AP 118 · No. 10 Section II · Aircraft Plate 67 / 157

Plate 67 of 157 · Second World War · Fighter-bomber

Curtiss Kittyhawk IV

Kittyhawk IV (P-40N-15), painted as ‘FX760’, the RAF Museum’s Curtiss Kittyhawk IV, a P-40N-15-CU built at Buffalo, New York in 1943 as 42-106101, flown in New Guinea by No. 80 Squadron RAAF as A29-556 until it was damaged landing at Tadji in May 1944 and abandoned there, recovered in 1974, restored for static display in the United States and displayed at Hendon since 1992, painted as a Kittyhawk IV of No. 112 Squadron in Italy in 1944: the last major version of the P-40, a single-seat fighter-bomber of 37 ft 4 in span with an Allison V-1710 V-12 under a long nose, a deep chin radiator intake, six .50 in machine guns in the wings, main wheels that retract rearwards and turn to lie flat in the wing, and the cut-down rear decking and enlarged rear glazing of the P-40N, shown standing tail-down as it is displayed there: Middle Stone and Dark Earth upper surfaces over Azure Blue undersides, the squadron’s shark mouth and eye round the nose and chin, a red spinner, a type C1 fuselage roundel between white ‘GA’ and ‘?’ codes, ‘FX760’ in black on the rear fuselage, a red, white and blue fin flash, type B roundels above the wings and type C beneath, the hood slid back and a black three-blade propeller with yellow tips.

3D model

Turn it over

A procedural model built in Blender from published dimensions, drawings and photographs, painted as ‘FX760’, the RAF Museum’s Curtiss Kittyhawk IV, a P-40N-15-CU built at Buffalo, New York in 1943 as 42-106101, flown in New Guinea by No. 80 Squadron RAAF as A29-556 until it was damaged landing at Tadji in May 1944 and abandoned there, recovered in 1974, restored for static display in the United States and displayed at Hendon since 1992, painted as a Kittyhawk IV of No. 112 Squadron in Italy in 1944: the last major version of the P-40, a single-seat fighter-bomber of 37 ft 4 in span with an Allison V-1710 V-12 under a long nose, a deep chin radiator intake, six .50 in machine guns in the wings, main wheels that retract rearwards and turn to lie flat in the wing, and the cut-down rear decking and enlarged rear glazing of the P-40N, shown standing tail-down as it is displayed there: Middle Stone and Dark Earth upper surfaces over Azure Blue undersides, the squadron’s shark mouth and eye round the nose and chin, a red spinner, a type C1 fuselage roundel between white ‘GA’ and ‘?’ codes, ‘FX760’ in black on the rear fuselage, a red, white and blue fin flash, type B roundels above the wings and type C beneath, the hood slid back and a black three-blade propeller with yellow tips. Drag to orbit, scroll or pinch to zoom · download .glb (1.0 MB)

Data plate

Specification

First flight, number built and top speed are for the whole family (); engine, crew and dimensions are for the Kittyhawk IV (P-40N-15) modelled here.

History

The Kittyhawk

The P-40 was Donovan Berlin’s answer to the US Army’s need for a modern fighter in a hurry. Curtiss took its radial-engined Hawk 75, the Army’s P-36, and gave it the new Allison V-1710, a liquid-cooled V-12, under a long, slim nose. The prototype, the XP-40, first flew at Buffalo on 14 October 1938, and in April 1939 the Army ordered 524, the largest American fighter contract to that date. The Allison’s single-stage supercharger left the P-40 short of breath at height, but it was strong, simple to maintain, fast in a dive and agile at low level. The RAF took over French orders in 1940 and called the early P-40B and C the Tomahawk; in the Western Desert from 1941 they served with RAF, Australian and South African squadrons.

The P-40D of 1941 had a more powerful Allison, a shorter nose with a deeper chin intake for the radiators, and its nose guns gave way to four, and later six, .50 in machine guns in the wings; the RAF named it the Kittyhawk. From early 1942 Kittyhawks of the Desert Air Force, RAF, RAAF and South African, fought over Libya and Egypt, and as the Messerschmitt Bf 109F outclassed them in the air, they were converted to carry bombs and became fighter-bombers, known as Kittybombers. They attacked tanks, transport and airfields from Gazala and El Alamein through Tunisia and Sicily into Italy, where the RAF flew them until the summer of 1944, when Mustangs replaced them.

The P-40N, the Kittyhawk IV, was the last and most numerous version. Curtiss lightened it, lowered the decking behind the cockpit and enlarged the glazing there to give the pilot a better view astern, and more than 5,000 were built. The RAAF flew P-40s from Milne Bay in 1942 to the end of the war in New Guinea and Borneo, and the type also served with the US Army Air Forces in China, Burma and the Pacific, with the American Volunteer Group, the Flying Tigers, and in the Soviet Union, which received more than 2,000 under Lend-Lease. Production ended in late 1944 after 13,738 had been built.

This airframe

Kittyhawk IV “FX760”

FX760The airframe modelled

The RAF Museum’s Kittyhawk was built at Buffalo, New York, as P-40N-15-CU 42-106101 and delivered on 23 August 1943. It was shipped to Australia, became A29-556 with the RAAF that October, and on 30 March 1944 joined No. 80 Squadron at Cape Gloucester on New Britain, moving with it to Tadji in New Guinea a month later. On 14 May 1944 it hit another aircraft while landing at Tadji and damaged its starboard wing and rudder; it was stripped for spare parts that October and abandoned there. Its remains were recovered in 1974, shipped to the United States and stored at Chino in California, and it was later restored for static display. The museum bought it in 1992 and it was reassembled at Hendon that May, taking the maintenance serial 9150M. After spells in store at Cardington, Wyton and Stafford it returned to display at Hendon in March 2003. It is painted as FX760 of No. 112 Squadron in Italy in 1944, with a question mark for the individual code letter, which is not known. The model shows it as it is displayed: Middle Stone and Dark Earth above, Azure Blue beneath, the squadron’s shark mouth and eye round the nose and chin, a red spinner, a yellow-ringed fuselage roundel between white “GA” and “?” codes, “FX760” in black on the rear fuselage, a red, white and blue fin flash, blue and red roundels above the wings and red, white and blue roundels beneath, the hood slid back and a black propeller with yellow tips. The photographs of the upper wings are poorly lit, so the camouflage pattern on top of them is the least certain part of the scheme, and the stencils are left off.

See it at Royal Air Force Museum London

Where to see one

In the gazetteer

The gazetteer records the Kittyhawk in 2 UK collections. The airframe modelled here is marked.

Every airframe and serial All 157 plates

Profiles and models are procedural interpretations built in Blender from published dimensions, three-view drawings and photographs of each airframe. Treat the museum aircraft as the reference.