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Curtiss P-40

Curtiss P-40
Wars are won with the weapons at hand and, in the dark days following the attack on Pearl Harbor, it was the Curtiss P-40 Warhawk that was there. Advanced fighters like the P-51 Mustang and P-47 Thunderbolt would not see combat service until 1943, almost two years after the United States entered World War II. During the interim, the P-40 held the line. In this light, the P-40 was arguably the most important fighter produced for the Army Air Force during the Second World War. This was certainly true for the first two years of the war (1942-1943). In May 1940, the first P-40s left the production line. These were the first fighter planes wearing the new camouflage of olive drab on the top sides and gray on all undersurfaces. By November 1944, when production was halted, a total of 13,656 P-40s had been produced in eleven different configurations. Yet, only a handful remain today. This particular P-40 is owned by The Flying Tiger Line, Inc. It was painstakingly restored by the company and it is painted to resemble the plane flown by Robert W. Prescott, one of the original Flying Tigers and founder of The Flying Tiger Line. It is on loan to the Museum.

The Flying Tigers
While there have been aircraft on which a shark mouth was painted as far back as World War I, the motif attained its fame in the U.S. as a result of the world-wide prominence of the AVG (American Volunteer Group). Formed in 1941 under the leadership of Claire Chennault, the AVG became popularly known as the Flying Tigers. Flying P-40s, the AVG wrote a chapter in aerial warfare that has yet to be surpassed. The AVG was made up of 110 pilots and 204 enlisted personnel using 100 P-40s lend-leased to China in early 1941. The Tigers, all experienced American pilots, flew under contract for the Chinese Air Force. In slightly more than seven months of combat, the AVG amassed a total of 286 confirmed kills of Japanese aircraft against relatively few combat losses themselves. In no other combat area during World War II was so much destruction of enemy forces attained with such limited means. In July, 1942, the AVG was absorbed into the U.S. Army Air Force and renamed the 23rd Fighter Group. The group remained in China through-out the war, eventually becoming part of the U.S. Fourteenth Air Force.

The Flying Tigers Organization
The Flying Tigers were organized into three squadrons, each with a total of 18 P-40s divided into three flights. There was also a Headquarters Section. The 1st Squadron took the name the Adam and Eves, wryly recalling history's very "first pursuit." The 2nd Squadron adopted the title of Panda Bears, while the 3rd Squadron named itself the Hell's Angels. About this same time, several AVG pilots saw an illustrated magazine article describing a Royal Air Force Squadron in the African Desert, flamboyantly decorated with the gaping shark's mouth. The nose of the P-40 was so idealy shaped for such decoration that within weeks, every Flying Tiger P-40 in all three Squadrons was so adorned. Soon, news accounts of the combat exploits of these unique Squadrons would create the legend known as the Flying Tigers. In all truth, the three Squadrons that comprised the AVG never had more than 50 aircraft that were operational at any given time, and no more than 16 of them were ever airborne simultaneously. But the team work of the pilots in combat and the work of the ground crews was outstanding. Toiling virtually around the clock, crew chiefs kept the war weary P-40s operational. Frequently, an aircraft might fly as many as eight missions in a single day. The combat exploits of the Flying Tigers are legend, and remarkably so, since the Tigers were only in combat for a period of 30 weeks before they were disbanded.

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