Country of origin:

United States of America

Description:

Single-seat fighter bomber

Power Plant:

One 970 kw (1,300 hp) Packard Rolls Royce Merlin V-1650-1 twelve-cylinder VEE liquid-cooled engine

Specifications:

Armament:

Six 12.7 mm (0.5 in) machine-guns with 281 rounds per gun; one 227 kg (500 lb) and two 45 kg (100 lb) bombs

History:

In an attempt to increase the high-altitude performance of the P-40E Kittyhawk, Curtiss undertook the re-design of the aircraft to take a British-built Rolls Royce Merlin 28 engine with a single-stage, two-speed supercharger. This was installed in a P-40D airframe and flown for the first time as the XP-40F on 25 November 1941. This model was then placed in production as the P-40F fitted with a Packard-built V-1650-1 Merlin rated at 970 kw (1,300 hp) for take-off and 836 kw (1,120 hp) at 5,639 m (18,500 ft).

A total of 1,311 P-40Fs was built during 1942, being known as the P-40F-1-CU, having the same fuselage length of 9.5 m (31 ft 2 in) of the P-40E but soon being changed to a length of 10.18 m (33 ft 4 in), the fin and rudder being moved rearward of the tailplane in order to improve directional stability. This model was then purchased with Lend-Lease funds and became known as the Kittyhawk II with the RAF but in fact no examples were delivered to the RAF.

Examples of the P-40F were delivered from the Curtiss facility, 330 of these being allocated to Commonwealth air forces but only 117 of these serving with the Royal Air Force (RAF), Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) and South African Air Force (SAAF), most of the others being delivered to the Soviet Union. Of these, some were lost at sea in Russian convoys, others were delivered to Free French units, and others remained with United States Army Air Force (USAAF) units.

A variant of the P-40F Warhawk was also fitted with the Packard-built Merlin engine, this being the P-40L, produced in an attempt to improve the performance of the aircraft, this aircraft having the outer wing machine-guns removed, being lighter in weight, having reduced fuel capacity and having some of the armour removed but the aircraft was still only marginally better.

700 examples were built during 1943 when a scarcity of Merlin engines necessitated concentration on the production of Allison-powered models, bringing total production of the Merlin engined variants to 2,011. In 1944, as the production of the Packard-built Merlin engine could not meet requirements, some 300 P-40Fs and P-40Ls were re-engined with the Allison V-1710-81 when they needed an engine change, becoming known as the P-40R.

On 20 December 1942 a flight of four P-40Fs from the 44th Fighter Group of the American 13th Air Force left Bauer Field, Efate in the New Hebrides (now Vanuatu) on a navigation and training exercise around the islands in the group. On their return flight the aircraft encountered a severe tropical storm with heavy squalls and poor visibility extending to sea level and the aircraft became separated. An attempt was made to force land on the island of Erromango, 138 km (86 miles) south east of Efate as there was no airstrip available. The first two aircraft were seriously damaged in the landing but the other two suffered little damage apart from bent propellers.

A salvage operation was put in train and all four aircraft were stripped of useful components. The two least damaged machines were disassembled and conveyed to a barge for shipment to a repair and salvage unit on Noumea. The other two aircraft were left in situ as their recovery was not viable.

In June 1989 the two wrecks were recovered to Port Vila where the components were thoroughly cleaned and crated for shipment to Australia. One was rebuilt for Judy Pay at Tyabb, VIC where it became VH-HWK and has been based there. It made its first post restoration flight at Tyabb on 22 April 2009. The second machine was exchanged by Graham Hosking with the RNZAF Museum for an F4U-5N Corsair project where it has been restored as an Allison-engined aircraft, painted in the colours of the RNZAF, and placed on display.

Another P-40F Warhawk has survived. This aircraft (41-19841 – c/n 19503) was manufactured at the Curtiss facility in Buffalo, New York and was shipped to the 13th Air Force in the south-west Pacific on Christmas Eve, 1942. After retirement from service it was condemned by the USAAF in November 1943 and abandoned on Espiritu Santo in the New Hebrides.

The aircraft was located and recovered in 1970, being acquired by the Fighter Collection of Duxford in the United Kingdom. It was restored to airworthiness at Wangaratta, VIC, this being completed in 2011. It was test flown in April that year as VH-PIV fitted with a Rolls Royce Merlin 500 engine. It was subsequently exported to the UK where it has been flown as G-CGZP. This latter aircraft was painted in the markings of ‘Lee’s Hope’ from the 85th Fighter Squadron of the 79th Fighter Group of the USAAF flown by Lt Robert J Duffield from Capodichini Airfield in southern Italy in early 1944.