Dive performance was another plus for the P-40. If the Luftwaffe fighters could dive faster it was with more difficulty and the P-40 could stay close enough in a sustained dive to catch them on pull-out. If the P-40s were red-lined at 480 mph, many went up to 510 terminal velocity.
The F model had the rudder placed further aft to enhance dive stability (also, this would help as a more stable platform for wing-mounted gunfire).
The Japanese considered the P-40 to be the most dangerous low level U.S. fighter.

Roll rate is 95 degrees/second for the F, better than the P-39 or F4F; also better than the A6M2 (above 130 mph) or Bf 109 roll.
360 turn was 18 seconds for the P-40C and 19.2 for the E.
This was competitive for Europe at least.

Roll rate is 95 degrees/second for the F, better than the P-39 or F4F; also better than the A6M2 (above 130 mph) or Bf 109 roll.
360 turn was 18 seconds for the P-40C and 19.2 for the E.
This was competitive for Europe at least.

We could go on for ever about the way military brass and political leaders made policy that hampered aircraft design. The P-40 and all U.S. military planes at the time where what the army and navy were funded to buy.
The kind of things said in 1940 quoting nobody.
“Bombers with adequate defensive firepower will always get through. We don’t need escort fighters,”
“Waves of B-17s raining down bombs will force the enemy to mail in his surrender.”
“Fighters are defensive weapons. They don’t need much range or high altitude capability. Their job intercepting bombers and keeping enemy recon planes away. As for enemy high altitude recon spies, we have the P-38 with it‘s marvelous turbocharged engines.”
What about that turbocharger we were so proud of? Nobody else wanted it, not even our own navy. The Brits took airplanes with the things, mostly B-24s. The same for the USN.
Now I ramble. Enough.
By the way Leo, I ain't no Yankee, I’m from Mississippi.

Valid points, Tom. The P40 in the Pacific had speed. In North Africa, it faced the Me109 flown by Hans Marseille,the "star of Afrika" who,on his best day, shot down 18 or 19 planes, 2 hurricanes,1 spit, the rest P40's. His war ended when his engine stopped and he hit the tailplane bailing out. He had 158 victories. Could anything be done about it? The same situation existed with Sherman Tanks vs Panther $ Tiger tanks. The fourth Sherman was toscoot behind a German tank and shoot it in the back while the Tiger blew up the other three. Tough war. It took Curtiss a long time to add length to the tail, correcting the clumsy turn. When I build my time machine,things are gonna change. And my favorite war movie is "God is my Co-pilot" about Col. R.L.Scott in a Peter four-oh. How's that for apples, YYYYANK! Kinda sour, Joe, Kinda sour, and don't call me yank, I'm from Georgia.

I believe the most interesting thing about the P-40 is the way most everybody that claims to know anything all about the plane knows it was the last place World War Two fighter on everybody’s list. The only exceptions being those men that flew the plane in combat. Somehow they never got the message and thought it was good war bird.
Why?
I think the experts compare the airplanes as they were on 3 September 1945, the day after the war ended. They do not consider them year by year, what was available on all sides and all around conditions.
1 September 1939. WW-2 begin. No P-51s or P-47s, they didn’t fly until 1940 and ‘41. Airplanes that aren’t there are no good at all. America’s best fighter available in strength was the Curtiss P-36. Some P-36s were sold to France and saw combat.
By mid 1940 the P-40 was in full production. France and Great Britain had ordered hundreds. The U.S. Army was filling a few squadrons but so many were sold overseas American airmen were waiting in line while many Hawks were entering the war in North Africa and saw combat for the first time. The first of those planes did have problems and the RAF said so bluntly in plain English. The Tomahawk needed more fire power, cockpit armor and self sealing fuel tanks. Curtiss heard, understood and acted.
7 Dec 1941. The United States enters the war when Perl Harbor is bombed. The P-36 and P-40 are there and get into the fight, even score a few kills, some help. There are no P-47s or P-51s, no help at all. Within a month the P-40 was fighting in Burma with the AVG, “Flying Tigers.” The P-36 was withdrawn from war zones, it‘s fighting time had passed.

First Flights
P- 36 May 1935
P-38 27 January 1939
P-39 6 April 1938
P-40 1938
P-51 26 October 1940 as Mustang 1 - Allison engine
P-51 B April 1942 - Merlin engine
P-47 6 May 1941
F4F 2 September 1937
F6F 26 June 1942
F4U 29 May 1940

Many seem to find a date for first flight and assume mass production begins right away. Within months, a year at most there were hundreds of war ready planes on their way to the front. Not so.
P-38s fired their first shots in anger in August 1942.
The P-39 got into the fight about Easter ‘42 winning few fans while making the P-40 look very good.
The first P-47 combat mission was flown 10 March 1943, four years and eight months after the war begin in Poland. Two years and five months after Pearl Harbor. There were no P-51s in the high altitude role. When the
P-47 went to work as a bomber escort the Luftwaffe suffered enough to lay off the bombers until the Jugs reached their combat radius and had to turn back.
The Allison P-51 got into the shooting war as part of the RAF in May 1942 proving to be a great low altitude fighter but given little credit as a war winner. In Oct. of ‘42 the A-36 and P-51A went to war as part of the USAAF in North Africa. It seems the planes did rather well but the P-40 maintained great respect.
The Merlin powered P-51B was a different airplane than the Allison powered Mustangs preceding it, comparing them is like comparing the P-36 and P-40, the different engines made them different airplanes. The P-51B started showing up in small numbers in England in late 1943, some have referred to it as the U.S. Eighth Air Force’s best Christmas present. It was about the first of March of 1944 before there were enough to fully rearm any P-47 groups. About a year after the P-47 had begin establishing air superiority within its operational range. Twelve to fourteen months later the war in Europe was over.
At most the Merlin powered P-51 fought in significant numbers for the last year and a quarter of a war that lasted five years and eight months for Europe and gets all the credit for winning. The P-51 was a great fighter but over rated. I think.
The P-40 started fighting in mid 1940 and probably did the most to give the mighty P-51 time to be born, grow up and grow horns to fight with. What appreciation does it get? The Warhawk is constantly berated as a waste of money, manpower and materials that did little or nothing for the war effort. Hooray for all those WW-2 air war experts. - Tom

