1/144 P-40E US Army Air Forces – AR144S04

Curtiss-Wright Corporation which designed and produced P-40 Warhawk fighters designatedP-40D and subsequent variants as Hawk 87 series. While the development of P-40D. the European War was broken out. Due to the poor high altitude performance of the Hawk 81 serving British Air Force. they were soon transferred to second-tier units or military aid to other countries.

P-40D with a more powerful V-1710-39 engine. and a new designed nose cowl enhanced cooling ability. Two nose-mounted machine guns on P-40B/C were eliminated and replaced 4 wing-mounted machine guns with 0.5 inch caliber instead of 0.3 inch. The fuselage armour was strengthened as well. On P-40E. wing-mounted 0.5in machine guns were increased to 6’s and under wing pylons increased to 3′ s. After upgrading of weapons armour. the enhanced power of P-40E s engine was therefore offset. Flight performance was even much poor. Thus. it highly depended on high speed diving capacity and exploited “boom-and-zoom” tactics in combat.

However. it performed excellent power on ground attack missions.