Flying Legends
Hawks Flock to Duxford
One of the most impressive routines seen during the 2018 Flying Legends Airshow at Duxford, England, the weekend of July 13–15 was a three-ship formation display featuring the Fighter Collection’s Curtiss Hawk 75, P-40C Warhawk, and P-40F Warhawk. Considered state of the art when they entered service with the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC, later known as the United States Army Air Forces, or USAAF) in the late 1930s and early ’40s, the Curtiss Hawk series of monoplane fighters were actually considered somewhat out-of-date by the time
that the United States was formally drawn into World War II by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Nevertheless, the rugged Hawks acquitted themselves well in combat, with the P-40 Warhawks, in particular, holding the line against the Axis forces in the South Pacific, the China Burma India Theater of Operations, the Mediterranean, and the Aleutians until more modern fighter planes were introduced into service with the USAAF later in the war. They were fighting at Pearl Harbor and continued until the last day of the war.
The Legend Is Born
The Hawk series of monoplane fighters began with the Model 75, a Pratt & Whitney R-1830 Twin Wasp radial engine–powered design that first flew on May 6, 1935, and entered service with the USAAC under the P-36 designation. Curtiss manufactured 215 P-36s for the USAAC and another 900 for export under the Hawk 75 designation (Hawk 75s employed by the British Royal Air Force [RAF] were known as “Mohawks”). Not resting on its laurels, Curtiss went on to improve the basic design by fitting it with a liquid-cooled Allison V-1710 in-line engine in 1938 as the Model 81, which was designated XP-40 by the USAAC. The Army went on to order 524 P-40s at a total cost of nearly $13 million, the biggest U.S. aircraft production contract to that date (the money that the Army spent for those 524 aircraft would barely cover one-tenth the cost of a single F-35 Lightning II today). After accepting 197 P-40s, the Army allowed Curtiss to produce 140 as the Model 81A-1 for France (although most wound up with the British RAF after the fall of France in June 1940) and 110 for Britain as the Model 81A-2. The British called their Model 81s “Tomahawks” and obtained another 930 as the Model 81A-3 Tomahawk. The Army bought another 131
Hawk 81s under the designation P-40B and 193 with self-sealing fuel tanks and revised internal equipment under the designation P-40C.
Still working with the same basic design, Cur- tiss went on to produce the Hawk Model 87 with uprated Allison V-1710 engines and even some with the Packard Rolls-Royce V-1650 Merlin under the P-40D, E, F, K, L, M, and N designations. While the British stuck with the Tomahawk designation for their Model 81 Hawks, their Model 87 Hawks were known as “Kittyhawks.” On the other hand, the U.S. Army, which did not initially assign a popular name to its Hawks, wound up calling its Model 81 and 87 Hawks “Warhawks.” Eventually, Curtiss produced a grand total of 13,738 P-40s before production came to an end in December 1944.
While the Curtiss Hawk monoplane fighters were considered by some to be second best even at the start of WW II, they actually did perform fairly well at altitudes below 15,000 feet. They enjoyed some remarkable success before being replaced by more modern designs in the last years of the war, although they were seldom employed in the European Theater of Operations, where highaltitude performance was essential. A few British Tomahawks were used briefly for low-altitude tactical reconnaissance over the continent.
The P-36 saw combat service with the USAAF only during the attack on Pearl Harbor, but many were employed extensively by the French during the Battle of France and in North Africa during the first years of the war, while the
British used their Mohawks in Burma well into 1943 and the Finnish Air Force used Hawk 75s
captured by the Germans until the end of the war.
Model 81 and 87 Hawks wound up being supplied to most of the Allied air forces, and served with some until the very end of the war. The first USAAF pilot to become an ace in WW II was P-40 pilot 1st Lt. Boyd D. “Buzz” Wagner, who claimed his fifth victory over the Philippines on December 16, 1941. Altogether, 42 P-40 pilots wound up as aces in the China Burma India Theater of Operations, with another 32 P-40 pilots being credited as aces in the Pacific and 16 American P-40 pilots became aces in the Mediterranean Theater of Operations. The British Commonwealth produced 32 P-40 aces in the Mediterranean and Pacific theaters, while the Soviet Union listed 19 P-40 pilots as aces. As for the Hawk 75s, at least 39 French pilots were credited as being aces in the fighter, and another 16 Hawk 75 aces scored their victories with the Finnish Air Force. All in all, it’s not a bad record for a “secondline” fighter plane.
