On Sat, 25 Aug 2007 05:29:12 -0700, Jay Honeck
wrote:

http://www.alexisparkinn.com/the_flying_tiger_suite.htm


The Curtiss P-40B Warhawks the AVG received were British rejects,
without gunsights, bomb racks, or auxiliary fuel tanks.

They were Tomahawks taken at random off a Curtiss line building Tommis
for the RAF, for use in North Africa. The British would have fitted
them with cannibalized optical sights, radios, and machineguns from
crashed or otherwise weary aircraft in the theater, so they didn't
have these items supplied, though they were able to acquire
substitutes here and there. (The optical sights were always a problem,
since the British "armourglass" didn't have holes pre-drilled that
would fit the USAAF sight.) No bombs racks or drop tanks on any of
these P-40s. (The P-40C did have a centerline rack, but that was an
addition after the British order was completed.)

So they weren't really rejects, though it is true that Curtiss
apparently retrofitted them with stuff intended for the P-40B/Tomahawk
IIA, and that Allison built 50 replacement engines from parts that
were deemed unsuitable by the RAF or USAAF.

Don't you hate long answers?

$84.95! Ah, those were the days! No sooner did I get hardened to $200
a night hotel rooms than I started getting quoted $400, and that's
before taxes.


Blue skies! -- Dan Ford

Claire Chennault and His American Volunteers, 1941-1942
new from HarperCollins www.FlyingTigersBook.com