Aviation and War Machine

The P-40, with the distinctive shark’s mouth painted on its nose, has always been one of the most recognizable fighters of World War II. Yet few realize that it is also one of the most controversial. The Curtis P-40 is thought by many to have been slow and obsolete from its inception. Its role in the defense of the Pacific during the early years of the war has been minimized. The Warhawk was, in fact, a much better fighter than most observers believe.

There are three main reasons for this misconception. For one, the P-40 was based on an older aircraft, the P-36. The forward section and the liquid cooled Allison V-12 engine (V-1710) were new, but from the firewall to tail it was exactly the same as the P-36. Because of this, the P-40 is thought to have been obsolescent from its inception. Its naval contemporary, the F4F Wildcat (which is described as being a better opponent for the Zero by World War II magazine) was based on a biplane design! Of course, few authorities mention that. The P-36 airframe wasn’t obsolete, merely proven successful. It was actually very sturdy. Secondly, newer fighters, including the P-38, P-47, and P-51 overshadowed it. Finally, its faults (and it had some–all aircraft do) were exaggerated to the point that it seemed impossible for the P-40 to succeed against any enemy aircraft. Although it couldn’t out maneuver the Zero (the Warhawk’s main foe in the Pacific Theater), neither could the Spitfire, Hurricane, Lighting, Thunderbolt, Mustang, Wildcat, or Corsair, but that is never mentioned.

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Quite possibly the best Air Force of the Second World War, in terms of kill-to-loss ratio, belonged to the Finland, an ally of Germany. And one of the most ironic results of that war was that the preferred fighter of the Finns is widely considered today to be the worst fighter of the war, an aircraft that failed in every other theatre in which it participated. But what about this diminutive plane, was it’s performance really as poor as historians claim?

The Brewster B-239 (U.S. Navy designation F2A) was created in response to the United States Navy’s request for a modern aircraft to replace the Grumman F3F pursuit plane. Four aircraft manufactures threw their hat in the ring. The Curtiss-Wright Company proposed a variant of its P-36 Hawk with reinforced landing gear and a tail hook. Seversky offered similar modifications to their P-35. Grumman made the natural progression of its line with the F4F Wildcat. And the small Brewster Aeronautical Corporation of New York City presented a stocky, barrel-like fighter designed by Dayton T. Brown.

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One of the first monoplanes to fly from U.S. carrier decks, the Grumman naval fighter became one of the most successful, in the hands of Butch O’Hare, Joe Foss, Marion Carl, and other great pilots. Grumman’s stubby, rugged fighter held the line against the Zeros in the early air battles over Guadalcanal and in the 1942 carrier battles of the Coral Sea, Midway, and the Eastern Solomons. In pure performance, the Zero outclassed the F4F, but with its tough construction and well-trained pilots using appropriate tactics, the Wildcat prevailed. Later in the war, the FM-2, an Eastern-produced version of the Wildcat, flew from escort carriers.

Development

In 1936, the US Navy published a requirement for a carrier-based fighter, While the Navy first selected the Brewster F2A Buffalo, it authorized Leroy Grumman’s Bethpage, Long Island company to build one prototype, the XF4F-2, as an alternative. Experienced builders of carrier planes, the Grumman designers planned the Wildcat for the challenging take-offs and landings on small, heaving carrier decks. With large wings, situated well forward on the fuselage, the plane had very high lift, permitted quick take-offs, slow landings, and excellent maneuverability. But high lift resulted in slower speed, which could only be improved with a more powerful engine.

Grumman test pilot Robert Hall first flew the XF4F-2 in September, 1937. Powered by a Pratt & Whitney R-1830-66 Twin Wasp, rated at 1,050 horsepower, it achieved 290 miles per hour in test flight. The XF4F-2 featured a cantilever wing set midway up the fuselage, all-metal construction, semi-monocoque construction, mill-riveted skin, four .50 caliber machine guns, and main wheels that retracted into the fuselage. Despite the F4F’s speedy performance in a 1938 fly-off at Anacostia, the Navy went with the Brewster.

"On its own hook," Grumman improved the design further with the next prototype, the XF4F-3. The "dash Three" had the more powerful R-1830-76 P&W, larger wings, a better machine gun installation, and (ultimately) a higher-mounted tailplane. With a top speed of 335 MPH, it impressed the Navy, and 78 F4F-3 aircraft were ordered in August, 1939.

An export version of the F4F-3, powered by the Wright Cyclone R-1820, served with the British Fleet Air Arm (FAA), as the Martlet Mark I. Other Martlet versions included the Mark II, Mark III, and Mark IV. They served primarily on escort carriers in the Battle of the Atlantic. Among the notable achievements of FAA Martlet pilots was the downing of a four-engine Fw 200 Condor off Gibraltar in September, 1940.

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The P-39 Airacobra made by Bell Aircraft Corporation was produced from 1939 until 1944. It might be called the most controversial U.S. fighter of the Second World War. Embraced by the Soviet Union, shunned by the Western Allies and hounded by myths and falsehoods that distort history’s judgement. There’s no doubt that the XP-39 evoked gasps and ahs when it was unveiled at Wright Field on April 6, 1939. The clean, exotic lines of the Airacobra prototype gave it a futuristic look. Just by looking at it one could see the innovations and peculiarities incorporated into Bell’s new plane.

The P-39 was one of the first planes to use a tri-cycle landing gear configuration, which eventually would be standard on all fighters. Another feature that didn’t catch on was the car-like door to exit the cockpit instead of a sliding canopy. Most notable was the mid-fuselage placement of the engine. This made way for the Colt M4 37mm cannon protruding out of the nose. The powerplant was the Allison V-1710, essentially the same engine as that which powered the XP-38 and XP-40 prototypes. It was equipped with the B-5 turbo-supercharger and rated at 1,150hp. The unarmed and unarmored prototype could reach a stunning speed of over 390mph and could climb to 20,000 feet in five minutes. Overall, the Airacobra had a high-altitude capability that matched the XP-38. Despite the XP-39’s admirable performance the Wright Field engineers felt it had too much drag.

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The Chance Vought F4U Corsair is my other "best" Pacific theater fighter. This big, fast, Navy and Marine fighter was designed in 1938 around the new Pratt and Whitney R-2800-2 Double Wasp engine, which promised to be the most powerful in the world at that time. It was a twin row 18 cylinder radial engine that produced some 1,850 HP in its initial version.

The most distinctive feature of the Corsair is its "cranked" or inverted gull wing. This feature was designed to raise nose of the airplane higher off the ground without unduly lengthening the undercarriage. The reason was to allow the use of the largest possible diameter propeller in order to make most efficient use of the engine’s high power. It also allowed the wing’s hinge point to be a little closer to the ground, and the tips consequently a little lower when folded, giving a little more hanger deck roof clearance on board aircraft carriers. The propeller selected was a three-bladed Hamilton-Standard Hydromatic constant speed model.

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