My grandfather worked for curtiss aircraft company during WWII in Buffalo,NY as a welder. I'm looking for any information about the factory or old pictures anyone may have. I father does not have alot of information about exactly what my Grandfather worked on, only that he help build the P-40

I would like to know where I could get a set of at least half scale plans for the P-40 Warhawk,Kittyhawk,or tommahawk,as I like this plane and would like to build one.
Yours Truly
Randall Duff Pettie

My uncle, disabled in his youth from rubella, worked at the Curtis factory in Louisville during the war. He stayed on when the facility transitioned to International Harvester where he worked until he retired.

hi theres guys ,where ever you might be comeing from ,im come to you from the good old U.S.A.... yes i can tell you quite a bit about this aircraft ,i was born here in louisville ky in the united states of america ,and i lived at 4641,crittEnen drive here in louisville ky ,ok and my parents owned a home where we lived at just right down the street from THE cirtis wrights aircraft company ,witch in years to come after the war, became the grate international harvest farm tractor manufacturer,,but when and while curtis wrights was produceing these little fighter planes , i loved to go down there at the take off runways ,that ran east and west across the airport in those days and the goverment had a huge wheat feild there surounding the curtis aircraft company,and there was a fence devideing the runway for take offs ,and landings of the test pilots thAt tested these fighter planes ,and i would just set back aganst a fence post there sometimes half the day and watch them take off there and land.,and i just loved the beautiful colors they were decerated with and the markings were just beautiful ,and due to different countrys they were going to be working for they were deceratd differently for that country ,i geuss because they had different markings on some of them i know the britts had some going out of there but of couse back then ,i didnt know one from the others sig marks ,,and to me these were some fast little aircraft ,i never seen anything so fast take off there at curtis aircraft runways ,they were very fast ,when those pilots pulled that throtel back when takeing off ,that thing was like a streak of lightening going down that runway, cutis built several different type of aircraft out there at the plant on crittnen drive here in louisville ky ,but they also had a repair hanger and shop there too ,that they fighter pilots flew in with a lots of different kinds of aircraft with a lots of gunfire damage to them ,and they would repair them and send them back out agan ive seen planes come limping in there damaged so badly that you wouldnt think could even fly any longer but they repaired them and you would see those planes take off agan in a few days and back to the war zone ,we also had a grummon aircraft company here also they were a large plane ,two seater ,and had a rear seat gunner and wing guns also and carried bombs under neath them... absolutely gorgius air planes and they were very very fast too,beautiful shiney things .they just glistend in the sun light . ive set there aganst those fence post at the fence that ran across the old stanfords feild airport and seen brand new b-17,s take off there they also had a huge storage feild there too ,for planes built in california and other places they would fly hem to louisville and store them for testing and then fly them out of there ,and we also had an other aircraft plant in the old west end of louisville ky that built big bombers but for the best of me i cant remember what they were ,they might have been b-17,s are b-29,s are b-25,s im not really sure what they were but they also had a ford plant down there in the west end ,,but ive seen planes parked there at the old stanfords feild airport from crittenen drive all the way east to preston street witch i would say is a good mile or mabe 2 miles in distence across there . but guys i can talk on and on about planes because i love them ive even been lucky enough to get to help build the grate hughey cobra in california at the vinice plant there where i live just up the street from hughes aircraft co.in vinice california , i lived at 2801&1/2 ocean park blvrd in santa minica ,just up the street from vinice where i worked '' me and my oldest brother virgil .that was a mighty chopper guys fast and deadly jesus it was so deadly those guns can rain firer power on you ,ive forgot what the firepower ratio was but they claimed in so few minutes they could fire enough copper rounds to stretch a long copper wire power line for several miles ,and i dont doublt it one bit because this is one chopper you dint want asfter you are laying down its power on you ,this big bird was absolutely awsome and could put on one hell of a show for you when it released all its fire power . when you seen on of these babys stop on a dime in the air and mabe turn one way or the othere and tilt that litle fan blade on the back end up you could just say well some poor devil is geting ready to get hell right now , hey these pilots didnt play no games with anyone they were there to take care of bisuness and thats what they did too these suckersd carried some lethal firepower they were strictly a killin machine first class ,and could sneak up on you before you ...

One of the first aircraft I receive instruction in after leaving the link trainer was the TP-40, and what a great aircraft to fly. Awesome performance, although not as good as the P-51D, it was still a classic piece. One of my good friends with whom I went to school with was Gen. Claire Chenault's nephew and Chenault valued the P-40 and it's manurevability against the Japanese aircraft in the early formative years of the American Volunteer Group (AVG).

My father in law's cousin was the chief designer of this plane, Donovan (Don) Berlin. He and Bill Lear were good friends, about the same age, and worked on different projects before and during World War II.

Beautiful 'Bird'! Very sucessful im China until replaced by the P-51. 14th Air Force, 1943-1945. 23rd Fighter Group, 74th, 75th and 76th Fighter Squadrons. Acitvated in China March 1943. I was stationed in China from Feb 1944 to the end of the war. A final note, the three Fighter Sqaudrons mentioned above are still active today, sporting
Tiger Shark noses, flying the Warthog A-10 and based at Pope AFB. Ah memories!