Funked I have been doing research on the P-40 for a WWIIOnline affiliate. I have several articles from WWII Pilots who flew the P-40 and other U.S. fighters and said that the P-40B or C were the Best U.S. Turn Fighters of the War! The D and Later Models still turned better than many others, excluding the P-38 and F6F. I have a quote somewhere that says this from a group of Army/Navy Pilots that were at some conference and flew different planes to determine their strengths and weakness. These pilots all flew against axis aircraft in combat and many were aces and former test pilots. That was their determination, if you are going to turnfight in a U.S. Plane (U.S.A.A.C.) the one to be in was the P-40!
Of course none of the pilots recommended using any U.S. Aircraft to turnfight, except the F6F.
The pilots who flew the P-40 and were successful said that it was the
TACTICS not the plane. Early in the War all U.S. Fighter Pilots were taught to dogfight. The P-40 was too heavy to dogfight the nimble zero, but said it was a match to the 109. They said the only advantage the 109 had was its ability to climb (a admitted weakness of the P-40 and in general all U.S. fighters.)
I reccomend
P-40.COM which has an article comparing the P-40 to the zero and the 109.
------------------
"Downtown" Lincoln Brown.
lkbrown1@tir.com http://www.tir.com/~lkbrown1 Wrecking Crews "Drag and Die Guy"
Hals und beinbruch!
[This message has been edited by Downtown (edited 07-21-2000).]
