Quote Originally Posted by whichfinger View Post
wat

The P-40 never had a radial engine, and certainly the ones that flew in North Africa never had a Packard or Merlin. IIRC, the only Packard-Merlins installed in P-40s were strictly for evaluation purposes late in the war, and to my recollection none ever saw combat. P-40s flew in combat with Allison V-12s.

Curtiss' predecessor to the P-40, the P-36 Hawk, did use a radial engine.

Except that the P40F that were never delivered to the French before the capitulation in 1940 had a mix of Radial engines and later a some were adapted to carry the Hispano-suiza 12Y removed from downed airplanes, or surplus stored in Algeria. They were extensively used in north Africa, because they were already adapted to the local conditions.

The first picture on the article can be confusing, but the other ones show clearly a V12 config.