The Hawk-fighters were sturdy, manouverable and used mostly in the ground-support role but it was foolish to start a dogfight with a superior enemy aircraft like the Bf-109. The Curtiss P-40 Tomahawk, Kittyhawk and Warhawk was developed out of the Curtiss P-36 Mohawk, powered either by one Pratt & Whitney R-1830-13 Twin Wasp radial engine rated at 1050 hp or one Wright GR-1820-G205A Cyclone radial engine at 1200 hp. The prototype for the P-36 first flew in May 1935 and the first production aircraft (P-36A) flew in April 1938. In 1934 the Curtiss-Wright Corporation began the work on an entirely new Hawk fighter. With some new features like an all-metall chassi and backwards foldable undercarriage placing the inside the wing. When first put in production as the P-36A it ment a great step in speed but not in firepower. The following versions of the P-36 and its export-version the Hawk 75A had different engines and some further machineguns. The Hawk 75A was bought in large numbers by many different countries and were produced by licens in many. The largest customer were France and the Hawk 75A's fought well against the Luftwaffe until France surrendered. Together they scored 311 enemy aircrafts shot down. More than 1300 aircrafts fitted with radial engines were produced but the real succes started in July 1937 when it was decided to build the P-40 with the liquid-cooled Allison-engine. It was at first an unreliable and untested engine, but at last the P-40B and the British Tomahawk I was approved for combat-service in the late 1940 and the development began. The rest of the aircraft was almost the same, and in comparison with the Me Bf-109 or the Spitfire it stood up poor. The RAF and RAAF used the Tomahawk in the ground-support role in Brittain and in the attack role in North Afrika. The P-40D had its 7.70 machineguns replaced by six 12.7 mm or .50 cal machineguns which became the standard armament and improved the firepower. In 1940 the RAF ordered 560 of these improved fighters and called them Kittyhawk I and when the RAAF bought them they were called Warhawk. The P-40F was equipped with the Merlin-engine and fitted with a longer fuselage and with a dorsalfin to improve the stability. Great efforts were made to reduce the weight of the aircraft and the supreme version came in the P-40N which were produced in 4219 numbers. Some of the early P-40N could reach the speed of 610 km/h but they were an exception. The total number of P-40's produced for USA reached 13738 aircraft.

Specifications for Curtiss P-40F Kittyhawk II