- Brief History
Produced in large numbers the Kittyhawk or  Warhawk as she was also known, was a ruggedly effective and potent fighter. Supplied to the air forces of America, Britain, Australia and New Zealand, the P40 fought with distinction in every theatre of operations. In Europe and the Western Desert against the Germans and the Italians as operated by aces such as Billy Drake and Neville Duke of RAF 112 squadron. In the far north Aleutians and entire Pacific campaign against the Japanese. They were the main weapon in the China-Burma-India campaign and immortalised by the famous American volunteer group the "Flying Tigers" achieving 297 confirmed kills.
-
 As a brief history, this Curtiss P40M was manufactured in October 1943 and assigned to a RCAF squadron as serial no 840. She flew with a number of RCAF squadrons before being de-mobbed in 1950. Then she was based at Oregon State University as an instructional aircraft. Then a long period of storage at Troutdale Airport Oregon before being discovered as a complete and well preserved example in the late seventies by well known P40 expert Tommy Camp, based in Livermore California.
|
- She was then sympathetically restored by Tommy Camp to ex-military stock specification and first
 flew in 1982, when her total hours from military service were just 732 hours. Then purchased by Stephen Grey for the Fighter Collection she took up residence at IWM at Duxford UK in February 1985 and has formed part of that world famous collection ever since, still today with just 1100 hours total time since new, a mere 62 years young.
- Now this fabulous example of a wartime great fighter joins
 the Hangar 11 Collection based at North Weald, with the promise that she will be a regular sight in the skies over England in the future. Photographs and a more detailed history will be posted during the next short while......
|
