re: Vader’s Model Desk: Curtiss P-40B Warhawk

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Their descendants, the 23rd TFW are still active today, flying shark-nosed A-10s

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Now that I did not know. I knew it was common to see shark-nosed A-10s, I didn’t know they were direct descendants of the original Flying Tigers. Which, the shark-nose is so synonymous with the P-40, they kinda look funny to me when they have something else painted on the nose.



And the shark-nose was apparently rather popular on both sides. The Germans were quite fond of it.

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Those AVG Warhawks came from a shipment intended for the RAF, hence the British desert camo.
The AVG was much more of a government op than people were led to believe. Years later, the US government recognized the AVG as US veterans.

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The photo isn't of an AVG Warhawk. It was correctly identified as a RAF Kittyhawk. The P40's the the AVG flew were the early-model P-40B/C aircraft, They were designated the "Tomahawk" by the British. They had the Allison V-1710-33 engines and topped out at just over 1000 hp. The Kittyhawks used the Allison V-1710-39 and beyond engine variants and produced 1150+ HP (depending on the variation). The Kittyhawks also had an optimized gear box for improved low/mid altitude flight characteristics. Kittyhawks had upgraded armament from two 50 cal and four .30 cal machine guns on the Tomahawk to six 50 cals on the Kittyhawk.

These planes were provided to the RAF via the lend/lease program. That's one reason why their name was changed to "Kittyhawks". Over 3000 of them were delivered to the British who desperately needed replacements for the Hurricanes and Spitfires. They initially had American trainers (flying Tomahawks), but the vast majority of Kittyhawks were flown exclusively by RAF pilots. I listened to a 30 min presentation on the aircraft variants at the RAF museum.

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The AVG P-40s were diverted from a British order. That's a fact.

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But that doesn't mean the original photo was one of those planes. It was from later in the war, henceforth the name change.

While everything you posted might be true, your original post kinda confuses the history behind the photo I posted (which is why I posted what I did to clarify things).

ETA: The AVG flew P-40B's. The photo I posted was of a P40M.

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The reason I responded to the picture was the desert camouflage

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Ok. That still doesn't make it a B variant.

I did not imply that.
You're being pedantic.

probably a terrible question. it always looks like the guns are mounted near the fuselage. Is it on a timing mechanism not to hit the prop spinning out in front? With how fast its spinning and how fast rounds are fired, how does it never strike a prop?

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probably a terrible question. it always looks like the guns are mounted near the fuselage. Is it on a timing mechanism not to hit the prop spinning out in front? With how fast its spinning and how fast rounds are fired, how does it never strike a prop?

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Thanks to the synchronization gear, first put into use by the Germans in 1915 during WWI…

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A synchronization gear (also known as a gun synchronizer or interrupter gear) was a device enabling a single-engine tractor configuration aircraft to fire its forward-firing armament through the arc of its spinning propeller without bullets striking the blades. This allowed the aircraft, rather than the gun, to be aimed at the target.

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LINK

Well done as always,

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They made good money in the service of the Chinese Nationalists against Japan…..

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After the war, Claire Chennault founded an airline in Southeast Asia...

"... as Chinese National Relief and Rehabilitation Administration Air Transport to airlift supplies and food into war-ravaged Republic of China. It was soon pressed into service to support Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek and the nationalist Republic of China Armed Forces in the civil war between them and the communist People's Liberation Army under Mao Zedong. Many of its first pilots were veterans of Chennault's World War II combat groups, popularly known as Flying Tigers. By 1950, following the defeat of the nationalist forces and their retreat to Taiwan, the airline faced financial difficulties. In August 1950, the CIA bought the company and renamed to Civil Air Transport, until 1959, when it changed its name to Air America. The first two transports of Air America arrived in Vientiane, Laos, on August 23, 1959...Air America officially disbanded on June 30, 1976."

-wiki