Some P40's

[Charl]

When this aircraft was new, the Kodak Brownie camera would've been fashionable.
Here's a couple that could've been taken by that camera, if it had a slightly faster lens:


- P40N RNZAF model by Iris -

This was prompted by an article in Aero Australia, about WWII ace Bobby Gibbs who flew these in the Pacific.
He described how they were strafing a target and he got under his wing leader, in a shower of cartridge cases, pushed down within a few feet of the ground.


And here's a couple of Tomahawks while we're in Period Dress:


I had one of these as a kid, a Cox .049 line flyer.
Fond memories of grass glued onto the engine with fuel, and chopped fingers from flicking the prop because that stupid windup spring always broke.

[Alex]

Nice shots Charl, looks like a great model.

Alex

[Naki]

Nice shots Charl - how does the Iris P-40 compare with the WOP P-40?

QUOTE

I had one of these as a kid, a Cox .049 line flyer.
Fond memories of grass glued onto the engine with fuel, and chopped fingers from flicking the prop because that stupid windup spring always broke.[/quote]

Hehe - I had one of those but mine was an Airacobra - same problems too.

[Ian Warren]

QUOTE (Naki @ Oct 19 2007, 07:10 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Nice shots Charl - how does the Iris P-40 compare with the WOP P-40?



Hehe - I had one of those but mine was an Airacobra - same problems too.

That makes 3 in a POD .. Me a Spitfire ...... Bugger the guideline , that went and to hold the tail over an open element to return rudder to it correct postion was not a good idea

I did have a Box Brownie camera as a kid , you would never get shots like that

Great Shots Charl

[Charl]

QUOTE (Naki @ Oct 14 2007, 08:10 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Nice shots Charl - how does the Iris P-40 compare with the WOP P-40?

No comparison really - the Iris model was an OK FS9 one (except it had GUNS!), and WOP is state of the art FSX graphics and sound.
Funnily I can't really get excited about it, as I reckon the P40 was a pretty mediocre sort of aircraft.

QUOTE

That makes 3 in a POD .. Me a Spitfire ...... Bugger the guideline , that went and to hold the tail over an open element to return rudder to it correct postion was not a good idea[/quote]
Haha you didn't! It would fly at you!
Mind you I had a Spit later, such a duck egg colour, and exactly that happened - windy day, downwind of it the lines went slack, backpedal backpedal, right into the rose garden, lines wrapped, Spit going round in ever-decreasing circles ooh man...

[Naki]

QUOTE (Charl @ Oct 15 2007, 10:04 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Funnily I can't really get excited about it, as I reckon the P40 was a pretty mediocre sort of aircraft.

mmm _ I don't agree with that - ask any warbird airshow pilot that have flown a few different types and many would rate the P-40 one of the best (and dare I say some would even rate it better than the Spitfire). It had very nice and forgiving handling. It is certainly up there as a a Pilots aeroplane with the Spitfire and Mustang. I believe it was Ray Hanna's favourite aeroplane.

In WW2 it stood up well to the opposition in the Pacific and North Africa. I would say it is one of the most underated fighters of WW2.

[Charl]

QUOTE (Naki @ Oct 15 2007, 10:16 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

mmm _ I don't agree with that - ask any warbird airshow pilot that have flown a few different types and many would rate the P-40 one of the best (and dare I say some would even rate it better than the Spitfire). <snip> I would say it is one of the most underated fighters of WW2.

Yeah it's the kind of discussion which can get really heated over a pint...
One forgets all the variants, war is a fast-moving developer of hardware.
Far as I can establish the P40 was always outclassed at anything over 15,000 ft as a dogfighter.
But then dogfighting was a dogma abandoned in the face of the much more agile Zero for example.
So if you were going to boom through the fight and take a quick shot, you might as well be in a brick (or a Wildcat for that matter).
The other reason I might think of it as mediocre, is it had some pretty bad press in its day.
It may simply have been a morale booster which got out into the media, as in:
"Our lads have done a fantastic job with our Flying Tigers against vastly superior enemy forces!"
Whatever, I can never get as excited about it as a Spit or Mustang.
Or even a BF109, (and I see I accidentally ordered one from Flight Replicas on CD so I can have my own BOB now)

[K5054NZ]

I still really really really really want the IRIS P-40 set, specifically for those Kiwi N's. Man, I'd kill for that model! Gorgeous!


As for the WOP P-40B, if they did an E, M or K-5 I'd consider it.

[hasegawa]

Well, the P-40 was maybe not a good aircraft, but it was the aircraft available in the dark days. And it was better, than the P-39 with its good ideas and bad habbits. It was a conservative aircraft with not much "new technology". But it was there in the first time, the Japanese are marching.

[ardypilot]

A very interesting layout to your post as always Charl- love the P40, I have a large photo of one of the Flying Tigers' Warhawk splashed across my wall for the month of October on my calender.