pkrl]

Yup  

[pdog_109]

Yeah, i need a new american fighter to kill. Im getting tired of blasting P-38s and runstangs.

[lazs1]

only the F and the L were merlin powered with single stage 2 speed superchargers.   The N (allison) was the fastest p40 but the F (merlin) was faster at 20k.   The merlin and the P40 was not a happy marriage and only about 1700 merlin P40's were produced even tho Packard was easily able to produce any merlins needed.
lazs

[hblair]

The P40 is one of the best looking prop planes ever built. I'd like to see it in Aces High.

[AN]

'Since a lot of these stories are about a P-39, I'd better point out a few things that may sound technical at first, but I assure you are not.  Every fighter plane had certain foibles.  The P-40 had narrow landing gear which gave her a tendency to groundloop if you let her swing the least bit on landing.  Or even on takeoff.  I remember a story an Australian flyer told me about the first P-40 squadron to arrive at Darwin in the early days of the war.  They came in from the Philippines and Java, and everyone at the RAAF station watched these Yanks as they took care of their strange, aggressive-looking aircraft.  And then the squadron leader started to take off, and halfway down the runway the P-40 ground-looped.  She spun around in a cloud of reddust, and one wheel crumpled, and she caught a wing and cartwheeled, and in a second there was nothing left of her but a heap of twisted metal ticking quietly in the heat.

All the Aussies ran over, aghast, and the pilot miraculously crawled out of the wreckage and strolled away.  And my friend ran up to him and said, "My God, what happened?"

And the Yank said, "Nothin' happened, son.  She just swung a little."'

-from Nanette by Edwards Park

Oh, BTW--

PUNT

anRky

[Kratzer]

109E3 - 7, Spit Mk Ib, P40B, Hurri Mk Ia

PUNT

[Rotorian]

Originally posted by ra:
You got my vote, while you're at it add any planes which saw action before 1943.

ra

Effing ah!