Nevertheless, by the time WW II came to an end, the Curtiss Hawks had been generally retired from service with the USAAF, although later designs, like the North American P-51 Mustang and Republic P-47 Thunderbolt, continued on in service into the early 1950s and, in a few cases, even beyond that. Eventually, surplus warbirds began to show up on the U.S. civil register, although by that time early warbirds like the Curtiss Hawks had become virtually extinct. Yet a few Curtiss P-40s (Hawk 87s) did survive to fly as civilian warbirds— primarily the P-40N model, which was the last production variant, as well as a few P-40Es that had escaped the cutting torch. For the most part, except for a few static display museum exhibits, it seemed
like the Hawk 75 and Hawk 81 models had indeed become extinct. But to the surprise of many, a restored Curtiss P-40C took to the sky at Southern California’s Chino Airport in September 1998.
Hawks Reborn
Recovered from a crash site in Russia 52 years after being shot up by a German Messerschmitt Bf 109, P-40C #41-13390 was dismantled and shipped to the Fighter Collection in Duxford before being entrusted to Steve Hinton’s Fighter Rebuilders team at Chino for restoration to flying condition. Initially expected to be shipped back to Duxford and possibly refinished in an RAF Tomahawk color scheme, the P-40C was instead sold to Vulcan Warbirds in Washington and now flies with the Flying Heritage & Combat Armor Museum at Paine Field in Everett, Washington, in a Flying Tigers color scheme.
The Fighter Collection, however, had apparently developed a serious interest in early-model Hawk monoplane fighters and next entrusted the ex-French Air Force Hawk 75 number 82 (serial number 12881) to Matt Nightingale’s California Aerofab shop for restoration to flying condition (the wings had been rebuilt by Pioneer Aero in New Zealand, and the Pratt & Whitney R-1830 engine had been overhauled by Anderson Aeromotive of Grangeville, Idaho). When previously employed by Fighter Rebuilders, Nightingale had been a member of the team that restored P-40C #41-13390 to flying condition.
Hinton performed the Hawk 75’s first postrestoration test flight at Chino on October
13, 2004. An actual combat veteran, Hawk 75 number 82 (the 82nd of 291 Hawk 75s delivered to France) served with Groupe de Chasse II/5’s Lafayette Escadrille at Toul during the Battle of France, and is finished in its original 1939 colors and markings on the left side and its 1940 colors and markings on the right side. The fighter was shipped back to Duxford in February 2005 and is now a regular participant in numerous events, such as the annual Flying Legends Airshow.
The next of the early-model Hawks to be restored to flying condition was P-40B (Hawk
81) #41-13297. An actual survivor of the attack on Pearl Harbor, #41-13297 did not get off the ground on December 7, 1941, but it was spared destruction on that day, only to be wrecked during a training flight over Hawaii in January 1942. In 1989, the wreckage was eventually obtained by the Curtiss-Wright Historical Association, a group of dedicated enthusiasts from the Torrance Municipal Airport in Southern California. It was their intention to restore the warbird as “Project Tomahawk,” even though the USAAF had named its P-40s “Warhawk.” When it became apparent that the association did not really have the resources to complete the restoration, the project was sold to the Fighter Collection and turned over to the California Aerofab team for completion. Finished in the same USAAF 18th Pursuit Group colors and markings that it originally wore on December 7, 1941, the restored Warhawk took to the sky again at Chino on January 12, 2007, with Hinton at the controls. Shipped off to Duxford, the P-40B flew there for a while before being sold to the Collings Foundation of Stow, Massachusetts.
In 2009, the Fighter Collection shipped yet another P-40C Warhawk to Matt Nightingale for restoration to flying condition. Another veteran of combat in the Soviet Union that that had languished in a crash site near Murmansk, P-40C #41-13357 had been delivered to the USAAF
TODAY, MORE THAN 30 CURTISS HAWK MODEL 75, 81, AND 87 FIGHTERS ARE FLYABLE WORLDWIDE, AND ANOTHER DOZEN OR SO ARE KNOWN TO BE UNDER RESTORATION TO FLYING CONDITION.
