Curtiss P-40 Warhawk

P-40 in the Chinese air force, 1943.

P-40s in Darwin, Australia, 1942.

Soviet P-40, 1942.

P-40 Warhawk in flight at an air show in the Netherlands, 2024.

P-40 at an airshow. The characteristic scoop under the nose housed the radiator and oil cooler, and was often decorated with an open-mouthed shark design.

The Curtiss P-40 Warhawk was an fighter-bomber airplane used primarily during World War II. It was tough and durable, with a low cost of production, and proved very useful in North Africa and China, on the Eastern Front, and in the Pacific theater.

The planes were built by Curtiss in Buffalo, New York.

The engine was an Allison V12 with a single supercharger. It suffered from poor performance above 15,000 feet, and so the P-40 was not deployed in large numbers in England or France where it might encounter high altitude German fighters. It was also not a very good bomber escort for the same reason.

In North Africa, most engagements were fought well below 15,000 feet, and it downed many Axis fighters as well as filled crucial ground attack roles.

In China, the P-40 was used by the Flying Tigers, where it squared off against Japanese Zeros. Although it lacked the turning radius of the Zero, pilots quickly learned not to get sucked into that type of dogfight, preferring boom and zoom tactics that played to the Warhawk's strengths.