Aviation History - July 2016

BRIEFING

8 AH july 2016

Two-Faced

P-40n warhawk

> after the Normandy inva-

sion. Its 1930s greenhouse,

awkward landing gear and

mediocre Allison engine

remained pretty much

unchanged. P-40s were

manufactured by the least-

respected of all the major

airframers, the East Coast

Curtiss-Wright, with whom

the War Department would

have preferred not to do busi-

ness after a series of below-

par designs and a spate of

defective Wright engines.

Those of us who were

kids during WWII knew

nothing of this. The airplane

of choice sketched in our

schoolbook margins was not

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toothy P-40, uniquely famed

for its brief service with the

American Voluteer Group

“Flying Tigers.” No other

warplane had so sharply

drawn a personality.

The last and at 378 mph

the fastest of the line was the

P-40N, lightened and with a

revised canopy for a cleaner

rearward view. The N also

had the longer fuselage and

better handling of its K and

L predecessors. Eight P-40Ns

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with the addition in January

of Bonnie Kaye, an impres-

sive rebuild by C&G Air of

Ocala, Fla. The project was

undertaken as an investment

by C&G co-owners Chris

and Gail Kirchner, and

the airplane is already for

sale. It was erected around

some forgings from a wreck

salvaged in Alaska in the

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mash-up of P-40 history. The

right side of the restoration

bears the name Bonnie

Kaye, given to his airplane

by Captain Ernest Hickox

before he died in a crash in

Alaska days before the end

of the war, and the left cowl-

ing panels carry the death’s

head logo of the 80th Fighter

Group “Burma Banshees,”

which operated in the

China-Burma-India Theater

between 1942 and 1945.

That’s two airplanes for

the price of one, which at

going rates will probably be

about $1.25 million.

Stephan Wilkinson

The Curtiss P-40 always punched above

its weight. Except for the biplane-derived

Grumman F4F, it was America’s oldest front-

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production—and combat—well after far

more sophisticated Mustangs, Corsairs and

Thunderbolts had joined the fray. Only P-47s

and P-51s were built in greater quantities than

P-40s, a thousand of which were ordered as

late as the end of June 1944, almost a month >

flying mash-up

C&G Air’s P-40 bears

markings of fighters that

served in Alaska (above)

and Burma (below).

PHOTOS: MATT ABRAMS