in April 1941 and then shipped to the USSR in December 1941 under the Lend-Lease Program. Murray Griffiths’ Precision Aerospace shop in Australia rebuilt the Warhawk’s wings, while California Aerofab restored the fuselage and completed the entire project, with Hinton making the fighter’s first post-restoration test flight at Chino in August 2012. Now a regular feature at Duxford, P-40C #41-13357 is finished in a highly polished natural-metal scheme to represent a fighter flown by the USAAC Technical School’s 10th Air Base Squadron prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Once again at the forefront of the early-model Curtiss Hawk revival, the Fighter Collection debuted yet another flyable Curtiss Hawk: P-36C #38-210. Delivered to the USAAC at Selfridge Field, Michigan, in May 1939, #38-210 took part in the 1939 Cleveland Air Races, wearing an experimental camouflage scheme, before serving with several different squadrons on the East Coast of the United States. Declared obsolete in 1942, the P-36C wound up in a technical school for a
while, and was later acquired by a warbird collector from Florida before being obtained by the Fighter Collection. Once again, the restoration project was turned over to the California Aerofab team. Finished in the colors and markings of the USAAC’s 27th Pursuit Squadron, 1st Pursuit Group, the Hawk was flown by Hinton for its initial post-restoration flights, and made its public debut at the May 2015 Planes of Fame Airshow in Chino before being shipped to Duxford in time to take part in the July 2015 Flying Legends Airshow.
Yet another early-model Hawk monoplane fighter restored to flying condition is Hawk 81A-3, serial number 41-14777. Essentially the same as the U.S. Army’s P-40C, #41-14777 was delivered to the British RAF as Tomahawk IIb AK295 and subsequently transferred to the Soviet Union.
The fighter initially saw combat service as Bort 53 with the 14th Army’s 147th Fighter Regiment before moving on to the 1st Combined Division, 20th Guards Regiment, and being shot down near Murmansk on February 1, 1942. Recovered in 1990, the Tomahawk was restored to flying condition for the Lewis Air Legends collection of San Antonio, Texas, by Avspecs Ltd. at Ardmore Airfield in Auckland, New Zealand, making its first test flight with John Lamont at the controls on April 17, 2011, and being debuted to the public during the Classic Fighters Airshow at Omaka, New Zealand, on April 23, 2011. Although it is actually a P-40C with British and Soviet history, #41-14777 has been finished to represent the P-40B flown in combat against the Japanese at Pearl Harbor by 2nd Lt. George S. Welch.
In August 2011, the Hawk was dismantled and shipped to Chino, California, for reassembly, fine-tuning, and registration in the United States by Nightingale, working in conjunction with Hinton’s Fighter Rebuilders crew. Hinton flew the warbird for its U.S. certification before taking it to Sacramento, California, to take part in the 2011 California Capital Airshow, and then going on to Reno, Nevada, for display in the National Aviation Heritage Invitational compound at the Reno National Championship Air Races, where it was awarded the RollsRoyce Aviation Heritage Best Fighter Trophy.
Hawks Keep on Hatching
Today, more than 30 Curtiss Hawk Model 75, 81, and 87 fighters are flyable worldwide, and another dozen or so are known to be under restoration to flying condition. However, as previously noted, prior to September 1998, none of the restored Hawks were Model 75 or Model 81 fighters. Amazingly, six of those early-model Hawks are now flying, and under the direction of Stephen Grey and his son Nick, the Fighter Collection has been primarily responsible for five of those restorations. Furthermore, in one way or another, the California Aerofab team and the Fighter Rebuilders crew have been involved in all of them.
Although a few of the early Hawks are now back in the United States, Duxford Airfield is still probably the only place to be for those who would like to see more than one of these early Hawks flying together. The Fighter Collection not only owns and flies two Hawk 75s and a P-40C but also operates one of only two Packard
Rolls-Royce Merlin-powered P-40F Warhawks flyable in the world. Manufactured in Buffalo, New York, in the autumn of 1942 as USAAF #41-19841, the Warhawk was shipped to the 13th Air Force in the South Pacific on December 24, 1942. Virtually nothing is known about this fighter’s combat record before it wound up being stricken from the record and dumped on Espiritu Santo, Vanuatu, in November 1943.
Eventually recovered in the 1970s, the Warhawk’s remains were later obtained by the Fighter Collection and restored to flying condition in Wangaratta, Victoria, Australia, taking to the sky again in April 2011. Lacking positive information regarding the colors and markings that #41-19841 actually wore in service, the Warhawk has been finished to represent Lee’s Hope, a P-40F flown by Lt. Robert J. Duffield with the 85th Fighter Squadron, 79th Fighter Group, at Capodichino Airfield in southern Italy in early 1944.
During the 2018 Flying Legends Airshow at Duxford, enthusiasts were treated to the sight of three extremely rare variants of the Curtiss Hawk monoplane family of fighter planes in the air at the same time for formation and coordinated individual flying displays. Steve Hinton
Jr., the son of Fighter Rebuilders and Planes of Fame Air Museum president Steve Hinton, flew Hawk 75 Number 82, while Patrice Marchasson piloted P-40C #41-13357 and Andy Durston flew the P-40F. It truly was one of the highlights of the weekend and a sight to behold.